My kids love Christmas lights. I'm about to go outside in 40-something degree weather. I will climb a ladder and start hanging the first of 10,000 little incandescent light bulbs. I will be up and down that ladder 237 times, at least. Then I will set out a herd of electric reindeer and wire them all up.
Am I crazy?
Nenener, my wife got impatient with me one year, now she does it.
A bit. Look at this freshness we did in 10 minutes. 
In reply to 92CelicaHalfTrac:
is the house on fire clark?
Crazy, no.
I'm just too lasy to do it. The wife is considering paying our yard guy to do it this year. If I had kids I might.
I got tired of it about 5 years ago and just started throwing the inflatable ones on my lawn. Every year after christmas I buy one or two cheap ones on the post holiday sales and add them the next year.
At first it was a joke to annoy my wife and be "that neighbor" but now it's grown to the point where it's a lot of work again and I catch my neighbors watching as I set up to see what is getting added this year.
This year I'm threatening to park the Colony Park, Wartburg and Yugo on the lawn with christmas lights on them.
Walkaround of the new house too... Pardon the narrative, I was happy I got it all done. Well, all that I could...
With a bare minimum of 8% unemployment (depending on how you cherry pick the numbers,) you'd think I could've paid someone to hang the lights in front of the shop for $50 (1.5 - 2 hour job max.) You'd be wrong.
I'm learning that the world is full of berkeleying droopy dogs.
I heard someone say it very succinctly a while back. I believe it was the proprietor of a small business: "Everybody wants a JOB, but nobody wants to WORK."
I berkeleying hate christmas(its a long story...)
However I really want to do the full Slayer Christmas light-show like this guy did.
http://youtu.be/HFjI7gT1FvI
Except I'm too much of a cheap SOB, and I'd likely be arrested, then thrown out of town.
That dude is my HERO!!!
I'll admit I'm one of those Christmas light people. I have to try to get some video of my display this year. I'm not quite up to the level of what the viral Youtube videos are, but it's growing every year. My display this year is:
Between 11-12k incandesent lights spread out on trees, bushes, 54" tall mini Christmas trees (made from upside down tomato cages), etc...
1000' of extension cord, maybe more
6 signs, lit by flood lights
3 blow ups
Santa in his sleigh on a ramp with Rudoph in front and presents falling out the back, each of those lit up
FM transmitter
8 artificial trees, each one lit
Assorted other odds and ends
I have about half of my lights set up to "dance" to music. I rotate through about 20 songs, which I broadcast on FM radio, and have sound clips from Christmas Vacation between the songs. You'd be amazed how much time, work and money can go into this stuff. I only have one controller to make my lights dance, so I'm a bit limited in what I can do. Each controller is about $250, and the really big displays will have 10, 15, 20 of them. Plus the cost of all the lights, cords, etc... Programming the song to dance to music is really hard. All but one of mine were ones I got from other people. The one I did took me at least 8 hours of work.
In reply to petegossett:
Wow. I was poking around his other videos, looks like he does this every year?
In reply to petegossett:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5rq7ci8nY4
Oh hell yeah!
In reply to 92CelicaHalfTrac:
Wait you live in Keeneland Crest?
moparman76_69 wrote: In reply to 92CelicaHalfTrac: Wait you live in Keeneland Crest?
Yep, i know either you used to or still do live there as well. And there's that other guy, 3bar_Mopar that lives in here. Or used to.
lmao I apparently never knew or forgot, I moved to the SW side in July, the other guy still lives there.
On topic: I'll snap a pic of my display tonight.
Klayfish wrote: I'll admit I'm one of those Christmas light people. I have to try to get some video of my display this year. I'm not quite up to the level of what the viral Youtube videos are, but it's growing every year. My display this year is: Between 11-12k incandesent lights spread out on trees, bushes, 54" tall mini Christmas trees (made from upside down tomato cages), etc... 1000' of extension cord, maybe more 6 signs, lit by flood lights 3 blow ups Santa in his sleigh on a ramp with Rudoph in front and presents falling out the back, each of those lit up FM transmitter 8 artificial trees, each one lit Assorted other odds and ends I have about half of my lights set up to "dance" to music. I rotate through about 20 songs, which I broadcast on FM radio, and have sound clips from Christmas Vacation between the songs. You'd be amazed how much time, work and money can go into this stuff. I only have one controller to make my lights dance, so I'm a bit limited in what I can do. Each controller is about $250, and the really big displays will have 10, 15, 20 of them. Plus the cost of all the lights, cords, etc... Programming the song to dance to music is really hard. All but one of mine were ones I got from other people. The one I did took me at least 8 hours of work.
Not to mention electricity.........do you have a good idea of the impact on your utility bill?
Just curious.
JThw8 wrote: This year I'm threatening to park the Colony Park, Wartburg and Yugo on the lawn with christmas lights on them.
Do it!!! I'll help.
poopshovel wrote: With a bare minimum of 8% unemployment (depending on how you cherry pick the numbers,) you'd think I could've paid someone to hang the lights in front of the shop for $50 (1.5 - 2 hour job max.) You'd be wrong. I'm learning that the world is full of berkeleying droopy dogs.
Shoot I'm employed and I would still have taken that job.
z31maniac wrote:Klayfish wrote: I'll admit I'm one of those Christmas light people. I have to try to get some video of my display this year. I'm not quite up to the level of what the viral Youtube videos are, but it's growing every year. My display this year is: Between 11-12k incandesent lights spread out on trees, bushes, 54" tall mini Christmas trees (made from upside down tomato cages), etc... 1000' of extension cord, maybe more 6 signs, lit by flood lights 3 blow ups Santa in his sleigh on a ramp with Rudoph in front and presents falling out the back, each of those lit up FM transmitter 8 artificial trees, each one lit Assorted other odds and ends I have about half of my lights set up to "dance" to music. I rotate through about 20 songs, which I broadcast on FM radio, and have sound clips from Christmas Vacation between the songs. You'd be amazed how much time, work and money can go into this stuff. I only have one controller to make my lights dance, so I'm a bit limited in what I can do. Each controller is about $250, and the really big displays will have 10, 15, 20 of them. Plus the cost of all the lights, cords, etc... Programming the song to dance to music is really hard. All but one of mine were ones I got from other people. The one I did took me at least 8 hours of work.Not to mention electricity.........do you have a good idea of the impact on your utility bill? Just curious.
Honestly, it's not all that bad. A lot of the lights are flashing, so they're not on all the time and/or may be only on partial power. My spot lights are CFL bulbs. My display draws about 22 amps total right now. I run it for 4 or 5 hours per night. I'd say it adds about $30-$40 to my electric bill.
DuctTape&Bondo wrote:poopshovel wrote: With a bare minimum of 8% unemployment (depending on how you cherry pick the numbers,) you'd think I could've paid someone to hang the lights in front of the shop for $50 (1.5 - 2 hour job max.) You'd be wrong. I'm learning that the world is full of berkeleying droopy dogs.Shoot I'm employed and I would still have taken that job.
I'm under-employed.. I would have done it too.
Personally, I hate christmas. I LOVE the season.. I love being with family.. but I hate the idiocy the need to spend mass amounts of cash does to the people.
I just consciously decided I wasn't going to be angry about it last year. Maybe it was the sleep deprivation or the loss of my Father in Law, but for whatever reason, I just decided to be happy. I actually went shopping on Christmas berkeleying Eve, and said "berkeley it. I'm blowing my cash reserve" and just grabbed stuff that I knew people would enjoy. I'm normally a berkeleying tightwad with a bad attitude. It felt good.
In reply to mad_machine:
You, too? I am perpetually disgusted by the 'SPEND! SPEND! SPEND! OR THEY WON'T LOVE YOU!!!' ads that run this time of year. People get out of their freakin' minds. Love family, love being with them, like pretty lights, love cold weather etc but the rampant commercialism makes me want to hurl.
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