Taxing The Grid

It is that time of year, the time of year where I begin planning out the outdoor Christmas light display. Last year, I didn't plan and ran into several issues:

My power distribution was uneven and limited, hindering my light display. It is difficult for lights to illuminate when they have no electricity flowing to them...or after the GFI outlet senses a massive current disruption and shuts the whole operation down. Two years ago my light display was a thing of beauty and the GFI outlets never tripped....last year I spent many a night outside rearranging lights and plug-ins and making sure connections were tight.

Since moving into our palatial estate (ha!) I have gone with a candy cane garden theme. This year will be no different, however, I do augment the candy canes with icicle lights that are supposed to hang all icicle like from the roof line. Last year, they did not hang, the strings of lights were bunched together so instead of icicles I got ice balls (tee hee!). Perhaps this year I'll tie very small fishing sinkers to the end of each string...which is just insanity, but damn it all I want icicles!!!!

More and more of my lights are of the LED variety, and they are quite lovely and all Earth friendly...but the tone of the lights varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. Some of the white lights have a bluish tint to them while the others are brilliant white. This simply will. not. do. Because besides the candy canes and the icicles, the rest of the outdoor lights are white and red...except for the bluish white lights that standout. I can't have this. Therefore, I am going to have to try and find the manufacturer of the white white lights and replace the bluish back lights with those....although I am pretty certain that all of my lights are made in a Chinese sweat shop and it was complete dumb luck I got white lights to begin with. Or the bluish lights were tainted by the tears of the poor Chinese peasant that slaved away on them....either way, I gots to have white lights.

The Better Half purchased a soft tinsel lighted snowman our first Christmas at the new house. He has seen better days. Countless windstorms and the elements have robbed him of any tinsel and glitter that once allowed him to sparkle at night. Now he's a dull white husk of a snowman, dimly lit and glum...he needs to be replaced by a snappier happier snowfella...which will be difficult to do since TBH bought him and he does have sentimental value.

All of the above hinges on my ability to get juice from the garage to the front yard...so tonight I'll start measuring out extension chords and mapping out where lights need to be placed. I'll post photos once all the lights are up!