Feeling an urgency to get the Christmas lights up outside, I enlisted Ammon's help and we went to work. Getting down the lights from the top shelf in the garage. Check. Untwisting the strands. Check. Finding extension cords and a step ladder. Check. Everything was going great, until Ammon bailed on me because it was too cold. I continued anyway. I plugged in the first strand, success. They all lit up. So I strung them tightly across the top of the garage door. The strand ends about 3 feet short of the height of the garage. No problem, I'll grab another white strand. I plug them in, no lights. Hm. I grab the big extension cord, deciding to use the outlet outside by the front door. As I plug in the strand to the cord, I hear a familiar click from the garage. I tripped a breaker. I reset the breaker, come back (my hands are numb by the way because I'm so cold) and plug the strand right into the outlet, still dead. I test three more strands, which ALL worked when we put them away last year. All dead. I throw them into the driveway in frustration. I'm down to four strands left, all blue and green and one white, so I check the white one, and half of it works. Oh well, I'll use it anyway, so I plug it in, finish the garage, and use the extra along the side of the house, and take the dead part and shove it behind a potted plant. On to the blue and green strands, but wait, I have blood spotted on my left hand. Evidently, I sliced my finger on something, which I later discover is a broken blue bulb that someone stepped on. (not me of course!) So after a bandaid, I head back out. Half of the rest of the strands are working, so I try to be frugal, checking each bulb, finally finding one empty bulb socket...so I search on the ground for this lone bulb...and find it! I twist the green around a bush, the blue strand around a small tree, and plug in my last strand, a little green one. I immediately see it's only half lit, and by now I've had it. I wadded it in a ball, threw it at the base of my blue tree, and call it good. It's now several hours later, and now my lights around the garage are sporadically coming on and off. Is someone running a blender nearby or something? Maybe this is why I feel a kinship with Clark Grisswold, on Christmas Vacation. We both have good intentions, but the worst of luck. Oh well. I gave it the good old college try right? Josh's turn.
