Ok, I love the holiday season as much as the next guy, the family, friends, lights and the lights, and the lights. Our neighbors across the street still have their Christmas lights out on their 30ft pine tree in the front yard. They turn them on every night. It's Saturday the 19th so were pushing a month past Christmas Day. I was always told it was ok to leave your decorations up until New Years day or a couple days after, but then, it's time to move on. I have never actually spoken with these particular neighbors and I suppose I could take this opportunity to introduce myself. "Hi, I'm the guy who hates your obnoxious yard, turn off your stupid lights please". Actually I want them to leave the lights up but change them all to red so we can have Valentine lights, then Heidi and I can have a romantic picnic under the tree. I am commanded to love my neighbor, but do I have to love their yard?
18 days and counting......
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ok, so does EVERYONE pbc have a blog? is it like a rule now or something? LOL.
i'll bookmark yours to read and keep up with!
later on G.
say hello to heidi... check my blog Goode Advice to see the latest announcements about Charlize Marianela "Charli" Goode (our daughter expected April 2)....
oh, ps... read the latest post on my blog... i'd LOVE to stir a good discussion about this last topic... it's a bout PBC. Goode Advice
I think it would be most prudent to go introduce yourself to your neighbor and then quickly offer your assistance in removing his Christmas lights. If that doesn't work you could always take them down yourself in the middle of the night, make a noose out of them then put them around the neck of an effigy of your nighbor and leave a note on it that says..."you". That out to get his attention.
Maybe I will do that, right after camp, I'm sure they will still be up. 19 days now.
Maybe the neighbors don't think of them as "Christmas" lights per se... Maybe they are just friendly, festive people who think that lights make people happy. You should just go with it and give your neighbors a smile every time you see them, especially if they are out there while the lights are on. Let them know how cheerful you are because of them. In fact, maybe you could even put your own lights back up to share in the joy. Next thing you know, the whole street will be aglow with the spirit of love and friendship that your cheerful neighbor started.
Or you could just go with Tommy's idea. I hear that large black trash bags stuffed with dead animals are effective for such things...
OK, so let's crunch some numbers here...
30 ft high
10 ft wide (rough guess)
According to the Christmas Tree Lights Calculator, an optimally lit tree of that size should use 1911 linear feet of mini-lights.
1911 linear feet
2 lights per foot (pretty standard)
3822 total lights
Let's just assume that they're cheap and use 38 - 100 light strands...
Now if they don't use a timer, then we get roughly 12 hours of lights (8pm - 8am), so using the Christmas Lights Energy Cost Calculator, we find that they are using:
18.24 KWH per day
$1.69 per day in electricity
$50.68 per month in electricity
(All of this naturally assuming that they are using the cheaper mini-lights and not the newer, more expensive LED lights which use about 80% less energy.)
Personally, I think that they are trying to find out if you are good, Earth-conscious neighbors who are concerned about their carbon footprint. This is obviously a challenge to you. They have given you roughly 3800 chances to help them reduce their carbon footprint one mini-light at a time. Just pull out your trusty Red Ryder and your goal is to take out about 13 lights per day. I figure that you have until Thanksgiving when they will want to put it up all over again. :)
I say you should sneak over and replace just ONE light per strand with a burned-out bulb (so they don't work but you can't figure it out), or maybe put in one of those funky lights on every other strand that makes them blink. I think the light gremlins did that to mine sometime between last Christmas and this one.
Wow, this is funny, this has turned out to by my most popular post, of course, Pete didn't really comment on the lights, but I'm loving all these ideas. However, today, January 22nd, the lights are off. A moment of silence.
They might be off... but are they still there?
If so, you still have a chance...
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