Originally posted on 12/10/2008:
So we bought a new home recently. I have been working real estate long enough for the banks to say, “Yeah, you’re good.” It’s been great. We were all in a doublewide mobile home for 10 years – not a lot of room to find a break with the open kitchen/living room being the main activity area for me, my wife, 4 kids, the TV, and the computer. So the space in our 2,000 square foot split level has been wonderful. We even have a room downstairs designated as the “toy room.” Sometimes it’s so quiet upstairs we wonder what the kids are doing….
One of the joys that I experienced recently is a wonderful holiday activity known as stringing up the lights. I’ve never been able to do a whole lot with exterior lights, (mostly due to the fact that a 3’ strand of icicle lights runs you $15. You do the math…) So when I get a box of Dad’s miscellaneous Christmas lights that he is not going to use, a (yes, I’m gonna say it) light bulb went off in my head.
So Sunday was a nice balmy 45 degrees here in Rapid City – so it was time to get those bad boys up, cause I wasn’t gonna do it in 20 degree weather plus wind chill. As I am sorting through this box of jumbled Christmas lights and trying to come up with a plan to not use every outlet in the house while still putting up something that looks good (if you can’t put ‘em up and have them look good and organized – don’t do it), my mind remembers back to a song I heard when I was a kid. It was a parody on the 12 days of Christmas. One of the lines of the song was “Stringing up the lights”, which, of course, started out merry by this guy singing the song because, hey – it’s a happy occasion. But as each stanza went by up to the 12th joy of Christmas, his voice got unhappier, frustrated, and more and more angry until he is literally yelling “STRINGING UP THE LIGHTS”. Finally, on the last stanza, all you hear is a mess of noise as the man is throwing the ladder around, crashing light bulbs and basically relieving his frustration as only we guys can do best.
So I’m thinking that won’t be me, la-la-la-la-la. But as things got going…”oh these are all icicle lights, not string lights…this plug in doesn’t fit into this one to make it all into one plug…do we even have and extension cord?…come on, staple, get into the wood…they were all working when I plugged them in at first!!!!” I began to understand the true feeling behind that ladder crashing to the pavement…
But they are up. And I did it all that afternoon. And there really is a pride in driving by my house (hey- nothing fancy, but mine – er, ours…sorry, honey) lit up with Christmas lights.
It’s cool. It’s something I would like to help more buyers feel and experience.
May your life be happy.
Tristan