time to move on

I walk to school the same way every day. There's a house on Simpson that has caught my eye. They have a tree in front with Christmas lights on it. In December, I thought it looked pretty cool. All the lights are white, and it actually looks nice.

However, the lights are still up. The owners have actually broken Jen's Cardinal Christmas Rule #1: Take down the Christmas lights by January 7th.

The other thing is that the lights on the tree are all in five strands. All of those five strands are plugged into a rusty outlet at the base of the tree. The outlet and the backs of all the strands have their plug faces pointing up and open. With all the rain/snow we had in January, every time I passed the house I wondered when the whole thing would short out. It's still there, I can see if from two blocks away when I walk home at night.

One of these days, something in that house will blow a fuse, either a circuit or a wife, and the lights will come down.