I'm Dreaming of a Hillbilly Christmas

The day after Thanksgiving I set up the outdoor Christmas decorations. Previous years, I've had Christmas lights, starting soon after we'd moved in with strings of incandescant lights. I bought a few strings, and later found some true vintage ones that came with the house. In the last 5 or 6 years, I replaced those with LED lights. The last couple of years, I hadn't been able to find them, since the firstborn moved into the basement and moved a lot of stuff around. Last year I picked up a laser pattern projector for a very reasonable price. It's a great little device, easy to set up and makes a good look.

Right before Thanksgiving, one of my co-workers had their Christmas tree set up in the background in one of our video meetings. It got a little attention, and got me to thinking... I've got my workspace set up in the corner, one of the best seats in the house, with windows to my left and behind me. I could do some decoraton behind myself, some lights or garland or possibly a wreath, but there's no way I could set up a Christmas tree. Or is there??? The wheels began to turn...

We have aluminum awinings over the windows, and we have a fairly campy and hideous pink artifical tree. A few years back, we replaced pinky with a white one to work with the color wheel that was also in the basement that came with the house. It's fairly lightweight. I took some bailing wire and wrapped it around the upper part of the tree, and suspended it from the awining, just over my left shoulder while I'm working. The second picture, you can see some of the laser projections on the house.

I also bought another string of lights, solar powered LED with a remote, that I used on the tree, as well as about half of the awning along the front. I set the solar panel up on a board under the air conditiong unit for now. I may just keep the lights on the awinings permanent, and if I do, I'll make up a better mount. I'm not sure if I will, the remote doesn't work very well.

When we have our morninig huddle, it's still dark out, so I can turn the lights on for it. It shows up nice in the afternoons on the video, too. My co-workers have voiced their approvoal, and I'm pleased with the way it came out. From the outside of the house, though, I have a feeling it may look more than a little bizzare to passerby!!!

Lights, Coming and Going

A little of what I did over the weekend here, as well as a pretense to post my latest mileage results!!! I'm not sure if I'd made mention here before, but the factory driving lights weren't working. I had checked the fuse, and it was OK. A week or so ago when I'd gotten to work early, I managed to remove the console cover that the switch is on top of, and the plug for it was disconnected!!! Not only disconnected, but trapped behind the radio. This weekend I finally made time to pull the radio out and get the plug attached. That's all it took!!!

If you look closely in the picture of the lights going, you can see a bit of the tint strip that I took her back to the tint shop to have added last weekend. I'd forgotten to have them do that when I was having the windows done, and probably just as well being as they took forever. I don't know why so many new cars don't have the tint on the top of the front windshield like they used to all have, especially when the sun visors are usually inadequate.



While I was at it, I cut a cardboard template for the radio so when I get a chance I can make one up to fill the space and accept the radio that I had in the Storm. Cutting cardboard made me remember the third brake light I'd put in the Comet I used to have. Between the light reflector and the lens, I made up a cardboard cut out with two slanty cat eyes. It looked pretty cool when you'd hit the brakes. I pulled the third light (which I'd never taken a good look at before) and made up a similar design. However, the lens is very short, but pretty wide. The design I did isn't quite as cool as the one I had on the Comet, but it's still better than stock. I also discovered that only one of the three light bulbs for it was working, so I got the other two replaced while I had it apart. The three light design actually came out pretty cool with my eyeball template, makes it look a bit like a pupil in the middle of each eye!!!


A pretty decent return on the latest tank. I travelled 301.5 miles on 10.15 gallons, for 29.7 MPG, and a lifetime average of 29.58 MPG.

Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine

This was a strange thing. At work, they are doing additions to the bin structure where I work. They already lengthened them on the first level, and now are lengthening the remaining levels, as well as adding a third level to the red bins. Previously, working on the second level red bins was a bit like driving a convertible, having nothing immediately over your head. Yesterday I was in the second level red bins for a bit, and they had put in the bracing for the third level. that alone was a strange feeling, having something up there. Today, I was there again, and they'd added a floor for the third level, or a roof for the second level depending on how you look at it.



They had strung incandescent lights along the length of it. Very strange, as everywhere else has florescent lighting. There was something somewhat familiar about the look, and what came to mind was how the lighting in a mine or a submarine would be. Someone came over, and thought it reminded them of a garden party. All that was missing was their lawn chair. One of the other guys said it was like the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. That seemed like the closest match, after I heard that.