As you may well know, I am a hard worker and I am always considering opportunities to energetically work on a project, yesterday was no exception.
I was forced allowed to help my, “first wife” work on one of her many Christmas decorations. This decoration is an angel, over 6 foot tall, which weighs about 40 pounds and is made of steel rod. The angel has about 500 lights on it.
My spouse of 45 years had decided that she was going to remove the old lights and replace them, as some of the old lights were burned out.
A little history on this decoration. It was purchased used, at an estate sell possibly 6 years ago. If handled properly, will fold down into a 2 X 4 foot space for storage (the wings will fold to the back and then the bottom half [skirt] will fold to the front).
I brought the angel into the garage and we placed it on a couple small tables for easier access. My present wife began by removing the lighting from the skirt. There were about 150 wire ties which held the lights on, and they all needed to be cut off. Removing the wire ties allowed my spouse to remove the old lighting.
It was at this point that I began to consider how many wire ties I would need for this project. I had previously purchased 200 wire ties assuming that would be more than needed for the project. I should have done my homework on this project, we will need about 500 wire ties.
I ran to the truck and headed for the “Walmart” in hopes of purchasing the wire ties and returning home without a long drive.
Wally world did have the wire ties at more than twice the price I had paid at Harbor Freight. I didn’t want to drive all the way to the Harbor Freight but I did. I purchased 300 more wire ties (3 packages) and received a free, 4 outlet power strip, for less than half what I would have paid at Wally world.
Returning home I found the lady of the house still working on the angel. She had replaced about 150 lights on the skirt of the angel and now it was up to me to wire tie the wire and lights in place.
I completed the skirt as my first wife removed more of the lights from one of the wings. We put in about two hours of work and decided to stop for the day. I was left to sweep the garage floor and bring the van into the garage as my spouse of 45 years vanished (she had another small project in the front yard).
When the project is complete I will post a photo.
Acorn retribution
Daylight saving time fell back and I have not yet adjusted to the time change. The time change does provide me with enough light to see when I go for my early morning speed walk. You may be correct in your assumption. My speed walk may be somewhat less than speedy.
To top it off, the weather has decided to become more like winter than fall. The cold weather makes it more difficult for a senior citizen to get their needed exercise.
I have thought about going to the mall and becoming a Mall Walker. I could get behind a young lady mall walker and enjoy my walk but, the ladies who mall walk are not usually young. End of Subject.
Back to my original subject, it seems to me that the acorns have become irritated with the time change and are falling at an alarming rate. Would you believe, we have found it necessary to carry an umbrella when walking on the side walk to get the mail? I didn’t say it was true, I just asked if you would believe.
Would you believe I have picked up 49 buckets of acorns with an average weight of 11 pounds or approximately 582 pounds? That is 1,239,617 individual acorns that have been picked up.
It is a proven fact that more acorns fall if you trim the tree. It is the tree’s way to get even with me for cutting the limbs off. These trees know when a human is outside and they drop even more acorns. I was picking up acorns the other day and an acorn dropped into the bucket. I am sure it was an error on the trees part, these Red Oaks do not want to help a human.
I had explained in a previous article that, “trees do make a sound when they fall in the forest even if there is no one around to hear”. Along that same line of thought, “do acorns make a sound when they fall if there is no one around? What do you think?
May your angel not be a decoration!
Don Ford
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