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Tag: Christmas lights

Banging out the classics like a tone-deaf seal.

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Some acts should just stay in the studio with the sound boards, and the mixers, and the editors whom can chop up useable chunks of caterwauling and turn it into a top 40 hit. Enrique, Axel, that fat dude from Motley Crue, those folks should all sit down and give their heads a shake. I know that drug habits and alimony are expensive, but sweet cheese bud, pull yourselves together. The leopard seal squeals are making those over inflated ticket prices a real cross to bear. Hard to enjoy yourself when the lead act sounds worse than the average karaoke lounge act in Korea Town. And that’s with folks singing across a language barrier, not old fat dudes forgetting half of the songs they wrote that got them there in the first place. Dreadful. I can not for the life of me impress upon you how disrespectful it is to charge these obscene ticket prices for near has-been musical acts of yesteryear, and they sound like these shrieked, half forgotten mumbled parody accounts on TikTok and IG.

In other news we will be in December by Friday of this week, how wild is that. Oh, and we did put up our Christmas tree on Sunday afternoon as I thought we would. My little minions came home from their overnight Zoo trip with the Girl Guides around noon and the first words out of their mouths wasn’t “hello” , or ” I missed you”, it was “can we put up the tree now?”. Good thing I had brought up all the tree lights and decorations that morning, and brought the tree in from the shed to warm up before assembly. I still had my hands and forearms shredded by the faux tree, as happens every year, long sleeves or not. It extracts a drop or two of blood to feed the holiday spirits. Thirteen years without fail this tree has drawn a blood sacrifice. Every. Damn. Year!

We loaded this bitch up with almost every bulb & ball we own. It’s a very full tree this year. I also added 400 new light bulbs to the tree this go around. In addition to the four hundred from last year. I might even go so far as to buy even more to add next year too. I still see far too many dead spots on the tree. I’m sad that all the blood taken over the years hasn’t resulted in the pre-lit tree remaining functional. Nothing another 1,600 bulbs of white or multicoloured lights couldn’t fix. I want this thing to light up the street! A Griswold Family Christmas Tree!

My minions posing with the newly decorated faux tree.
As much as I like it, I still see dead spots. My oldest blue bulbs are still the most vibrant on the tree, to this day!

Here we are, Tuesday. Snow squall warnings and all that jazz. Glad I don’t have to commute on days like today. Take it easy out there. Ciao Bella!

Ah, the holiday classics.

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Started the season off early while in Florida watching Elf with the kids, with about 12 minutes of commercials every ten minutes or so. Then while I had the night to myself I sat down to watch Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Always good for a laugh. About three days late for US Thanksgiving, but close enough for me. And now, this morning while I have the laundry running, the dish washer emptied, have showered already, and brought up the Christmas tree decorations, and fetched in the faux tree from the shed to warm up, I’m ready to enjoy National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. If the kids stay out for a Zoo visit after the group sleep over, I might even watch Scrooged too! Hard to know at this point in time. I may put the movies on in the background while I do something else. Trying to get back into the holiday spirit. We had a bunch of it rub off during the long hours of holiday cheer promoted at all three of the parks we visited for 11 of the 14 days of our trip. Trying to recapture the joy! Helps that there isn’t sweltering heat, and we are back at home in the colder temperatures, and have family & friends around once more.

Which reminds me I need to wrap my daughters birthday presents some time soon. Then I will have to do an about face and leap into Christmas shopping. Luckily I have five people off my list already with gift cards, due to distance. My kids have three gifts each already purchased. I have a few more to go get and i can call it a day, comfortably, i feel. Which is a load off my mind. This year I’m going to do a better job of keeping track by filling out lists of what i buy for whom. So i don’t panic shop, and wind up over spending like in years previous, because i forget all of what i already have picked up for the kiddies.

Spent an hour or so yesterday and added a second wrapped maple tree trunk with colourful lights, and then reworked my extension cord situation so that I could put the gecko & Christmas mouse out beside the tree. I think the Santa train can stay packed up this year. I need to get bricks or rocks to keep it from falling over, so that might be a random side quest to achieve next spring/summer/fall before another Christmas. I should draw up plans for how I want the lighting set up executed. I’m always having to switch & swap out cords, so a numbered diagram would alleviate that issue if I put in the effort to prepare one. Add it to the list of “nice to haves”.

Now I might make it seem like we do a lot of exterior decorating for Christmas, and that isn’t really the case. More than some, less than others, is where we sit. One string of lights along the eaves, two 4 ft lit wreaths, two partially wrapped maple trees, a gecko and a mouse. And if I can stand to constantly fix it, a Santa Train that falls over constantly. I’d love to have blow ups, and rows of candy canes, and even more lights up on the house, boughs with lights on the railings, but I don’t know how you’d work all of that in, or power it all up. That kind of display is for the independently wealthy, which I am not.

Later on today when the kids get home, I’ll put on some music and we can assemble the tree and decorate it as a family. I’ll give my wife a chance to have a nap after her girl guide outing with the kids last night, and this morning. Hard to believe we are back to Lazy Sunday again, so soon. Ciao Bella!

Something yesterday brought all the boys to the yard,

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And I have no idea what it was, as it’s only listed under archives, and I don’t keep tabs on views for old posts to know what was garnering so much attention. I also don’t know if it was good attention, or bad. My writing can be pretty unflattering at times, though not defamatory, nor inflammatory. Could have been the egg sandwich walk through kicking off again, who knows. I’m ultimately not concerned. Some times I just see a massive spike in daily visits and views, and the rest of the time those numbers are low, low, low, low. Apple bottom Jean’s! Boots with the fur, with the fur!…

Had a productive day yesterday. Hit up the bank to pay my HST, got gas, hit the grocery store for food stuffs, went birthday gift shopping for a party this weekend, sent out some invoices, followed up on some work details, and cut the grass as well. Sent some files off to the appropriate third party, and called it a day. Today is a bit slower, but I did finally get the Christmas lights down off the house. I wanted to do that in April, but we hit a considerable cold spell, and it got windy, and I’m not a fan of being up on a ladder by myself on cold, windy, rainy days. And then I just flat out forgot about it. Was going to do it on the long weekend, but time got away from me. Done now though. Six months until I need to put them back up again. Will have to buy more eaves trough clips, as the sun & cold makes that plastic very brittle after a few months of direct unfettered exposure. Good thing they’re cheap. All boxed up and packed away safely for another year. Or part thereof.

I do need to package up some branding items and send out an invoice today. Otherwise I’m wide open heading into the weekend. This month has whizzed on by huh? Holy schnikes! June, and the last remaining days of school are upon us!

Oh, I also found a moment to watch the Guardians Christmas special. That was an amusing 45 minutes of fun. I did not realize that they had made **SPOILERS** Mantis into Peter’s half sister from Ego’s sexual exploits across the galaxy. Neato! James Gunn always has fun music in his stuff, I liked all the off colour Christmas songs. I will need to add those into the mix this coming holiday season. I get tired of the classics after a brief stint of nostalgia, from hearing them all on repeat again, and again. Over, and over. Some fresh blood in the mix will be a welcome addition I think.

While taking down the lights I also wandered the roof looking for any signs of wind damage, or excess wear & tear. I unclogged one down spout, though now I regret not actively inspecting the other two. Easy enough to do later on with my ladder, but would have been so simple while I was up there to just go look, instead of just examining the shingles. Oh well. Live and learn. That one track mind, singular focus strikes again. And no, in case you are wondering, I don’t enjoy multitasking. It find it a great way to fuck up multiple things at once. Not a fan. Make of that what you will.

On the plus side we are heading into a hot and sunny weekend with the grass already cut, and so I have extra time to enjoy myself outdoors with the kids this weekend. Happy Friday, the last one in May 2023 at that! Ciao Bella.