Christmas In Heaven...
I got home from work tonight and decided to decorate the front of the house. I don't know what exactly got me into the mood. I just knew that I wanted to put up lights and fortunately Robert was there to help. (Robert has a collection of useful tools, like a electric screwdriver and a good staple gun.) Those of you who grew up anywhere else might be astounded at how we put up lights in the deep south. We use a staple gun to put up decorations. And that includes stapling 'indoor" type extension cords to various parts of the house! Easy as pie, dears, just make sure you use a gun with half inch staples... so you don't go through any wires...
For a while, I hadn't done anything to the front of the house. For Bill's last Christmas, I went all out, since his family was coming and there were lights and garlands everywhere from front to back. The year after he died, I went overboard, totally. Margaret was still alive and had the house next door then, (Robert has it now), (which is identical to the one I live in), and Peaches and Joel lived in the other side next to me. You must understand that Peaches thinks about how to decorate for Christmas all year long, just like he thinks about how to do Mardi Gras. And we got into this one-up-manship thing that was just out of control! "I'll see your three wreaths, and I'll raise you three decorated sprigs with lighted candles! Bwahahaha!" And then I'd come home from work the next day and there would be something else on their side that I would have to match.
Both houses ended up being outlined in lights from the front to the back, and in the back, every single tree, bush and fence post was illuminated. Some of the neighbors claimed that the streetlights on the block actually dimmed about the time our houses lit up and that they heard a humming noise from the nearby transformer station behind the old church.
It was also one of the worst Christmases I ever had. I had been dating someone, thinking that I might be coming out of the bad things I had been feeling after Bill's death. But that came to a screeching halt the week before Christmas; in retrospect, it was the best way for things to work out, but at the time it was a crusher. Christmas Day, I looked at all the decorations and screamed, "Why the fuck did I do this! I hate it!"
And for a while, I did, I really did... Actually, I hated it for years. And that is so not me. Just check out this thing I wrote>, just before I started the journal. It's about holidays and there's some stuff about me as a lil' durlx. I was an "enfant martha", crazy for the holidays.
Last year, I finally put up a string of lights across the front of the house and the guys next door put some up, but it was a half hearted attempt.
This year it was different. I wanted to do more. I set up the portable sound system in the open front door and cranked it up with some holiday sounds. As I mentioned, Robert came over with his tools and I started putting some lights up; fortunately Robert, good friend that he is, (and a big fan of Christmas lights of every sort), stayed around and helped me. It looks O.K.; I used to do stuff that was much more impressive, (for instance, I would have never have used bows or arrangements from a previous year!) but it looks like something approaching holiday cheer. It will have to do.
After it was all done, Robert came out and we looked at it, while I played the song "It's Christmas In Heaven" from the Monty Python movie, "The Meaning of Life". o.k., so I'm not totally healed, just getting better all the time, hehe,
Robert's House.
Robert has only begun the front of his house, and he has enormous holiday resources to draw from! Don't know if you know this, but Robert is a collector of holiday lights; he has a lot of stuff from the last few decades, including a silver tree complete with a rotating color wheel, all totally vintage fifties!
And a whole lot of different lights, of which this is just a small sample...
Robert does the holiday well.
One other important thing...
I thanked a whole lot of people in the previous post, but I missed mentioning Nina. Why, I just don't know! She's appeared in this journal for every Mardi Gras and some Halloween's as well. She's a treasure... After I had gone back to work and had been working for a while, she came to town and we met out front and started talking. She started staring at me in that way she has, kind of an amazed look, and she hugged me and said, "Oh. My. God!! You're happy!" I was, but I hadn't taken the time to think about it until she brought it up! She's very good at this sort of thing and I love her for it; she has a great talent for making people feel joy. Like I said, a treasure!
So this is the true anniversary post.
..and now, on to year three...
durlx
I got home from work tonight and decided to decorate the front of the house. I don't know what exactly got me into the mood. I just knew that I wanted to put up lights and fortunately Robert was there to help. (Robert has a collection of useful tools, like a electric screwdriver and a good staple gun.) Those of you who grew up anywhere else might be astounded at how we put up lights in the deep south. We use a staple gun to put up decorations. And that includes stapling 'indoor" type extension cords to various parts of the house! Easy as pie, dears, just make sure you use a gun with half inch staples... so you don't go through any wires...
For a while, I hadn't done anything to the front of the house. For Bill's last Christmas, I went all out, since his family was coming and there were lights and garlands everywhere from front to back. The year after he died, I went overboard, totally. Margaret was still alive and had the house next door then, (Robert has it now), (which is identical to the one I live in), and Peaches and Joel lived in the other side next to me. You must understand that Peaches thinks about how to decorate for Christmas all year long, just like he thinks about how to do Mardi Gras. And we got into this one-up-manship thing that was just out of control! "I'll see your three wreaths, and I'll raise you three decorated sprigs with lighted candles! Bwahahaha!" And then I'd come home from work the next day and there would be something else on their side that I would have to match.
Both houses ended up being outlined in lights from the front to the back, and in the back, every single tree, bush and fence post was illuminated. Some of the neighbors claimed that the streetlights on the block actually dimmed about the time our houses lit up and that they heard a humming noise from the nearby transformer station behind the old church.
It was also one of the worst Christmases I ever had. I had been dating someone, thinking that I might be coming out of the bad things I had been feeling after Bill's death. But that came to a screeching halt the week before Christmas; in retrospect, it was the best way for things to work out, but at the time it was a crusher. Christmas Day, I looked at all the decorations and screamed, "Why the fuck did I do this! I hate it!"
And for a while, I did, I really did... Actually, I hated it for years. And that is so not me. Just check out this thing I wrote>, just before I started the journal. It's about holidays and there's some stuff about me as a lil' durlx. I was an "enfant martha", crazy for the holidays.
Last year, I finally put up a string of lights across the front of the house and the guys next door put some up, but it was a half hearted attempt.
This year it was different. I wanted to do more. I set up the portable sound system in the open front door and cranked it up with some holiday sounds. As I mentioned, Robert came over with his tools and I started putting some lights up; fortunately Robert, good friend that he is, (and a big fan of Christmas lights of every sort), stayed around and helped me. It looks O.K.; I used to do stuff that was much more impressive, (for instance, I would have never have used bows or arrangements from a previous year!) but it looks like something approaching holiday cheer. It will have to do.
After it was all done, Robert came out and we looked at it, while I played the song "It's Christmas In Heaven" from the Monty Python movie, "The Meaning of Life". o.k., so I'm not totally healed, just getting better all the time, hehe,
Robert's House.
Robert has only begun the front of his house, and he has enormous holiday resources to draw from! Don't know if you know this, but Robert is a collector of holiday lights; he has a lot of stuff from the last few decades, including a silver tree complete with a rotating color wheel, all totally vintage fifties!
And a whole lot of different lights, of which this is just a small sample...
Robert does the holiday well.
One other important thing...
I thanked a whole lot of people in the previous post, but I missed mentioning Nina. Why, I just don't know! She's appeared in this journal for every Mardi Gras and some Halloween's as well. She's a treasure... After I had gone back to work and had been working for a while, she came to town and we met out front and started talking. She started staring at me in that way she has, kind of an amazed look, and she hugged me and said, "Oh. My. God!! You're happy!" I was, but I hadn't taken the time to think about it until she brought it up! She's very good at this sort of thing and I love her for it; she has a great talent for making people feel joy. Like I said, a treasure!
So this is the true anniversary post.
..and now, on to year three...
durlx
posted by durlx at 12/09/2003 11:50:00 PM
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