A Good Idea Gone Bad

 

Sometimes I think I'm sooooo smart but then it turns out that I'm not nearly as smart as I think I am.  Despite the magic of the Light Keeper Pro there were still about 25 burned out bulbs on the Christmas tree so I went in search of replacement bulbs.  Thinking I'd save myself some gas and tire tread I went right to Taylor Creek which is the fancy Christmas store nearby.  They had nothing except a string of 35 white lights for $5.  I opened the box and teased one of the bulbs out of its socket.  It looked exactly like the bulb I needed so I bought it.  I spent the rest of the afternoon popping all 35 of the bulbs out of the new string so I could easily replace the burned out ones.  "Not so fast, Miss Smartypants," Fate stepped in to say.  It seems that the tree sockets have more juice than the string sockets because when I put in a new bulb and slide it back into the socket, POP!, it burns right out.  Dammit.  So now I have a baggie of bulbs and a string of empty sockets with no place to go.  Guess the tree is as twinkly as it'll get this year.




 

I did manage to find three new "underwater" ornaments there too which greatly increased my tab.  It's hard to see but the one on the right is an oyster shell with a pearl, then there's a pufferfish, and a stingray.  I couldn't leave them behind.





 
This morning I got the Nativity set up






put the three kings in a new spot in the kitchen,





 



and the Charlie Brown tree on the toilet tank (I think that's an appropriate spot, don't you?).

I pulled out the St. Nick prints done by Mom's cousin Marilyn 







 


and the knitted elf I made is ensconced in the wooden vase Grandpa Hack Stephan made on his lathe years ago.  Christmas has invaded the building.







 
Today's toss was four aluminum tripods that haven't seen the light of day in a couple decades.  They're now happy residents of my neighborhood Goodwill.


4 December--Jan Jansen, "Avenue's Best Cover" Ankle Boot.  Carol dreamed of silver shoes but not just any silver shoes.  They had to be made of the softest leather, have really pointy toes, and stiletto heels.  The thought of wearing shoes like that made her back ache in protest but she couldn't get them out of her mind.  The fact that she lived on a dirt farm, down a dead end road, outside of a town with a single stoplight that the red light bulb was burned out of and had been for two years didn't squash her dream.  If anything the apparent impossibility of the thing made her cling to it all the tighter.


D'you know what today is?  Today is my 42nd wedding anniversary.  Well, it would have been if Durwood was still around.  I made sure to put the felt fish he made with a spatula tail (inside joke) on the tree and met a friend at HuHot for supper.  I shed a few tears today for the man who made my life so wonderful for so long but I'm glad he's at rest.  The last few years were no way to live, not for anyone, and definitely not for a man as special as he was.
--Barbara