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7-21-23 - Wow, it's been on LONG minute since I
have posted an update. Not sure if ANYONE still comes here, but at least its
a new post! To boot, its Christmas in July! Ok, so some close to us know
just how difficult life has been since we signed off at Woodinville
Wonderland, to finish the Chelan Chalet. We have settled in, but by no means
are we finished with the Chalet. We have been in the Chalet since the week
before Thanksgiving 2021. We had to move in without occupancy. This was
necessary for budget reasons. However, the outside deck as seen in the
pictures of 2022, with the new Tree in the
Window, was the culprit of much aggravation, frustration, and a few other
words I will leave out. Basically that deck was messed up by our concrete
contractor, and we had to take legal action against them. This tied up the
outside for 2+ years. Finally in late October last year, we agreed to a
settlement, but it was too late to really get anything done. We had to wait
till Spring of this year. Then, came Winter in 2022. It set in early, hard
and fast. November 4th, 10in of snow fell, then 12in a day later, then
another 12in a bit after that. We stayed in snow until March. The winter and
snow it brought, reared its ugly head with other issues we experienced
around the house, some problems of which showed up Christmas Eve... argh,
Merry Christmas already. Spring allowed us to start the deck re-do. First by
tearing off ALL the concrete, which my bro in law and I managed to do this,
and it had to be stripped down to the frame. It is now ready for re-decking,
water proofing and then pouring new concrete. This month we just got back
from our annual Christmas Expo conference that I am involved with. Held in
Lexington, KY. It was great to see all my Christmas buddies, teach a few
classes, and relax a bit. There is WAY too much water under the bridge to
post here about life in the Zembruski household, but safe to say our lives
the past 3+ years has been mostly consumed by the Chalet and work to
complete it. With the deck in progress, it will allow us to get most of the
outside done to a point to slow down a bit. I hope to post more, and more
frequently.
12-19-19 - Well the Holiday Season is well
underway. What a strange year for sure. In some ways I miss the Set Up!
logistics and all that goes along with it to get ready for Light Up!, and in
other ways, I have been busy enough not to notice. I was not going to NOT
have any lights or Tree up at our rental. So in the
Photos page, I captured Christmas 2019 in all its glory! I have always
liked the Grinch look, with him pulling down the lights, so I captured that.
I found a small Grinch Blow mold. The infamous Icicle Tree is being seen by
many visitors, as it is on loan to Siren Song Winery this Season. I am in
discussions with the owners of Siren Song to consult on an animated display
for them next Season, of which, there may be 2-3 other wineries who want to
do the same, and create a Christmas Light Winery Tour. This may push the
Chelan Chamber of Commerce to jump in and help coordinate things. We will
see. Currently there is a lot of travel over the mountains as I still am
working, and we have our doctors et al over on the west side for now. There
are some parallel comparisons this year, such as the Tree in the Window. We
just have a miniature version. At Fred Meyers, they had live blue spruces,
of which I have always liked. So I bought one and that is our Tree in Entiat.
In the Spring, this will be planted at the Chelan house, and each year, I
will get a new live blue spruce, decorate it, and then plant it to count the
years in our new abode. I think it will be a great new Tradition for us.
Originally I was not going to do any lights in Entiat, but when I decided,
then started executing things, between the house and the winery, I realized
that I gave away or sold a LOT of what I now needed, LOL. I was able to
reach out and get some extension cords back to make the harness for the
Icicle Tree, and for it to be stand alone, I had to buy an LOR Director for
it to manage its own schedule. Now as I write this, we are getting what will
be our first significant snow for the year. I am hoping all will be OK with
the Icicle Tree being remote. I do miss being outside with our visitors, and
this Season so far, I have been living vicariously through Facebook. That,
and it has been nice watching the Hallmark and Lifetime Channels Christmas
movies with Tracy! I will sign off for now, thanks for checking in.
10-13-19 - Just about 3 months since my last
post, and what a 3 months it has been. The Seattle housing market softened
tremendously, and after 2 price drops, and a lot of fretting, we finally
found buyers. A week ago, we closed, and vacated Woodinville Wonderland.
Getting from my last Blog post to now, one week after leaving our home of 22
yrs, I feel like I have been through a meat grinder. Work has been all
consuming, attempting to keep the home sale moving, keeping the house up
during the sale process, then physically moving to a rental, and keeping the
Chelan home build going has proven to be daunting, but we made it! We now
are living in a rental, and it is also our storage unit. So things are cozy,
but manageable. While it was a daunting process, we now get to focus on our
next phase in life, and this temporary situation is just a stepping stone to
get where we want to be. All told, I made 7-8 trips across Stevens Pass with
a trailer. Either a 6x12 Uhaul or my old utility trailer. Those were over
about 5 weeks. For 2 of those weeks, the Uhaul was attached to my Sequoia. I
used my old utility trailer, to take a load of stuff to the dump, and it
hauled the RZR over here as well. Thanks Ian for letting us use it again. My
new 12' utility trailer has been in Chelan as a trash hauler. Yesterday
another dump load was taken to the Chelan dump so I can drive it back over
to Seattle, and get the last remaining belongings we left with our
neighbors. I also have a biz trip to Portland, and while I am there for 3
days, the Sequoia goes into the shop for some work! It has proven awesome in
the many, many trips across the pass in the last 18 months. We did have
movers come move the heavy items, and that situation was interesting to say
the least, but we ended up with a great team of guys finally. We will still
be spending plenty of time on the west side of the mountains, but it feels
great over here. The last trip over, it was just Yogi and I, driving up the
valley by Lake Entiat and the Rocky Reach Dam, it felt good, it felt right.
There is a different feel I get over here. Its hard to describe. Tracy then
followed 2 days later with her car. It took us a week, but the rental garage
got organized enough for her to pull it into last night. She is now a happy
camper. So in talking to the neighbor, I wanted to broach the subject of
possibly putting up the Icicle Tree for the Holidays between our houses! She
didn't skip a beat, and said sure! So the Icicle Tree, will be shining
brightly in Entiat for the Holidays!. I am sure there may be a little bit of
jockeying to make it work, and somehow Tracy just knew I could not let it be
for just one Season.... More to come, check back.
7-26-10 - We are just getting home from 3 weeks
in Florida for vacation. Man o man. This year has been a whirl wind! 2 weeks
before we left for vacation we decided that the house was ready to put on
the market. A lot of time had been spent getting the outside spiffed up, and
it looks great! The shake siding needed cleaning and re-staining, then the
trim touching up, some of the siding needed repainting. The yard still looks
fabulous for the most part, but with being gone for 3 weeks, we had a
gardener tending to it, however, today I will need to spend some time going
over the outside yard to square it away a bit, mostly some weeding and
blowing. We had less than 2 weeks to get the inside of the house squared
away. Tracy did a fabulous job getting the inside ready for showing, and it
is now listed For Sale. Our Chelan home is progressing finally. Framing is
coming along after we spent time getting the final basement level slabs
completed. Within a week, all the main floors and exterior walls will be in
place, and the roof sheeting started, so it will LOOK like a house/frame. We
are working on packing up the house, and selling off items we will not take
to the new house. That process has just started. We have a rental home lined
up, but need to sell this house to make things work the best. Just due to
the whirlwind of activity, emotions have not had a chance to creep in. We
just have to keep moving forward, but at some point, the sadness will hit.
Now, with the Display items, most of the major items have found homes. I am
keeping a few things, but the majority of stuff is in their new homes.
Tomorrow, I will take the remaining items to our Pacific NW Holiday Swap
Meet to see if there is anyone who wants the remaining items. At that point,
there will need to be decisions made as to what to do with the leftovers.
Mainly this would be logistic items, cables, cords, and misc stuff..... As
with our lives in general, there are many, many moving parts, and presently
that still remains the same. I hope to have more regular updates about our
progress. Thanks for checking in. More to come.
4-7-19 -
So its been a while since we had our final Closing Night on January 5th.
I thought I really should finish this entry. That was an amazing night in
soooo many ways. That night, and the next morning I was feeling so many
things, but I never got a chance to dump it out. In most normal years, I
shut down the Display for a day or 2, then fire it up in a limited song set
get some pictures and possibly video before Tear Down! commences. So there
is at least a few days break where I just vegetate. However, this year, I
jumped immediately into Tear Down!
That little break gives me a chance to decompress some, but not this Season.
Saturday morning bright an early, folks started coming by to pick up, what
they claimed. Saturday was hectic, but Sunday was CRAZY! This after only
getting about 4 hours of sleep.
Closing Night saw some long-time guests, friends, fellow decorators,
neighbors, mentors, plus Mrs & Mrs Claus, all show up to say goodbye. We
were pouring champagne and cider for our guests to toast 16 successful
years. Several visitors who had seen those 16 years were on hand. Neighbors,
who have supported me longer than
that, shared stories, there were plenty of Hugs, tears, smiles and laughter.
It was BUSY! Tracy, bless her, entertained in the house while I tended to
the Display outside. What was supposed to shut down at 9pm ran to after 10.
Then who was left moved inside, and we hung out till after midnight. As the
last of our visitors left, and I walked them out, I spent what seemed like
an eternity walking the street, yard, driveway, porch etc… While the show
was not blinking and flashing, all the static elements were still shining
brightly, and the stereo was still on! Marti, our neighbor had texted me a
few times about it, but, I did not see them. She understood, though, knowing
it was the last time any reminders about the outside volume would need to be
sent…
In reality, I did spend almost 45 minutes with just me and the Display.
Soooo many cherished memories ran though my head. As I looked at Display
Elements, memories flooded back about how elements came to be, how they were
made, implemented etc…
Funny, I thought it would be easy to walk away from it for now, but the more
I walked around, the more I realized that when I walked in the house, the
Master Power switch was to be thrown for the last time. THAT was the
toughest part of it all. For me, I was at peace with the decision. I knew
what we built, could be done again to some extent. I was surprised that 2
others took this harder. Tracy and my special elf, Don Kohler. They took it
the hardest.
Tear Down! Commenced the very next day, Saturday the 6th. It
started out with a bang when the first group arrived to claim our Formal
Nativity at around 9am. The rest of the day several other individuals
arrived to start claiming display elements. It was a steady pace, I think
with the Seahawk playoff game potentially hindering things. Then, Sunday was
even
MORE hectic. By the end of the
day, it was amazing to look at the yard, roof and house and see how bare
things looked. In all my years of doing a Mega Display, the yard never
looked so bare, so fast. I had to take pictures. Now, there was still a LOT
out there, but the vast amount of elements were GONE!
Now that time has passed, our winter finally showed up, the snow came, set
records as we had the largest single snow fall I can remember at approx.
24+” in a day fell. That prevented the final clean up. Extension cords were
still in the yard, the Icicle Tree hoops still under snow. It was the latest
final yard removal ever, as it took until March to get it all up.
Woodinville Wonderland is a fabulous memory for me. I know it will be for
those who visited. It will live on in the Pacific NW in yards around the
area, and even around the country. That brings a smile to my face.
I will always be involved in Christmas. I have the
local Christmas meeting to coordinate, CLAP. I am still involved in
Christmas Expo in July, and I am looking forward to one day, putting Lake
Chelan on the map as a destination along side Leavenworth, WA.
This will not be our last entry, as we will keep posting about our progress.
Our focus now is to get this house ready for sale, continue our effort for
the new abode in Chelan, and work, which helps pay for it all!
Thanks for the love, and the memories.
1-1-19 -
2019, New Year, new beginnings, some chapter endings,
but renewal. If you have read this Blog at all over the years, you know I
am, as the PC term is today, transparent. Pretty much what you see, is what
you get with me. I wear things out on my sleeve. The second half of 2018 was
tough, and not to complain, as I am one of the most objective people I know,
I do it all to myself. Work, Family, Job, Chelan Home, Display, Life. At
times stretched too thin. During the 2017 Display Season, I knew I would be
stretched. I could easily have just disappeared, as I was sooo busy. I
wanted to say goodbye, and let the community say good bye. In August, I made
that decision to have a swan song Season, and I am sooooo glad I did. Things
are not as complete as in years past outside, but it still looks damn good
if I say so myself. The Season goes by so fast, there is so much churn
during the Season, but we saw and talked to sooo many. They love and support
shared just warms my heart, and makes me absolutely say, I did the right
thing. I believe we have the means to control what happens in our future to
some extent, and I am looking forward to those challenges. We have 4 more
nights to enjoy, then mayhem. The Display will come down on its own, as
decorators and visitors claim their pieces of my history. I am overjoyed
that so many want to take memories with them. So Woodinville Wonderland will
live on in the PNW. No in whole, but in a whole lotta places, and reaching
more hearts. We all have our flaws, however, something I never questioned is
the ambiance, atmosphere, and "experience" we created as Woodinville
Wonderland. OK, so not meant to be my signoff post, this won't be, its
just the collection of thoughts in my head in this time of renewal. Thank
you for your support, and telling me you read these diatribes...
12-28-18 -
Well now I can come out with some fun stuff. In 16yrs
executing this beast, I have never been formally part of a proposal, or any
other activity like that, (that I am aware of). This year I am honored to be
a part of 2 proposals. Both couples had one of them that was aware of the
Display, and have been coming for years. I was approached and used the same
recipe for both. They provided a special song, and let me know favorite
color. We let the Show run for the first "set", I shut the Show down, let
the couple walk into the yard, more specifically, into the Heart. While the
song played some elegant fades happened around them in the chosen color, the RGB
Tree was used as a backdrop with some run patterns. Then at the last part of
the song, I put Merry Christmas Alisha/Chris, then popped the question at
the end of the song for each respectively. The ceremony went great in each
case, with resounding "Yes' " It was great to have Woodinville Wonderland be
a part of their lives and forever a memory, something we strive for. I have
been spending the last few days parsing out Display items to folks who have
asked for something. Bittersweet for sure. The enjoyment each vignette has
provided to me and the guests has been memorable. It is great to see that a
lot of the Display will live on in the community. We go to Jan 4th and
planning a little Closing Night Party. More to follow.
12-26-18 -
The Big day is behind us now. The Tree is empty again,
wrapping and ribbons bagged and put out, food all tucked away for leftovers.
The 26th is so unceremonious. Boxing Day in Canada, but for many here, its
out to shop the after Christmas sales. Me, I chill. Start to clean up things
to get re-organized after ALL the hustle and bustle of the Season. I relax
today. However, I do have to reach out to 3 very special people. Christopher
Kent, Bryan Bell and last but certainly not lease, Bruce Lobree. These fine
gentlemen gave up their Christmas Eve and Christmas Night to tend to the
Display so that I could have time with our family. Christmas Eve is our time
to spend together inside. This year was phenomenal. I did make it out for a
few minutes to check on the guys. Christmas Night is Tracy's family
Christmas Dinner, and the night we are usually not at the house. Chris,
Bryan and Bruce managed things. The appreciation I have for that is huge. It
is special the bonds that get developed in life. Doing this Display has
given me gems in my life and I am forever thankful. I need to do some
catching up, so this will be short. More to come this week, now that not
only is the sand sliding out of the hourglass on the year, but also on our
Display. One more thing to share. Christmas Morning, I was outside and the
neighbor, Spencer was walking the dogs, and we chatted. He looked at me and
said so this is it, the last year of the Display? I said yeah, all good
things come to an end. To which he said, Man, this is the end of an era....
That struck me hard. To date, I have heard Tradition, a lot. A word I love,
but "era" just means so much. Something to contemplate.
12-24-18 -
Here is that word I have used and heard a lot this
Season so far. Tradition. One of my Traditions is I always make a Christmas
Eve post before my day starts. As usual this past 3 days have been our
busiest, and I have not had a chance to talk to as many folks as I wanted,
but those that did find out were exuding love and appreciation. The fact
that today is Christmas Eve, tells me the Season has just blown by,
literally and figuratively. It has gone FAST! Even this morning Tracy said
as much. BUT, I digress. Christmas Eve is the most anticipated Night of the
year by young and old. Hope, trust, faith, all come together for Santa to
make his visit. Between Eve and Morn, it is the best 48 hours in the
calendar. I get to relax for a bit, then maybe brave the mall a bit, cook
some bacon for our Christmas Dinner. Tonight I spend time with family. very
2 special elves help with the display so I can do that. But before I do
anything, a cuppa Jo, and watch the Hawk game on the DVR. Merry Christmas
Ever all!
12-21-18 -
Well we are at the Winter Solstice. The longest Night
of the Year. The official start of Winter, and wow! Fall went out howling.
We were without power for 12 hours. No Display last night at all. I was
outside putting things back upright, turning cars away to include a senior
bus from one of my long time supporters/visitors. We will be running
tonight, and also the start of what is traditionally our busiest time for
visitation. I have a doctors appt this morning, so I need to keep this
short. The Season has really flown by. Today is the 21st! already.
12-16-18 - If you are
hitting this page for the first time, please refer to our entry for 12/10. I
don't want it to get to far removed. At 2 weeks into our Season, things are
going by fast. Thanks to one of my special Elves, Byran Bell, I have had
more time to spend with guests to chat, explain our lives, reminisce, and
say goodbye. Bryan has been managing the parking and the volunteer teams on
our busy nights. Yesterday was a clean it day. The debris from the storm was
incredible. No major Display damage or issues, we prepare for those events,
and pray that Mom Nature goes easy on us, and she has over the years. I
spent 6 hours total cleaning up. I normally blow the debris into places to
mow it up. Fortunately as storms go, this could have been worse. We are
dryer than usual, so the ground was not saturated. Also, the lawn and debris
was DRY! You have no idea how difficult clean up is when everything is
soaked. I have to be careful with the lawn mower as there is live power
connections, communications, etc... I only snagged 2 connection cords of
somewhere near 500+ that are sitting on the lawn. As storms go, we plan for
3. One in our early Set Up season, somewhere near Halloween. These help with
cleaning out the trees, dropping leaves, and cedar boughs. Then there is
always the one during December. It is the most nerve wracking, as you can
imagine. We were interviewed this past week for the KIRO Ron and Don Show.
Not sure when or if it will actually go out on the air. Hopefully it does,
and that they don't edit it too much. There was a lot in there from the
heart. Today will be a take it easy day. The Hawks play at 1pm and I will go
relax at my Bro-in-laws Manhut. Terry has created a guys wet dream for
watching sports! Thanks for checking in. I will post this for now. Come see
us!
12-15-18 -
Wow is all I can say. We always plan for 3 wind storms
during our setup and the Season. We had a minor blow in Set Up!, but last
night Mom Nature blew a Hoolie. It was an interesting wind, but enough to
cause problems in the area. Fortunately we did not lose power, although
there was a brief wink, and then a longer blink. Enough of a glitch each
time to require some equipment reboots. The Show never stopped as that
laptop has a battery, so once things came back to life, the Show blinked on.
There is a lot of cleaning up to do mostly, with some bulb changes for
mostly blow molds that are not working.... It could have been MUCH worse,
and thankfully Mom Nature breathed a light breath on us. We were to be
busy last night but the weather kept a lot of folks at home. That was a good
call. Hope to see you all soon. Out to start clean up.
12-10-18 -
ANNOUNCING WOODINVILLE
WONDERLANDS FINAL SEASON READ THIS FOR THE DETAILS. Today we lift the lid on a very
sad announcement. This will be our last Season providing Memories and Smiles
in the PNW. Tracy and I started building what we expected to be our
retirement home in the Lake Chelan region. That process is currently well
underway. I am acting as the General Contractor, and in general, the major
sweat equity laborer. We knew last season, that the 2018 Display might not
happen depending on where we were at in our effort. I agonized over that,
and decided that I would do whatever I could to have a Display in 2018. I
wanted to give mainly me, a chance to visit with as many of our longtime
visitors to say thank you for all your love and support. We also wanted to
give our fabulous supporters one last chance to see what has become a
Tradition for many, many families. We love that we have become that to so
many, in the community. We have seen babies as bumps in bellies and now
entering High School and all levels in between, and this is the hardest part
of saying Goodbye. While we are far from retiring, we have to focus on this
next phase of our lives. We will have some sort of Christmas Display at our
home eventually, but our location is not conducive to visiting. However, I
hope to build one element that will certainly be seen in the city of Manson,
as we are directly across the lake from there. We do a Display for
ourselves, because we love the Season, and we will have decorations inside
and outside that home. My plan is to hopefully approach the City of Chelan
and see if we can do something special for the city to drive visitation in
the Winter months. That conversation has yet to be brokered.
Our Display is up for sale, and the NW Decorators have known this for quite
a few weeks. Our desire is to have pieces of what we have built in the past
16 years as elements in other NW Displays. To this item, there are many,
many quality Displays in the Northwest. Thanks to Jason Pittman, who took
over an effort I started many years ago, to keep a list of the NW Displays.
Jason has created a phenomenal resource to see what is available and where.
Pacific NW
Christmas Lights has been launched as a Facebook and website to see
where all these displays are located. Jason will keep track of me, and our
efforts eventually in the Lake Chelan area. Please leverage this wonderful
resource.
I will keep this website, and Facebook page in tact, so that I can also post
updates as to our progress and eventual status of a display in hopefully
2020. I will still be involved in the NW C.L.A.P. effort (local annual
decorating meeting/group), and the National
Christmas Expo. I owe so much
to so many for all the help they have given to me over the years. I hope now
to be able to visit more easily those displays, and provide a helping hand
where needed.
Our email will continue to be the same -
modec@frontier.com and if you want to reach out that way about anything
please use that.
I have not decided what our last night may be. I am leaning toward Friday
January 4th to have a blow up Closing Night party. Check the website and
Facebook to get final confirmation.
We love you all, and will miss everyone. Mark & Tracy
12-8-18 -
Our first week is behind us. So I usually don't hold
back in my Blog, and this will be no different. I am flat wore out. With the
2 week "Hell Weeks" to get to the 1st, we limped into the Season in decent
shape. Then I knew going back to work this week was going to be a pressure
cooker at work. I had a huge meeting I was responsible for yesterday. I was
working on that meeting during the 2 weeks I was off work, then had to
finalize everything, and, well, it turned out great. The byproduct is some
out of town Managers, and co-workers got a chance to see our Display. We
hosted them after a team dinner on Thursday. It was great to be able to
share this with them. Thanks to my step son Cameron and buddy, Bryan Bell
who assisted all week while I got things done for Chelan and work. I owe
them big time. I took today and slept in a bit, then fixed a few items, and
for the most part the Display looks great, with still some fixit things, but
most won't notice the things that are not so tight.... I just needed a
breather day. Again, tomorrow, Sunday, I have a day trip over the Chelan.
There will be more to say on this probably tomorrow. I got around to
counting the weeks donations, and coming in at $834 for Opening Week is not
bad at all. We really want to break last years total. So I have 2 hours
before tonight kicks off. It will be busier tonight, with only one
volunteer, so I will go take a power nap now to be fresh and ready for the
Show!
12-1-18 -
Light Up!, Opening Night.
Ridden hard and put away wet... I am flat wore out
truth be told. Tonight went soooo well. Sure there were some glitches, but
overall, the Display looked amazing. There was a steady crowd. Some old,
some new. One of the most consistent Opening Nights we have had in a while,
but it was a weekend too. Some were not even aware we had just Lit Up. This
is a bittersweet night. It kicks off the swan song of Woodinville
Wonderland. I have not publically announced our last Season, but I started
telling folks tonight. I am debating when to go wide with that announcement.
I am short on volunteers for my busy nights, but I should probably just put
it out there. We had our glitches tonight, not uncommon. A decent punch list
to fix, but nothing major. The days leading up to tonight were long,
most putting me in bed around midnight. As we got to Power Up, and Test,
things were all over the map. Some things just went well, and as usual, some
not so well. In the long run, it just happens and is what it is. I am
looking forward to the Season with our guests sharing stories. I wanted to
get some thoughts down, but I am exhausted and going beddy by. Thanks for
the love, support and taking the time to check in .
11-30-18 -
Well, what we thought was a good dress rehearsal,
revealed a few more gremlins. Our RGB
Tree and Bow and Bells are not playing with our songs. A bit of
troubleshooting in the morning... It has been a great effort to get where we
are going into the Season, given our life and work logistics. Thank goodness
for special elves, Don Kohler, and Kevin Thomas (Wirekat) who made most of
the ground AC connections. The past 2 days with testing yielded more
gremlins, and some troubleshooting. We will limp into the Season tomorrow,
and hopefully if I get some input, the results will be not too noticeable.
More updates as I have more sleep...
11-21-18 -
A lot of progress since we started the 2 week push for
the Display Light Up! Our Special Elf, Don Kohler is a God send. He has
cranked out some effort, even in light of his fur baby Liz, going across the
Rainbow Bridge. He is a machine! Our other special elves, Steve Merrill of
Sunbelt Rentals, and Terry Marcell of Greyhawk Construction were
instrumental in help with a lift donation. Post of pictures were on
Facebook. The roof, and Road Tree were the targets of that great gift.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and there is so much we have to be thankful for.
Myself, I sometimes forget to slow down and look around at what blessings I
have. I do take time tomorrow to reflect, for about 36 seconds. No,
seriously, I do thank God for my life and all that is in it. I will work in
the morning. Trans Siberian Orchestra concert on Sunday afternoon. So 2 half
days in the next few, but from here we are 10 days from Light Up! and
progressing pretty nicely. Check here, check Facebook, but thanks for
checking in....
11-17-18 -
Well its here. The BIG PUSH! Our 2 week non stop
effort to get the Display up and running. Our Light Up! is scheduled for
December 1st. Many ask about Thanksgiving. We have not made a Thanksgiving
Light Up! since we have become a Mega Display. We are behind and it will be
a rush to get done. I hope Mom Nature has a fond side for the Display and
gives us decent weather. Tomorrow the roof and Road Tree will get spiffed
up. My bro-in-law, and Sunbelt Rentals donated a lift to make that
effort easier to get set up... The only breaks will be Thanksgiving
afternoon and next Sunday afternoon to see TSO. I will keep this short for
now and look to provide more updates. Thanks for checking in, I need to get
moving....
10-30-18 -
Set Up! has commenced. As tradition has it, we started
on the roof, on my Mom's birthday, Sept 30th! Out of the chute, we are
behind due to life, our Chelan house, and work. The house and some of the
hedges, trees have been the main focus. So far, the roof is only partially
done. More on that. During this time of year, I have to split my time
between yard clean up, fixit stuff and Set Up! The fixit stuff has suffered,
which is why I am behind. I normally start that in August, but not this
year! I hope to get some help from Goomba's to catch me up. This past
Sunday, was spent getting the RGB
Tree frame set, the Icicle Tree is fully up, along with the Snow Falls in
the west yard. Some lights have been put on hedges/posts with more to do
this week. The Driveway Candy Cane Posts, and some of the Road Arches are
out. We can only hope that the promise of a warmer winter will play out.
What the weather is doing for us now, is really not anything. Typically by
this time in Set Up!, Mom Nature has had one good blow storm. Those are
somewhat looked forward to, and dreaded at the same time. We need to clean
the trees out of leaves and cedar droppings. Cleaning that up is time
consuming. I will push out stuff this week in the evenings that have been
pulled out already. The Road Arches were disheartening when more arches
needed work than were working.... Argh.... Not a good sign. Most likely
tomorrow, things will pop out from under the house, and there is a host of
items there that will need attention as well. I will post this for now
9-18-18 -
This morning was the first morning I needed to turn on
the heater in the house! A definite turning of the weather. It was just a
few days ago, the doors and windows were open in the early evening to let in
those lasts breaths of fresh air. Last week we received some badly needed
rain. Problem here in the PacNW, with the dry Summers, this time of year we
crave the rain. Here in a few short weeks, we will loath it. Ah the
dichotomy of life in Seattle. I used that turning of the weather to patch up
some bare spots on the lawn. With the new Road Arbor, Momma Claus kept
saying how the yard had "mange". It has suffered over the last few years,
and the patching starts an effort to get it turned around. I put 2 yards of
topsoil down, seed and 10 large cubes of peat moss to protect it. THEN the
heavens opened up. We got some good drenching showers. This week I will feed
it in hopes of re-invigorating it before it goes into its dormant state for
the winter. THAT is still 2 months away. I did however start to focus on the
Display. I needed to order some (guess what color) LEDs. Blue. In the next
week or so, things will start to come out and get a looking at to see how
much needs to get patched up. Things will go out this Season in duct tape,
gum and glue. I don't have time to put a good fix on some of it. Things in
Chelan are moving along. The foundation is being framed up for the wall
pour. That is about a week and a half away. I may go over there this
weekend, not sure I have to get some eyes on it for some plumbing before the
wall pour and slab prep.
9-5-18 -
Alas the Labor Day Weekend is now behind us, which is
the official end of Summer. Normal years we would have already been in
Fix-It mode for the Display. This year we are sliding into things a bit
willy nilly. Tracy and I spent some time at Lake Connor Park at our trailer
over the Holiday weekend, and took the RZR out on Sunday for a spin in the
dirt. Nice relaxing way to end Summer so to speak. Last night was spent
coordinating our annual Trans-Siberian Orchestra event, which this year will
be the Sunday of Thanksgiving Weekend. It will also be at the Tacoma Dome,
rather than Key Arena. All those discussions focused me on the fact that Set
Up! commences in less than a month if we hold tradition. Sept 30th would be
that date, and actually Sat the 29th, when the Icicle Light for the house
get pulled out, tested and laid out for taking up to the roof. I need to sit
down and start a plan to approach the 2018 Display Season. It can't be
scaled back too much, as my planning is not set up for that. Which means
that most of our Display will be out for this year. We have a few buddies
already volunteering to help, outside of my main Elf, Don Kohler. The yard
work has been going on for some time already. While the lawn mostly dormant,
the leaves have already started to turn, which means blowing and mowing to
vacuum up. Yesterday a lawn mow yielded an almost full yard waste bin (96
gallons) of dormant grass, leave, twigs, cones etc... It was every 2 weeks,
and now is almost every week. I am also wishing for some rain. We need it
badly for everything. I will leave it here for now and update as Christmas
items come into the mix.
8-30-18 -
Howdy! Not too long since my last update. However not
much Christmas related. Christmas Expo was a HUGE success. We had a great
time, seeing old/good friends, talking Christmas, meeting new decorators.
Now that Expo is behind us, our Chelan Chalet is on the forefront. After
much logistic issues, the footings for the foundation are poured! YEAH! More
work to do, but that was a huge hurdle to get mud in forms and done. That is
still moving in the right direction. Now we are almost at Labor Day. The
fires in the PNW have created quite the fouled air situation, here in
Seattle and in Chelan. I finished the Road Arbor walkway, thanks to Tracy
who gave me an assist with stone pattern. I was on my 4th pattern try when
she came to my rescue. It looks great, but the lawn is in its dormant state,
so it looks bad... The road beds also need another dose of compost and some
plants to fill in. Tracy bought Yuletide Camellia's so that the flowers
climbing the arbor will bloom during the Holidays! Doing that work killed my throat and lungs. I was hacking
and coughing for a week afterwards. The hot weather has broken for now, we
got a bit of very light amount precipitation last night, so the air quality
is finally good. Alas, in the past few nights, it has become really evident
the days are getting shorter. Now by 8:30pm it is dark, and fall is closing
in. I have started to think about the 2018 Display, and am a bit torn. Only
from the stand point that I am not sure what things will be like this year.
In the back of my mind, and this is the first time I will lay it out there,
this may be my last Display at Woodinville Wonderland. There is
already pressure from the Chelan abode, and other life pressures. This house
needs some attention to get it ready if we need to sell it, yes, sell it. We
are no where near that yet, but it has crossed my mind. I even
contemplated scaling the Display back a bit this year. That decision is
still not yet made, but who knows. I have to make decisions soon, as Oct 1st
and Set Up are getting closer. I know already that some fix it stuff, will
just NOT get done, and things will go out into the display and that may
really put them in a bad state after the Season. I will have to take some
time to assess things here very soon. Anyway, not to put a damper on the end
of this update. More water to cross under that bridge... Keep checking back
in...
7-15-18 -
Just a quick update. I hope all survived Friday the
13th! Currently the effort for Christmas is around Christmas Expo and our
the national decorating conference. Some last minute class schedule juggles
happened, and then I have my own material to finalize. I have now 4 classes
to teach, and 2-3 other sessions to assist with. It will be busy, but I am
looking forward to spending that time. If you remember, while I worked on
Expo last year, I could not attend due to our anniversary cruise. The family
reunion in Florida was a blast. I got to see some great friends albeit for
only about 18 hours, the Huffty's in Jacksonville (Christmas
on Crystal Springs). It is great to spend time with a brutha from anotha
motha.... and his wife Ann. We will also see them at Expo! We then drove to
Palm Coast with fun in the sun with family. My sister, 2 nieces, 4 great
nieces, and familys always have a great time when we get together. One yard
Honey-Do to work on right now. Getting the "Road Arbor" back in place. I
completely built a new structure, same as it was, and will change that part
of the yard with stone instead of grass... I hope to get it in the ground
before we leave for Dallas and that is what I am off to do today... Thanks
for checking in. I will post this and get outside. Its supposed to be 90
degrees today, ugh....
6-28-18 -
Two big Off Season days are now behind us, the Summer
Solstice and LEON Day. The Longest day of the year, and alas, now the sands
in the hourglass each day, gets less and less all the way down to Christmas.
LEON Day marks exactly 6 months to Christmas. Both in the same week! My
India trip is behind me. Since I have been back, its been work on the Chelan
Chalet, Household To-Do's and Christmas Expo. Our local Christmas decorating
gathering, CLAP is behind us, and now Expo is the focus. I am working on the
3 classes I will be presenting. Mainly 2 new classes and a bit of a spiff up
on one I love to teach. Still no new Display work, and quite frankly I may
reduce the Display content this year to free up some time. Chelan is heating
up, and our schedule has slipped a bit. There have been many trips over
there doing miscellaneous items required to keep things moving. Then we have
a few trips coming up. Expo as mentioned mid-July, a family reunion with my
Sisters brood over the 4th, and a fun camping trip to the Oregon coast the
first part of August! so it will be a busy 6 weeks coming up. That's a lot
of stuff in just a few words, but I wanted to get an update out. Have a
great Summer!
4-1-18 -
WOW this is no April Fools at how long its been since
an update. A lot of water under the bridge. First, along with April Fools,
it Easter too, so Happy Easter! Lets see if I can update you. I had computer
issues with Microsoft Office and in trying to fix that problem, my
Expression Web software install was toasted, and that is what I use to
manage this page with. Lets see if I can update you. The Display is all
down, and 99.99% put away. Got that done around the end of Feb. The donation
proceeds were submitted. We came in at $7486 after all the counting and
Matching Funds. While we are always glad we can provide funds to these
worthy causes, the weather of Christmas Eve and the Display shutdown
Christmas Night took its toll. Those are 2 of our busiest nights. Visitation
always falls off after Christmas, and this year was typical, so we could not
make it up. It was still a phenomenal effort with the generosity of our
guests. After all the Display stuff, I then quickly kicked into gear
the Honey-Do list around the house. Lots to do there. Tracy went to Florida
for 2 weeks and I just did stuff around the house on that list. On that
list, something somewhat display related is the Road Arbor. It was
dilapidated and needed to be torn down to rebuild. The trees outlining it
were not doing well, so they came out as well. The arbor is a WIP with wood
bought and the main posts cut and prepped to make the sides. Yard work is
underway, and the lawn needs some attention. There is a lot bare spots and
dead spots that need over seeding, but damn, the weather has been so crappy,
I could only do the moss out, some raking/weeding and the early season
mowing. While the weather gave us a break, I aerated the lawn as well. The
hot tub needed restoring. So I made a rear shelf, re-did the stairs, sanded
and re-stained the cabinet. Lastly a new cover was needed, so that project
is done. All the concrete flat work needed pressure washing, done. Weeding
of the planter beds, done. Spring Clean dump load, done. Taxes into the
accountant, done. Our local Christmas gathering planning (CLAP) is underway
for this month, on the 21st, and the national effort Christmas Expo has
picked up planning as well. Our Chelan home is underway, and we hope to
start the foundation this month.... So a whirlwind of activity to say the
least has been going on during the first quarter of the year. The Chelan
house may consume me some this year, we will have to wait and see. My niece
and her family were here for 5 days. We had a whirlwind time with them
driving all over including a night in Chelan. So all the touristy stuff was
done with them, as Michelle had not been here for 22 years, and her husband
Robert and 2 daughters never. We had a great time, but am bushed, as I got
them to the airport an Zero Dark Thirty this morning. Now I feel a tickle in
my throat, so today just kicking back and taking it easy. So it was a good
day to get caught up, which is just what I did. I hope to have a few more
updates, but for now, there is only family, work and life, as I need to put
Christmas aside except for CLAP and Expo. Oh yeah, I get to go back to India
in June, woo-hoo, looking forward to that like a wisdom tooth being
pulled..... Sorry for taking so long, check in again.
1-17-18 -
Well some greatly needed downtime has been taken. We
took a few nights off to ensure folks knew we were in fact Closed. I was
going to fire things back up Friday the 5th, but Mom Nature had other ideas
in mind. So we cranked 'er back up on Sat the 6th to get video, pictures and
attempted some,... ugh, drone footage. Mrs Claus got me a drone and was
asking for drone footage of the Display. Since Christmas Day, schedule, and
weather were not conducive to flying. After trying to get Zdrone configured,
calibrated, and in the air for some stick time was difficult. Sadly to
report that night, we had a fairly major crash that was documented in video
(and posted to the Facebook page) Our Zdrone had to be sent back. There was
some issues with the calibration that contributed to the crash. Anyway, its
back at DJI getting fixed, and our ego is bruised. Mrs Claus was
disappointed as was I. Last weekend we spent in Lake Chelan at Winterfest
with our Friends the Craig's. We checked our property, played in the snow,
did some wine tasting and relaxing. So not all has been fun, games and
kickback. All the communications and controllers in the yard, along with the
major Santa Power Panel and Power Grid extension cords from the yard are
inside and somewhat put away. The "infrastructure" items, cones, signs and
Donation Box are down and away. Our Formal Nativity is put away, and some of
the Blow Molds are on the porch waiting their turn. However if you came by
today, it would still look like it could be fired up, but alas, it is WAY
beyond able to do that. This weekend will be a big 2 day affair to get as
much down as possible. It is not unusual to have Tear Down! go into
February. I need to finalize our Donation totals, and am waiting for my
company to open up the Matching Funds Program for the year. However with the
fact that Christmas Eve and Christmas were a bust, our totals won't surpass
last year. We still had great support for our Charities. Work is back in
full swing, and ramping up. The rest of the year will prove to be
interesting as always. Thanks for giving us a peek to see how we did. Check
back soon for more updates.
1-3-18-
Happy New Year everyone! 2017 is becoming a distant
memory, and a new journal with open pages is in front of us to create a
wonderful 2018. Closing Night is always a bit sad, but I had a special visit
from one of my best decorating buddies, Kevin "Wirekat" Thomas of Christmas
in Kent. Alas, this is his last year for that display, and I did not get a
chance to see it. Later in the evening, I started pulling in cones, signs,
trash cans etc... That is my signal to the neighborhood that the display is
officially shut down. I usually keep things dark for a night or 2, so folks
know we are closed, however, I will be firing it back up to get some video
of the display and pictures. Since I posted no pics from 2016, I want to
ensure that I get some good documentation this year. Something I am
contemplating is scaling back in 2018. With our house plans in Chelan, that
may determine how much I get to focus on the Display for the 2018 Season.
For now, I am back to work, trying to get caught up. I also have household
end of year items to close out as well, then the dreaded taxes.... Tear Down
most likely will commence this coming Sunday after I get the vids and pics.
The following weekend is Winterfest in Chelan that we are going to attend,
so evenings will be spent taking stuff down. No matter what I decide to do
this coming Season, I still have to assess the state of elements. A lot of
the Peanuts characters are again in need of patching/painting, Thomas the
Train needs a transmission overhaul, there was a LOT of LED light failures
on my Icicle Tree Forest, and sections on my Leaping Light Arcvhes as well.
So there is a lot of off season work that needs to take place at some point.
That is all for now, thanks for checking in.
12-28-17-
Wow, where to begin... Christmas Eve started out
awesome. My plan since I had volunteers that night was to have a pleasant
dinner and game night with family. As the Display kicked off at 5pm, a light
snow was falling. There was several families already out on the street. Not
at all unusual for Christmas Eve as that is traditionally one of our busiest
nights. Well, about half way through dinner, I got a text from a neighbor
that the big hill to our place was getting dicey and cars were stacking up
at the bottom. The temp dropped and made under the snow very slick. I
jetted out, ran down the hill, slipped once on my butt, and saw a skating
ring with cars at bottom and stuck in middle of hill. We shut the Display
down, got the remaining visitors off the hill, then me and my buddies
volunteering sat at the bottom directing traffic and ensuring Display
visitors did not try the hill to add to the mayhem. Christmas we shut the
Display down also as the raods were OK, but our immediate area was still
unsafe. Two of our busiest nights, shot in the butt. I spent about 5 hours
on Tuesday working on the Display walking areas, our driveway, and some of
the area around the Santa Can. We were able to open up that night and had a
good steady crowd. Most had not tried to make it the previous 2 nights. Then
through the grace of one of my special elves, Jason Pittman, Tracy, myself,
Don and Roxy Kohler were able to head over to Leavenworth for an afternoon
of eating, wine tasting, shopping and fun. A great day. We came home Blewett/Snoqualmie
Passes and the weather/roads were not too bad. So Mrs Clause got me a very
cool drone for Christmas, so I hope to have some aerial footage of the
Display. The weather report looks to now have rain in it for the next couple
days.... We will see how things go. Our Donation totals are outstanding
given the prospect of being closed 2 of our busiest nights. $7066 is
incredible, and we only need a bit more to break last years $8288 total!
Just amazing. Our visitors ROCK with supporting our Charitable efforts.
Thanks for checking in....
12-23-17 -
Merry Eve before Christmas Eve.... I have some errands
to run today to complete my shopping for Christmas, and our Christmas
Dinner. Man o man what a fun stretch run. My juice is getting a chance to
talk to the visitors, joke around, and answer endless questions. Its fun to
interact. See the smiles, laughter, wonder and merriment on the faces of
young and old. I have very loyal supporters who have seen be grow in my 14
years, and I LOVE those relationships. It means I do something people like,
and while that is important, its not what its all about. I create an art
form. I have never considered (and am not) artistic. One thing I know, is
that the Christmas Display I want to look at, resonates with most folks. I
would lie (and do fib at times) about the work involved with the Display. In
many, many, ways, this was my toughest year to get motivated. Quite frankly,
until Dec 3rd, I was going through the motions. However once we started
getting visitors, I flipped over, and got back into that Spirit. This was a
tough year on me and family, and our neighbors. What defines character is
persevering and how you manage challenges. Anyway, not to sound down or
anything, as its the BEST time of the year for sure. I have had volunteers
again! I learned some things this year on how to do better at that.
They have given me the chance to visit on busier nights, and next Season
will open up more nights for Community Service hours to help me out. Our
busiest night was last night, and it will be hectic between now and
Christmas Night. Please be patient if you come by, and if you have read
this, just let me know. I love those occasions when someone pops off with
something I write here. This being my Journal, it allows me to dump things
out in a semi raw format. Thank you for following, and checking in....
12-20-18 -
Christmas is just 5 days away, and our busiest week is
proving to be that. Next year I am going to open up the volunteer days to
include all the days leading up to Christmas to allow me some breathing
room. While I can manage the street, parking etc..., it would be nicer and
easier for me to have the help, so I can visit more with the guests. I tell
some that in the Holiday period, Thanksgiving to New Year, I am one of the
few that lose weight... I get a lot of exercise in. I think we are past our
wet weather for now, and will have to watch the cold. Temps look to be
dropping and if we get any moisture...... There is a chance of snow on
Friday, which historically will be one of the busiest nights of the Season..
Something that always concerns me. Tracy, Yogi and I took our annual
Christmas picture for our Yearly Christmas Letter. I now get to go work on
getting my list of cards out in the mail. I sent the critical ones that have
to go to Canada yesterday, so now off to do the rest. See its not all
about the Display! Thanks for checking in...
12-17-17 -
Its been a different Season so far with visiting. The
nights I thought would be busy, have been steady, and not insane. I am not
complaining grant you. I was able to secure VOLUNTEERS! Last night we had
the most ever, and I think I learned something for next year on my approach
to soliciting help. It was awesome to have the kids working traffic and
allowing me to visit with our guests. Everyone had a great time. Other
typical slow nights, have been very busy. It has been a different year all
around that's for sure. At least the weather has been cooperating for the
most part! The long awaited "Grinch" vignette made it into the Display on
Friday, finally! Actually the pictures below are 2 of the new additions. The
last big one is the outline lights on the roof that I can change color. The
stacked presents happened to be the same color as the Present Gang, Sno, Mo
& Bill. Christmas Eve is a week from tonight. I am off work till Jan 2nd,
and I expect this coming week to be busy almost every night. If you do come
by, I'll be the insane elf parking folks. I should think about expanding the
volunteers since they are out of school to the entire week before Christmas.
Again, something to consider for next Season. Time to go work on my FORD.
Fix Or Repair Daily! That being lights in the display that need replacing.
Blue LEDs are the bane of the Display. They fail far more than any other
color. Ask me my opinion about that sometime of you see me...... Thanks for
checking in.
12-13-17 -
Almost half way through the Season, and Christmas is
just 12 days away! It's been topsy turvey to say the least. This year I had
to travel out of town on business 2 weeks in a row, being gone 3 day on one
trip, and 1.5 on this weeks. I had to get special elves to assist Tracy with
the launch and shutdown. The first week, I missed a visit from our longtime
friends the Allison's from Naples, FL. I was sorry to miss that visit. One
of my longtime visitors Jason and his wife Diana Pittman managed 2 nights,
Don Kohler one night and then this week, Pete Peters. The kick off is not so
difficult, but doing it the first time can be a bit daunting. There is still
things to get fixed and get out there, but I am taking things as they come,
and getting to them slowly but surely. However, the display does look great
even with the few glitches out there. After Friday this week, I am off till
Jan 2nd, and will take a bit of time to decompress. The past 6 weeks have
been some of the most hectic ever with work, life and the Display. It does
not help with Momma Claus, Tracy being down with the flu. We downsized
Woodinville Wonderland Inside a bit, as she has not been feeling well
overall with some issues we are working through. The Tree in the Window is
amazing though. As always that is the center piece of what we do, inside and
out. I love that tree, and she makes it look amazing every year. I have some
of my things to do for the Season, such as our Christmas Letter. Yogi needs
a bath/trim so we can take our yearly picture. Yogi has been a great Fur
Host, and is quickly melting visitors hearts. He still is trying to figure
all this out, but loves to live "Frosty The Snowman" live in the yard. The
line "running here and there all around the square" is fitting, as one of
his loves is to play chase. He has soooooo many things to run through and
around that I can't! All is good. I will post more as time allows. Thanks
for checking in.
12-9-17 -
Our first week of the Season is behind us, and I am
behind in updates. We Lit Up! a day late on Dec 2nd with a rough Dress
Rehearsal. There were some gremlins (still are) out in the yard. The major
ones are slayed, but today after our first week, there are a few things that
really need attention. Last night we hosted Judy Pancoast for the 3rd time.
A great night, but man o man I was limping into her visit. Work sent me out
on a 3 day trip last week. Thanks to the Pittman's, and Don Kohler for
tending to the Display in my absence. On top of that we had company that
Tracy was spending time with, so I sadly missed the Allison's from Naples,
FL. The Band is still not fully complete. 3 of the 4 had problems and had to
be left out for a week. By last night for the Judy Pancoast concert, 3 of
the 4 band members were in the show. The new Display additions, (I added a
total of 48 Really Big Lights in the Road Tree, Light Fan RGB Upgrade and
the Roof Outline RGB) are now all working. The latter 2 were not the first
couple of nights. That was just a communication issue I needed to work out.
Our donation effort is off to a great start, and it looks like I have some
work to do to coordinate VOLUNTEERS! Yea... We had one show up last night
along with a long time display attendee Bryan Bell. This is a great story as
to how Bryan found me. That is it for now. I will spend a bit more time in
the next day or so. Ahhhh, the Season is finally here and in full swing....
11-24-17 -
Happy Thanksgiving! Not a lot of time to post. Things
are behind schedule in my mind and there is still a lot to do in a week to
make our Dec 1st Light Up! Yesterday was a good day with help from my
special Elf, Mr Kohler. The yard is almost set, the Band members did not
fare well in the off season. I will get the yard dialed in today, and then
work on them over the next few nights to fix 'em. We do our festivities
later this afternoon, so I will get a chance to work this morning on the
Display as usual for this day... TSO is Saturday and the only other planned
time off. Have a wonderful day with your families, I give thanks today, and
every day for all we are blessed with. One more BIG week ahead, I am bushed
already....
11-18-17 -
2 weeks from yesterday will be December 1st and our
planned Light Up! This is what we call our Opening Night. I had a
special gift from my bro in law, he arranged a boom lift for me to get my
Road Tree strung, and Peanuts Gang in place. Our Big Push! started yesterday
afternoon. This is where I take 2 weeks off work, and it is 18 hours a day
Display work to get it done. I take Thanksgiving afternoon off, and Saturday
afternoon after Thanksgiving for the TSO concert. Yesterday I picked up some
lead shot for weights from Non-Ferrous Metals. The owner lives in Kingsgate
and is kind enough to bring this to his house from So-Do where the company
is at. It will help with the Peanuts gang tomorrow, Sunday to weigh the guys
down..... More to follow, we are off and running....
11-14-17 -
Well, another wind/rain storm yesterday. Probably the
"first" one of the Season (we plan for 3), since the precursor storm 2 weeks
ago, was not as significant. We surprisingly did not loose power (it was out
all around us), but there was no going outside unless needing to let Yogi do
his business. Trees were reported down everywhere. So today saw hopefully
the last big outside cleanup effort. 5 hours blowing and mowing up debris.
The yard looks great, and is surprisingly dry. Normally this time of year it
is already saturated, and cleanup occurs with a rake. The fact I can still
get my commercial 36" mower all around, is amazing. Then I got a few hours
of work in to pay the bills, and started on Woodinville Wonderland Inside!
Momma Claus wants to get the Tree in the Window up. So tonight starts Inside
work. Command central takes some of the Living Room furniture usually,
except this year. With Yogi added to the family, and his Penthouse in my
Home Office, and some furniture changes in the house, Command central gets a
bit of an overhaul. A bit lighter than usual, with some added inside
decorations. Yogi got his very first Christmas Tree, and he has a Peanuts
Choir that are wirelessly connected for an animated "show". We have a few
more days at our regular day job. After Friday, I am off till Dec 4th. My
special elf, Don Kohler has been out of town for a month, and he is home
this week, and I hope to snag him as his time allows! Below are the pics
from Command Central. You see the computer that controls 99% of the Display,
plus our KWWR radio station (seen playing below), and the screen that shows
our Virtual Santa. Command Central is Yogi's domain, so his penthouse will
become a holding spot as a catch all. In the second picture below you see
our lil FM transmitter on top of the blue computer tower, next to the dome
looking light. Yogi gets his own tree and Peanuts Choir.... As he is still a
puppy, at 9+ months, he is still trying to figure all this stuff out. He
growls cutely at blow molds, is curious about the outside elements and even
uses the Icicle Forest Trees as his, a, relief station.... Keep checking
back. More updates to follow. Oh yeah, we are still getting ready for Judy
Pancoast on Dec 8th!........
11-12-17 -
In the yard, I have 4 large trees that get a lot of
attention. I call them the anchor points of the Display. In order below, the
Icicle Tree, Tree within a Tree, RGB
Tree and Spiral Tree. Each Tree gets a compliment of 2 Leaping Light Arches.
2 get built in the yard, (Icicle/RGB)
and 2 in the driveway, then hand carried into place (TwT/Spiral). Yesterday
all the Tree's were put into the yard and we are now ready to start filling
things in. Today its supposed to rain all day, so a good day to get the
vignettes filled in, starting with the Street Entrance. Most of the leaves
are done, there is still some cedar boughs to come down. The Yard Clean Up
this year, while time consuming, went pretty well. Normally by this time of
year, the yard is pretty wet. As of yesterday, it was in surprisingly great
shape. I suspect that will change starting this week, with a forecast of
rain. One of my special Elves, my buddy Don Kohler, has been enjoying the
sun in Yuma, AZ. He come back to town this coming week and certainly the
weekend after Thanksgiving will give me a hand with a boom to finish out the
Road Tree and the Peanuts gang on the roof. Its beginning to look a lot like
Christmas for sure! Thanks for checking in.
11-6-17 - It seems like I
can never get caught up. Again, its been some time since I had a Blog
Update. Its that magic
time of year, when I attempt to slow time down. Set Up! had a soft start,
and then as planned, on Oct 1st, lights started going on the house. The roof
has about 2/3rds of the items up there. Moving to the ground, the driveway,
and road now have arches and canes lining the property. There has been a lot of fixin' going on. Leaping Light Arches took a beating in the offseason.
Most of the hedge bushes have lights,
the Icicle and RGB
Trees are up with accompanying Leaping Light Arches.
My buddy Pete Peters came by to give me a hand with the RGB
Tree, to
tighten in up. Mom Nature has given us a double edged sword. With the extremely dry summer,
she gave us a week of rain in Sept, which gave everything new life. That
meant the leaves are hanging on like crazy. I have had several rounds of
cleanup but there is still more hanging on out there and we are in Nov. So
the SNOW we got on Friday and Sunday had problems in the area with trees
falling due to the heavy nature of snow/water/leaves. We had a 2 hour power
outage just yesterday with trees falling into the power lines. While the
yard is looking good, I am behind where I should be this time of year.
Facebook has been getting a few more pictures and updates, so I would have
you go friend that page. I will try to get more updates and pictures posted
here, but I am coming into my huge crunch time. Check back and see our
progress.
9-25-17 -
Man life is busy. I realized this morning that it has
been another 2 months since an update, but hopefully they will occur more
often. Let's just say that a lot of the "planned" items for the display will
not happen this year. Work, and life have been crazy busy, and at least on
the life side, I can somewhat control it, but there is a lot going on, and
it is really hectic. Our Chelan home is moving along. Our building permit is
in hand, and there is still some lot prep work to do, but we hope to have a
foundation in this year before the cold weather sets in. This project may
prompt me to greatly downsize what Display we will have in 2018. We will
have to see. I have been boogying over there a fair amount for one item or
another. We also are involved in obtaining a membership at Lake Connor Park
(LCP). LCP is a camping club that one of my special elves, Don Kohler turned
me onto. Don for a couple years now has been talking about it. Well we
finally took him up on his offer to take our lil trailer up there for a
weekend. We liked what that place is and some of the benefits it offers. So
we started looking at lots that were available and settled on one. We are
now involved with the process of transferring it in our name. This will
allow us to keep our trailer up there year round, and use the facilities as
we need to. It is only about 40 minutes from the house, so it gives us a
quick camping get away any time we choose. Over Labor Day, Tracy and I went
to Florida, ahead of Hurricane Irma. We visited my buddy and fellow
decorator, Darren Huffty and his family in Jacksonville. Then we headed
south to Palm Coast for another mini family reunion with my sister Marlene's
family. A fabulous time for sure. We got out of Florida about 4 days ahead
of Irma. Work did start on the display by fixing light strings on known
items. There will be a lot of fixing light strings to come for sure, but
there was one Leaping Light Arch, and a large number of Trees in the Magical
Forest that had been left out since last Season to fix. The Magical Forest
Trees are 4 color super strings. Blue LEDs are the bane of a Display. They
fail more than any other color. Then I started to get an update going that
started in 2015 when I fell and broke my wrist. That year I wanted to
convert the red LED roof outline to pixels, mainly just to add color. When
my special Elves plugged that controller in, bad things happened. No trouble
shooting was going to happen. So instead, this year, I decided to swap out
E682 controllers, and go with Falcon controllers. Below is the new roof
outline controller all ready for testing (this week). One more of these will
be built, and hopefully control the updated Light Fan that needs to get
converted to Pixels... We will see... So yesterday I started fixing Window
Wrap frames. Several had started to fall apart, and over the past few years,
I had been slowing fixing them. I had several more this year that had to get
done. They would not have survived hanging. So after painting and getting
them all spiffy, I hung 6 of the 8 Window Wraps. So we sort of had a soft
start to Set Up! which traditionally starts on the roof, but with the
Icicles. To get ready for official Set Up! to begin next Sunday, I pressure
washed the gutters, and checked for wasps nets in the eves. So we are
moving, albeit in several directions, and I hope I don't get too thin on any
one item. More updates to follow.....
7-22-17 -
Wooh! 5 months since my last update! A lot has gone
under the bridge since Valentines Day. I had to finalize all the Tear Down!
by the first part of March to get the 2nd of my carpal tunnel surgeries...
This on the left wrist I shattered in 2014. That went well, and the wrist is
about as strong as it will get. We managed a quick get away to Lake Chelan,
the place of our future home, and spend the weekend at Winterfest. It is
Chelan's Winter celebration, with wine tasting, great food, music etc... It
was COLD! We did a bit of snowshoeing one day and just generally tried to
relax. Work has been more demanding than ever it seems, plus there have been
a lot of Honey Do's at the house. Our Dolphin Pond landscaping was complete,
and the area by the front porch was cleaned up. The picture below give you
an idea of the new look. We will have to see how we decorate these areas for
Christmas! There was mulched badly needed in the planter beds around the
yard. Work has gotten crazy. I know I keep saying things can't get more
hectic in life, but each year, in the off-season things get wild. Tracy and
I ended up getting a new 4 legged host. It has been a bit over 2 years since
our Golden Girls walked across the Rainbow Bridge, and this little guy, we
named Yogi, has captured our hearts. He is a Shorkie, and our first smaller
dog. He is all boy, and all puppy right now. As of this entry, he is about 6
months old. We got him on May 5th. I then proceeded to head off to the Biz
trip from hell to Asia/Pac in June. Manila, Penang, Bangalore, then back to
Manila. 2 grueling weeks. I was home for 9 days before Tracy and I headed
out on a 20yr Anniversary cruise with 2 other couples. We left from Venice,
Italy, and did an Adriatic Sea cruise. Going as far as Athens, Greece. It
was 8 days on the boat, and we spent 2 days in Florence, and 3 days in
Venice before getting on the boat. This was our first cruise, and our first
time in Europe. It was Tracy's first long haul trip and she did very well,
given how much we moved about before finally settling on the boat. This was
another 15 days gone, and it was over my Birthday as well. We are in the
process of finalizing the details for our Lake Chelan home. A lot of prep
has gone on the property from excavation around the home site, utility work
for water and power, and then the house plans and engineering. We hope to
submit for a building permit by next week, and the plan would be to have a
foundation in by the time winter sets in this year. Eventually, this will be
our residence, and what I hope will be the Chelan Christmas Chalet. So with
ALL that going on, not a whole lot has been display related. We managed to
get the pixels and clips to do the overhaul of the Light Fan, what some call
the Peacock Tail. I wanted to manage a Thomas the Train engine overhaul and
we will see how far that gets. So not a lot of Display work or planning. We
are working with Judy Pancoast to have a private concert here on December
8th. So the calendar is clicking by, and I hope to not get myself bound up
against time as usual. We will see. So a bit of a long update, but at least
it brings you up to speed with what we have been doing the past 5 months.
2-14-17- Happy Valentines Day!
It's been a few weeks since the last update, and
posted any pictures. Tear Down is still a WiP. I spent most of this past
weekend getting the roof stuff down, and cleaning up there. Yard stuff still
coming in at a snails pace, but I never really push myself to get it down in
a hurry. I do however, have a lot of pressing Honey-Do's lining up, so it
makes sense to get as much done this week as possible. Since the last
update, Superbowl Sunday, as Kickoff commenced, we had snow very finely
starting to fall. Around 1am, I got up to get a drink of water and take a
leak. My timing was impeccable. The lights flickered 2 times and the third
time was the charm, out they went. Looking outside there was about 5-6" of
snow. I went back to bed figuring I would not hook up the generator for a
few hours. 5am rolled around, and I knew we were going to be out of power
for a while, I
got up to get things situated. I had a scare when the generator would not
fire up. As I started to check things, I noticed that the oil was low. Once
filled, it fired right up! Later that Monday afternoon/eve, another several
inches fell. I would estimate about 10" total in just over 24 hours. I got
outside with the lawn and leaf blower to get the snow off some of the
Display items that were still up in the yard. The Icicle Tree below is after I blew it off
the first time, and the
snow came down again.... THAT would have been the picture to get....It hung around for several days being how cold it
was, then by later in the week, it warmed up and we saw over 3.5" of rain
fall in 24 hours! What extreme's. Cycle forward to this past Saturday when
Mom Nature gave us our official break from Winter. Historically there is a
3-5 day stretch that she gives us each Winter to give us a reprieve. So this
past weekend was pretty busy getting more stuff down. Thanks to Don
McGillivray who "just popped by" to lend a hand on Saturday! Yesterday
continued our nice stretch, so I took 2 hours to blow out some of the beds
and then mow up the debris. They were a mess due to the snow, wind and rain.
Then, I got lights off the porch and the last of the bushes. With that done, another nice day today, so I will take off a bit early from
work to tackle the Procrastination Tree, er, ah the Road Tree. Sometimes
procrastination helps. Working on that tree, show below, to put the Red/White mini
lights and the new Really Big Lights has to mostly be done from up inside
that tree. When cold and damp, that tree, and branches are like snot.
Slippery is an understatement. Tracy always fusses about me on the roof.
Well I did have one mishap up there I grant you, however that tree is MY biggest concern
more than anything else. In the yard, all 4 Anchor Tree's, the RGB, Tree
within a Tree, Spiral and Icicle are still up in all their majesty. Thomas
the Train's track is still up, and a couple controllers, along with the
Bow/Bell and Light Fan are the major elements in the yard. Not to mention
the Candy Cane Forest, R/W tree wraps. THEN, we have the miles of extension
cords to pull up. Still a lot of work, but I plan on getting something done
every night this week. All the main items are pictured below. Thursday is Tracy's B-Day and we may do something
this weekend to celebrate. Maybe golf!? We will see. Oh and yeah, we did get
a day of snowshoeing in also. Lets see, I finalized the payments to our
Charities last Friday. So the effort to close out Woodinville Wonderlands
2016 season getting there. Then we start our planning for our local CLAP
Christmas gathering in late April! Thanks for checking in.
Here is
the Icicle Tree
Foreground is the RGB
Tree, in the back is Tree within Tree
The Bow
and Bells
Thomas the Train and the Sprial Tree
1-24-17 -
Almost a month since Christmas. I shut things down
almost for a week, and man did it get COLD around here for quite some time!
I finally got out the Friday after the New Year, just to get pictures and a
few videos. I had not thrown the master power, and hunkered down to stay
warm. So, as usual, what is in the can will get published as best I
can make it. Hopefully before the 4th of July! LOL. I was beat after the
Season. I laid low, did a few things around the house, but after I threw the
master power switch to start Tear Down! not a lot happened fast. I got my
critical items out of the yard, some of the electronics (a lot is still out
there!), and a few things here and there. This past weekend, Saturday
morning and most of the day Sunday I got a fair amount done. I don't knock
myself out to pull it all down. Folks say to solicit help. That can be done,
but this is the first Season in 3 that I am doing it mostly myself, which is
a GOOD thing. Tracy and I took last weekend and goofed off over in Lake
Chelan for their Winterfest celebration. So it was fun (in the COLD) with
snowshoeing, wine tasting, soup tasting, relaxing etc... More time away from
Tear Down! Some planning is in the works for 2017, some lights need to be
ordered, and then we once again juggle time between life, work, honey-do's,
our Chelan project etc.... I still have yet to divvy the funds between SOWA
and the Northshore Wranglers. I am waiting till Cadence, my employer opens
up the Matching Funds so I can get an extra $500 to the total! We had a
great year for sure. I meant this to be a quick update. I will apologize if
you are reading this and accidentally touched the count down clock I had on
the landing page. Seems something went haywire with the company who provided
that code and it was hijacked to a not so family friendly site. It has been
rectified for now.
1-7-17-
Well we had to go back to work last Monday after 2
weeks off work. It was busy right out of the chute. The Master Switch was
not thrown on the Display because I wanted to get some pictures and a few
videos, but MAN has it been cold. The Dolphin Pond has been having problems
with ice formation. There is STILL snow up here. Cords are frozen to the
lawn. Amid all the cold Tear Down had to commence today, so last night, I
fired her up! I had a photo sequence I shot first, then had a 3 song loop to
get video. I was outside till after 10pm, and flipped the Master Switch,
disconnected the outside power, and broke down Santa in the Window in my
home office. Mrs Claus worked on Tearing Down the Tree in the Window, and
now it needs to be disassembled and stored away. Our Retro camping trailer
should make it back into the driveway this morning. Most of the major
hardware or key items will come in today. We will see how much gets done
before we have to head off to the Man Cave to cheer on the Hawks! I hope to
get the pictures and videos posted soon. I will post again on how our
progress is coming.
1-2-17 -
Happy New Year all! Wow! what a Season. The start of a
New Year! I took the 1st as a day of relaxing, reflecting and
chilling. Alas, it sort of sadly came to an end. Last night was
Closing Night. We had quite a lot of folks stop in to catch one last look at
our Display. Some new guests, and some, who were just making it out for the
first time of the Season. We appreciate it all, no matter. Closing Night is
always a bit bitter sweet. Mrs Claus started breaking Woodinville Wonderland
Inside down, and sadly it is almost all put away except for the Trees.
Outside, all the cones, signs, and the lights/Santa Moon, on our Santa Can
was brought in. The rest of the Outside will not start coming down till this
coming weekend. I still have some photos and video to possibly capture
before the big Master Switch is thrown off for the year. While some say its
only a month, and a few days, there is a lot of energy that has to carry us
through the Season. Now things need to be reviewed for attention or fixing,
so the effort goes on till hopefully the early part of February, because I
go back to work today after 2 weeks off. I took some notes through the
Season as to what was successful and what needs changing. This years layout
was almost a replication of 2015. Most of the changes were logistics this
year. However the Really Big Lights in the Road Tree were a very noted
success by all who came to see us. I am so glad I added them, and will add
more in 2017. I may think about another yard juggle, and updating some items
to hopefully make them better in the long run. Our donation effort went
SPECTACULAR! We surpassed 2015's Season total, in shear cash donations. My
company will match $500 to the cause. That gave us a whopping $8252 for SOWA
and the Northshore Wranglers. Thank YOU! to all who helped us in this cause.
Your generosity is amazing. So that's it for now. Thank you all for a
magical Season. Check in and see what antics I have been up to during the
year.
12-26-16 -
What a 10 day stretch! The big 24 hours is now a
memory. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Everyone is playing with their new
presents, all are happy and joyful. We hosted Tracy's brother, sister and
nephew along with her son Chris and girlfriend Erika for Christmas Brunch.
Then we had about 35 of the family at Woodinville Wonderland Inside for our
annual gathering. About 35 in our abode. Wall to wall fun and laughter. Don
Kohler once again gave a huge hand Christmas eve (unexpectedly) along with
Chris Kent. It was incredible that they would come help me out on my busiest
night of the Season. Last night a friend Rick LaMarche tended to the street
so I could be inside with our family. I have been saying for years now that
"Angels are Among Us". Our tribute song is reality in my life. I am thankful
for the help and friendship I have with a lot of special folks. This week
should be quieter, as least history tells me that. Mom Nature threw us a few
curve balls with weather right at our prime visitation days, but that did
not stop a lot of folks from visiting. Our donation effort is doing awesome,
and we are soooo close to pushing over last years mark. If we can get to
$7500, my company should put in another $500. That would be amazing. I hope
to kick back a bit, get some honey do's done around the house for Tracy. My
review at work needs to be submitted as well as a few appointments. Now to
relax some........
12-24-16 -
The biggest night, the most anticipated night, the
most wondrous night of the year is upon us! Christmas Eve. I love this time
of year, obviously for many reasons. This was a tough year in soooo many
ways, for me, for our country, for the world. This night, and tomorrow, it
is great just to pause, reflect, and cherish all that we really do have.
These 48 hours are magical. Oh what it could be like to replicate that for
every other day of the year. We, I am blessed. I am thankful for all that is
around me. OK, enough reflection, although, thanks for at least reading my
heartfelt sentiment. The visitation has been really different this year.
Last night, for Friday before Christmas should have been off the charts, but
the snow and weather I am sure kept most away. Which may just build pressure
for tonight and tomorrow. We will see. There is a little over a week to go
for the Display. Hard to realize 3 weeks are already behind us. Our donation
effort for SOWA and the Wranglers is doing very well. We are about $1500
short of surpassing last year, with 2 big nights to go. I really want to
break that $7500 mark set last year. I have some checking to do
outside before tonight. I get to prepare Christmas Eve Dinner for our
family, and get Christmas Morning Breakfast ready to go. Then it's Go Hawks!
time. It will be nice to sit and relax before the Show hits tonight.
12-20-16 -
I was on the street last night as usual, handing out
candy canes. Upon offering one to one little visitor, I got the quote of the
decade..... "A candy cane can solve all of life's problems"......... For
once, I was stumped without a snappy come back, because, you know, that is
true. I just had to shake my head and say, "you know, I gotta agree with
that..." I get some amazing accolades this time of year for what we do. I
cherish each one, because it means that what I do and like, resonates with
everyone. That is my special juice. Last night I got 2 that I had not heard
before. One guest stated it was "epic" and another said it was "profound". 2
in one night! One other night this week, a couple was chatting to me who do
lighting design professionally. They were wanting info and data, and I was
sharing a lot of the technical details of the logistics behind it all. They
actually went out of their way to note the subtle details in the yard that
95% of the visitors would not notice except on a subliminal level. Another
shot of juice for me. They got it. Christmas is just 5 days away. I have
some fixit stuff to do in the Display. Check back again.
12-18-16 -
A week from today, all the anxiety will be over.
Everyone will be playing with toys, eating, drinking, singing. Ah the
thoughts. But! We have a week between. Plenty of time to see the Display.
Things are doing OK. IceZee is causing me fits, but otherwise things are in
great shape (knock on wood). Last night on our busiest night to date, we had
a first. Something I have always been concerned with. EMT, Fire and Sheriff
needed to get through our area. My volunteers were flawless in locking down
the street to get them through. All was fine and on the way out the guys
said that they appreciated us getting them through asap. Then it was, nice
Display! Too funny. I need to get a few things worked on, so maybe more of
an update later or tomorrow.
12-11-16 -
Our first 10 days are behind us, and Christmas is 2
weeks away. Things have been a bit slow to start the visitation, but the
weather has not cooperated well. We got about 3 inches of snow that is still
lingering, and they say a Polar Vortex is on its way this coming week. I
have seen computer models where we are below 0 Zero. That is not going to
bode well for things around here. However last night, we had our first
really busy night, and thankfully I had on volunteer to assist with parking.
So the Display is doing well, typical fixit punch list items as part of
maintenance. I added one new song, Christmastime for my neighbors the
Casper's. It has been a challenging year for them. Marti asked me 2 years
ago to add it. I added the Bow and Bell feature just for that song. Well,
given what they have been through this year, I moved mountains to get it
into the show, and have a special showing for them first before we rolled it
out. We had a great time watching it come to life. In one sense I felt like
the Little Drummer Boy. I had no gifts that were appropriate, but I could
play...... and that song did play, and it was great. One more song will be
IceZee's long anticipated debut. His song is ready, I need a couple hours
with him in the garage to ensure all his parts and joints are functioning
properly. I hope to focus on that today before watching the Hawks game this
afternoon. It is now our busy social season too as we get a lot of our
family and friends stopping in to visit, and have one of our famous Hot
Buttered Rums. Its great to have the hustle and bustle of the Season upon
us. I will make another announcement when his debut will run. That's it for
now. Check back in, and Merry Christmas!
12-4-16 -
Our first 3 nights are behind us already! We were very
busy last night, and saw some familiar faces. I got a chance to talk to a
lot of the folks since the traffic was not too bad. The weather cooperated
for the most part, but they say the nasty "S" word in in the forecast for
this coming week. A light dusting does make our Wonderland more magical.
Anything more than an inch becomes work. Mainly for the hedges and bushes.
Snow has to be blown off them to see the lights. LEDs don't generate
heat.... I have 2 songs to finalize to get into the Show. IceZee will
finally "come to life one day" and have his LONG awaited debut this coming
week. I have several hours on each song before I can put them into the Show
mix. There is a good sized punch list still to work on, but nothing earth
shattering. The RGB
Tree had an early issue that we got worked out, however, some spare
equipment was put in and that leaves us vulnerable without a 100% spare.
More updates to follow. Thank you for checking in, and thanks to those who
seek me out to tell me, that someone actually READs these rants........ :)
12-2-16 -
"Ridden hard and put away wet". That's how I feel. Not
bad though and in some cases literally wet. We went into Opening Night not
as prepared as we wanted to, but the show went off. There was no time for a
connection verification test. So in one way, Opening Night was our Dress
Rehearsal! In 2012 when I added Angels Among Us as a Memorial for my Mom, it
had special meaning to me around that difficult time in my life. Without
getting too sappy, there are Angels in our lives. I have many, and realize
that. One in particular the past 2 years has been a true God Send, or maybe
its my Mom looking after me still, but Don Kohler has been beyond helpful
for me, and Woodinville Wonderland. To some extent, those that do these
types of displays are selfish and yet we are giving, its hard to understand.
But to have someone like Don give so much of himself for the "hell of it" is
incredible. He has volunteered his whole life and just extending that trait
to me, for which, I am extremely thankful. The other half of that, Roxy
Kohler, Don's lovely wife allowed him to come play with me as much as he
did. They both are awesome. There are others who helped this year in their
own way, Kevin Thomas, Pete Peters, and others. This time of year I get to
enjoy the Season through our Display and visitors. There is a punch list of
things to knock out today after taking the Display on the Opening Night
spin..... Still more work today, and through the Season, but THE SEASON IS
HERE! YES! Merry Christmas!
11-25-16 -
Today has a lot within it. It's the day after
Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Apple Cup (Go Dawgs!). It also marks one month
to Christmas, and one week till Light Up! A great day yesterday with family.
I did spend the morning on Display stuff, and got some computer work done. I
will update the webpage, do a bit more programming and then I am outside for
a big "punch list" day. Man o man has it rained a lot, but the silver lining
is that it looks mild for the next week. Things are still on track for Dec
1st Light Up! so check in, we will update you as time allows. Did I say Go
DAWGS!
11-23-16 -
My update for Set Up! and a general update.
Thanksgiving is tomorrow, I hope you all have a wonderful time with family
and loved ones. It kicks off the greatest Season and time of year.
Today marks a 2 year anniversary and odyssey that is a constant reminder
that working on a roof and around a ladder requires all your attention and
focus. Enough said. We are 5 days into Set Up! and progressing nicely. A few
glitches here and there but outside of some iffy weather, all is going good.
The first nice dry day on Monday allowed me with the assistance of Don
Kohler to knock out the majority of the roof! There is still about 4 hours
needed to lock it down, but the hard part is complete. You can see me
working on it below. Lee Biggs stopped in that day and lent time getting
things knocked out. As Tracy said (me too, I agree), I am getting spoiled
with all the help. I thank God for all of it too. I have some computer work
to do, and am juggling time. Since last Friday, it has been no less than 12
hour days...... Check in, I will try to make more updates.
11-13-16 -
I better get a quick update in. We lost 9 days in my
prime Set Up! time for a New England wedding and business travel. I jumped
back into it on Friday, and had a LONG 14.5 hour day yesterday. The same is
probably on the docket today. Friday my Elf buddy helper, Don Kohler stopped
in, and among other things, we pulled ALL the stuff out from under the
house. Now stuff is staged all over. The picture below is his idea of
keeping an eye on me, as he pointed several blow molds to look into my home
office at me. These will be there for a week or so. We had a surprise little
wind storm yesterday that I was not expecting, and the main thing it did was
to knock almost all the remaining leaves and cedar droppings down. Don comes
back and another buddy today, Kevin "Wirekat" Thomas to provide some assist.
I will clean up while they manage a few things. The last mow will be
juggled, as I have to get some of that done today to clean up, but more
important, the 4 main BIG trees in the display need to be put into the yard,
as they are my anchor points. The Icicle Tree was completed yesterday, and
the frame of the RGB
Tree put up. I had one minor incident with the Icicle Tree light strings. A
mouse got onto my storage shelf and THANKFULLY only ripped up one Super
String of Icicles. That tree has R-G-B-W
LED super strings, whereby I bundle the lights together. The mouse managed
to rip up 3 of the colors on just that one bundle and it had to be redone.
It could have been worse. We are behind schedule, but hopefully after today,
I will be caught up a bit. This coming Friday is my last day at work until
after Light Up! that starts my Sprint-Marathon. Its all out, hands on deck
to get everything fixed, put out, connected and ready for Light Up! which is
still scheduled for Dec 1st. With help from Don, I should be alright. So I
am off to blow leaves and mow waiting for my help to show up. Go Hawks!
10-17-16 -
Well, Stormaggeden did not happen, thankfully! Many on
social media are poking at the weather forecasters. I for one understand how
difficult it is to predict the weather in the NW. They did their job to keep
the public informed about the potential devastation that could happen. The
fact that Mom Nature drove the bus further west than anticipated
significantly reduced the impact to the region. The difference was literally
about 20-40 miles between just a seasonal wind storm, and utter devastation.
In the 4 days preceding, we had more rain fall than in the past several
months. We did get wind in those 4 days, and the yard needed its first clean
up during the Set Up! season. I spent 8.5 hours outside blowing, raking,
mowing, leaves, cedar droppings, branches, and lawn. The yard was pretty
saturated as you would expect. However, Mom Nature cut me some slack and did
not have any rain yesterday, UNTIL I was done, and I was literally DONE. I
needed to eat, take a shower and sat in the hot tub. I was beat. So Set Up!
can proceed until the next big event.
10-15-16 - Sometimes
things just have a way of falling in place for who knows why. We are a bit
behind in getting things on the house, which as of the last 2 days and
today/this evening, is probably a good thing. As I outlined in my entry
below, the big blows to plan for. Well, the Pacific NW is tooling up for a
big Hoolie today. We have had a TON of rain in the past 2 days and some wind.
The new Dolphin pond has no overflow on it. It sits close to part of our
septic system (sand filter) so with the 5" of rain we got since Wednesday, I
bucketed out about 130 gallons of water so far, 4 or so gallons at at time.
Some leaves and debris around from yesterdays blow, but no work to clean up
till tomorrow. It may be a full day tomorrow to get all the leaves, cedar
droppings and branches out of the yard. All the icicle lights are on
the house. 6 of 8 window wraps are in place. The other 2 are in the
front windows by the Dolphin Pond and I will wait till I get the ladder out
for the C9 strings that outline that part of the house. With today's storm,
it is good that more is not already in place. Thomas the Train's new tracks
have been cut, mostly sanded and a new keyway to join them have been cut,
glued and screwed. Thanks to Don Kohler for his ideas and input. He is also
working on the new levelers to hopefully make setting it up easier. Thomas
will get an overhaul next year with hopefully a new "drive train", arh, arh.
The tracks need priming, painting and a new guide rail. All to be done in
the next few weeks. It wont happen today or tomorrow, with the pending
storm, plus I have work to do for work, getting ready for a customer
engagement on Tues-Thurs of next week. With the weather the past few days, I
had to get the garage cleaned up to get Tracy's new car back in there to to
keep it out of the weather. She was happy for that. 10am right now. In 12
hours we will see how things look. Keeping our fingers crossed, as it does
appear that the weather models are saying the storm may pass more west,
diminishing the big winds slightly.
10-7-16 -
Fall is now fully with us. Its a great time of year,
the crispness in the morning, the nip of dampness around your nose and ears,
its a great time of year, unless you have a Christmas Display. While the
lawn starts to slow down, we still have to mow regularly, mostly to suck up
leaves and cedar droppings! The cedar droppings are the most contentious to
deal with, as they get mowed, and then raked to get up off the lawn, only
after they are blown out of the planter beds. Experience tells me there are
at least 3 big storms in front of me. 1 in October, 1 in November, and 1 in
December. Mom Nature with the first 2, assists us with dropping all the
stuff out of the trees. She torments me with the 3rd, as we have to plan for
that one big "Blow" during the Display Season. These are always one of my
biggest concerns with stuff outside. Set Up! commenced on Oct 2nd with the
annual icicles coming out, the Gable Wreath and 2 upper tiers of icicles
were put out. So a soft start, because usually that first day gets us all
the icicles on the house. This weekend we will start to pull out the tubs
and bins, checking more items, the house, roof, bushes and the continuous
fixing of elements are the focus now till we get to Nov 19th. That day marks
our 2 week HUGE push to get the display ready for Dec 1st. Most say how come
you don't Light Up! Thanksgiving weekend. My standard answer is, "its all I
got in me to get 'er done for Dec 1st". The logistics behind Set Up! are
more than one can comprehend. Thankfully over the last few years, I have
been blessed with more help with a few special Elves. Weekends are consumed
with Display "something's", as is just about every night of the week, from
here till Jan 1st. Thanks for checking in. Check back or drive by to see our
progress.
9-26-16 - A productive
week so far. A picture is worth a thousand words.... Below is a lot between
the 2 pics. First the garage shot. Mrs. Claus' new sleigh ain't in the barn
so to speak. We got Peanuts Nativity and Mrs. Snowman in its spot. They are
getting tended to. Plywood repair, and paint touch up, especially the edges
that can lead to more damage. Mrs. Snowman needs a solid fixit for her hat
unfortunately. All my wood characters have been enhanced intarsia style,
which means they have depth. Wood on top of wood, so they are not just 2D
flat. On the right side of the garage is my DMX flood washes. They have been
tested and a few needed swapping out with spares for repair. I have what I
need working for the Display this year, but only one spare. These may need
to start getting swapped out with other floods as they are getting more and
more difficult to get repaired. Chauvet no longer makes spare parts/boards.
Also on the right side, you see the plywood that will go toward new tracks
for Thomas the Train. On the left, you see 4 Mega Forest Trees. These are
the Midi size of 5'. Of which, one of the frames is partially stripped of
its lights. These trees are populated with R-G-B-W
LED super strings. I take a string of each color, bundle then together into
one super string then put them on the frame. Each of these type frames holds
2000 lights, 500 of each color. The 3 that are off the frame all needed LED
replaced! Plus the frame itself needs a bit of a weld job. A couple joints
popped off the lower brace circle. The other 3 frames you see, all have
strings to be fixed. On the left side of the garage, you see the candles.
The flame bulbs needed replacing on 2 of the candles, and, on the gold a
string of LEDs was replaced. We are working toward this coming weekend, when
Set Up! commences. Typically the first weekend involves getting the icicles
checked and strung, and a few other roof items will come out of hiding and
make it out. The other picture is a long standing project finally completed.
The dolphins have been in the front yard for many, many years. Decorated at
Christmas with hats and usually in the middle of that is the end of the
"river" that runs through the display. We now have a real water feature to
somehow decorate up for the Display. It should also provide a nice
foreground to the Living Room Tree, known as "The Tree in the Window". This
project was supposed to be done my me starting 2 years ago, but the wrist
and abdomen injuries, presented it from being worked on. The final
landscaping will have to wait till after the Season, and when Tear Down! is
complete. It's kind of weird, its is almost October and I have done NO
computer work. There are no major additions, there may only be slight tweaks
to all the existing vignettes, however there will be 3 new songs that I am
getting some help to get the majority of the programming done before I have
to finalize them for the Show. Whew a lot here! I push out a community plea
for volunteers this coming weekend. Thanks for checking in, we should have
more updates more frequently.......
9-21-16 -
Been cranking away in the garage. I built 2 ASAP's and
Portable Hole Lite. Below is a
picture of the 2 competed assemblies. For the PHL, I
assisted Walter Monkhouse and documented the difference between the Lite
version and the full size. It is posted as of today. The link is active. I
also had to completely redo the Snoopy's Dog House, my 2 Woodstocks, and
Shroeder's piano of the Peanuts Nativity. I now am starting to fix some of
my characters that need attention with delaminating plywood. There is a lot
there to do, and a fixit list a mile long. Time is moving too quickly with
Set Up! starting just about 10 days from now. I find myself juggling more
than usual. Tracy's Pond is going in this Fri/Sat, and one of the things to
prep for that was to paint the buckout on the Living Room Window. There was
some paint peeling in the gable and it was easier to deal with, while the
pond was not there. What's the song, "A long way to go and a short time to
get there" is now in effect. No computer work to speak of. I am adding
songs, but having some help with them. I need to work on IceZee too and
maybe he will get some attention next week if possible. So we are almost in
full swing. More updates as we can get them done.
9-2-16 - Well Fall
appears to be creeping closer, and there is a hint of it in the mornings of
late. The past few days we had a bit of rain that was badly needed. With 2
camping trips back to back the last 2 weekends, that leaves Labor Day
weekend (this weekend) for some work around the house. I need to get some
painting done, and in a few weeks, Tracy will get her fountain/pond in the
front yard done. I have some prep work for that. Then I have to figure out
the lighting, and how to use it during the Season. The dolphins that have
had hats on, and in the "River That runs Through it" will be in the pond.
Before that, the gable above that pond needs painting. That is the project
for this weekend if it does not rain. Today I also bought some marine
plywood for the redo on the Peanuts Nativity, Snoopy's Dog house. The other
plywood is to remake Thomas the Trains tracks. I hope to limp him along one
more year with some track mods, and then rebuild the engine to make that way
more efficient. No computer work yet, but that will change at the best next
week. I am doing something different and paying a company to sequence the
majority of 3 new songs. The big thing to focus on is IceZee. He HAS to get
into the show, and may not get the Master of Ceremonies role, but, he has to
sing his song, and bee bop in all the other ones. The present gang needs to
be re-done in the show to be back up singers, but they will just be bopping
again this year. I saw these Really BIG Lights below some time back. I
ordered a set to use this year, and am looking at possibly using a bunch
(27) of the white to put in the Road Tree for the 2017 Season. They are
interesting enough to think about using more, but unsure of how. I have a
few thoughts. The calendar is getting away, but there won't be much new
(except for songs) but hopefully more complete over all. My volunteers are
weighing heavy on my mind as Woodinville High School failed me so miserably
last year. I need to put the thinking cap on there. The neighborhood FB
pages may yield some hope.
8-6-16 -
We are officially underway with projects. Got my list
of things to build or fix. First up was to create a device I have use in
other areas of the display, a Portable Hole Lite. The brainchild of Walter
and Jackie Monkhouse of Magic
Christmas in Louisiana. 2 dear friends and fellow decorators. Walter
came up with this idea a few years ago, and I employ 2 of this guys big
brother, the Portable Hole. I am making 2 Lite versions this year to help me
with getting Elfis and Rudy up in the air. I usually have 2 - 3/4" gas pipe
frames to hang them, but those take about 3-4 hours doing it myself. They
require guy ropes to stabilize, and I inevitably hang myself running into
the ropes all Season, because they are black. These Lite Holes will
then be coupled with another of Walter's designs, the ASAP. Which stands
for A Strap And Pole, to allow me to winch Rudy and Elfis up in the air.
More to follow as I progress through the build and fix season.
7-21-16 -
I am officially an invalid for at least 3-4 weeks.
Carpal Tunnel surgery this past Tuesday puts me out of commission doing much
of anything. Typing is a PITA with a splint on my right arm. I have looked
into getting some help for a few songs, and some planning for the Season can
start as well. I don't do well not being able to do much. Perhaps I can get
the pictures from 2016 posted on the webpage.........
7-18-16 -
Well another Christmas Expo is in the books. Tracy and
I got home yesterday afternoon, and unfortunately I carried home a head
cold. Oh what a time we had. It was soooo much fun connecting with old
friends and decorators from around the country, and forging new
relationships as well. The sad fact is that it goes by too fast. The current
Expo management and Education Committee members blew me away with an award
as pictured below. I am not good at recognition in this sense, as I feel
there are so many others who give more to the community and hobby. However,
it is good to feel that your peers respect who you are, and what you do. For
that, I am humbled by this. Now that I am home, there is a scheduled Carpal
Tunnel surgery that I have to have on my right wrist. Now if you recall,
this is my GOOD wrist. It is in much worse shape than my left from a nerve
standpoint. Which, by the way, the left wrist needs it too, but it will have
to wait till after Tear Down in 2017. So I will be out of commission for 3-4
weeks. Now that Expo is behind me, and with the restrictions I will have for
a few weeks, I guess I get to start the planning for this years display, and
start my computer work. That is all I will be able to do for a couple weeks
at least. The main focus is going to be getting 2 new songs added, and
ensure that IceZee gets a part in the show. I may juggle the yard a bit,
again, and there is a lot that needs fix it attention. Before we went to
Expo last week, and just before my birthday, Tracy and I flew to Florida to
be with my sister and her family for a mini family reunion! We had a grand
time there with my nieces, and husbands, and great nieces! They are growing
up so fast. So the past 2 weeks have been 2 nothing but travel for Tracy and
I. Thats all for now, I will post more after surgery and as I get more seat
time on the computer for the Display planning.
5-19-16 -
Hard to believe its been almost 3 months with no
update. Mainly because there is not much to report on Christmas, the story
has been water issues in the HOUSE! Argh! Tracy went to Hawaii as mentioned
in January, and I decided to replace the downstairs water stops to 1/4 turn
jobbers. Well, that proved disastrous to some extent. To summarize. The
laundry room sink had 2 major failures of the stops. Both about 3 weeks
apart. Both were caught relatively quickly so no major damages, just
inconvenience. The carpet in the Master Bedroom had to be pulled up twice
and dried out. The water stops themselves proved to be the culprit. Of which
I am not happy with the product McLendons Hardware sold. The issues were not
enough to individually warrant a Homeowners policy claim. THEN in between
those 2 events, while I was on the east coast for work, one of the water
lines in the Master Bathroom (yes that was on a NEW water stop I put in)
failed. Tracy caught that one quickly too. When we built our house, we put
carpet in the Master Bath. Not a wise decision then, but warm on the feet in
the winter. The leak made us decide to pull out the carpet and put down
marble tile to compliment the other marble tile for the walk in shower. So
we are extremely sensitive to water anything these days. The house just this
week got put back together with all the doors back in place (almost). I have
to pull the Master Bath door back off to trim the bottom a bit to account
for the slightly higher floor the tile causes versus the carpet. Tracy's car
lease is up in August, so she has had me out looking at new rides to replace
her "Beamer". That search is still underway. The end of April saw our local
Christmas PacNW Christmas gathering, C.L.A.P. What a great day! We had 60+
attendees on a Chamber of Commerce day. The entire day was focused on
Christmas, Yah! In early April the effort I assist with for Christmas Expo,
got kicked off. I am part of the Education Committee and we are getting
ready for the conference in July. March saw a trip to Naples, FL to visit
our friends the Allison's. We flew down on Easter and had a week of nice
weather, golf, and great times. A badly needed week off. This was make up
for missing my time off in December with work. Work has been extremely busy
all year so far with no let up in sight. Somewhere here soon, I have to
schedule a carpal tunnel surgery very soon on my right wrist (my good
wrist!). THEN sometime early next year, I will do the left wrist that I
broke last year. I could do them back to back, but that would put me out of
commission for almost 3 months. So then the Display. There has not been much
time at all to focus on that. That has me concerned as there is so much I
had planned. I am halfway thinking of scaling back a bit this year, but I am
not certain on that either. All will depend on how the next few months go at
work and home. Whew! So that was a TON of update in a short paragraph. I
hope to get another update sooner than 3 months from now. Thanks for
checking in.
2-23-16 -
The days are noticeably getting longer, but Mom Nature
is sure not wanting to let go of the rain. We have had record rain
falls in WA this year. Seattle typically gets approx 34" of rain a year,
statistically very close to Phoenix, AZ (how bout that!). I heard that from
Oct 1st to Feb 1st we had 32" fall, and we broke the Dec to Feb winter total
that is over 22". Man that is a lot of water. The lawn really needs some
serious attention this year, and I started that process with moss control
and lime that was applied this past Sunday. Today I will finalize the
donation totals. Again, it has taken me longer than usual to get this
squared away. $7437 total for the year! A new record for us. Our visitors
rock, no doubt. SOWA and the Northshore Wranglers appreciate what we do for
them, and they are great to work with. On Tear Down, well since I mentioned
the yard, before I could apply those items, I had to get the last of the
items off the lawn. The Spiral Tree, Tree within a Tree, and Thomas the
Train's tracks were still hanging out. Sunday I got them taken down first.
There are still tree trunk wraps, the C9's on the house and one window wrap.
Outside of putting stuff away, there needs to be some organization in the
garage to get things squared away. THEN I can start the real Honey-Do's.
Tracy wants the Dolphin Pond complete and a new arbor off the back patio to
replace the one we had. Work has lightened up some, but 2016 already has
shaken out to be a busy year. There is one international trip planned for
May, that being a trip to India. Bangalore for sure, and possibly Noida
which is outside of Delhi. Our C.L.A.P. meeting is April 30th and I may have
to jump on a plane the very next day.........
1-25-16 -
Well I have been baching it for almost a week. Mrs
Claus went to Hawaii while I stayed at home to work and break down the
display more. I am owed a lot of vacation time that I missed over the
Holidays, and took last Thurs/Fri off, but it was to work on Tear Down. The
weather sucked! Thursday I was in the garage most of the day, but the times
I had to go out in the weather, I got drenched even with rain gear on.
The Tear Down has gotten off to a slow start, simply due to residual
Honey-Do's that needed attention, because they were ignored all December
long or before that even. I have a list of things I squeeze in while I can.
Finally this past Sunday, the weather, calendar and clock aligned to let me
get on the roof and get the majority of items down from there. Saturday with
it again pissing all day, I built a shelf in the Shed covered area for what
will be pixel and icicle strings from the RGB
and Icicle Trees respectively. The primed view is below. I need to get paint
on it, only then can those 2 trees come down, and the Window Wraps that get
hung below the shelf. I have gotten quite a bit done at least in the past
week. However, there is more yet to come. So the focus will start to turn to
our local Christmas gathering we call C.L.A.P. scheduled for April 30th.
Also the big Christmas Expo Conference I have helped with the past 2 years,
the city was just announced. Chicago in July it is I guess. So I will keep
this short to get outside and get a few more things done, display and
Honey-Do!.........
1-3-16 -
Alas another Season has come and gone. Closing Night
is always met with bittersweet emotion. We do work hard to put the Display
up. We enjoy it almost more that our visitors. So shutting down after only
33 days is sort of anti climactic. We finished up with new friends and
neighbors, both of which should be adding joy of their own to the Season
next year. Tracy dismantled the inside of the house yesterday, except for
the Tree in the Window. I love our home during Christmas. It is festive, we
love to entertain, and sadly that all now ends too. I have some reflection
to complete on the display, photos to get of the various new elements. The RGB
Tree became reality finally. So there is work to do in the offseason, and
the intent is to revamp the show, and finally get IceZee running things.
Keep following us. Thanks for all your love and support.
1-1-16 -
The start of a New Year. A day of hope, healing,
reckoning, resolution. A day I normally just lay low and chill out. I
usually need it by now, and I really do, but however, not today. I will try
snowshoeing for the first time. With my abdomen injury I am told I need to
start pushing things a bit, not over doing it, just extending. I have not
mentioned that much in this Blog, or even out greeting visitors. I mentioned
more about this back in my August/Sept entries. During the month of
December, with all the running outside, battery for Thomas the Train, etc...
I really did not need to do my PT at home. Part of that too, was there was
no time to do my PT this month due to work. So I now need to focus on
getting myself as whole physically as possible. I am not one to usually make
New Years resolutions. I do get very reflective during the Season in
general, this year, I have not really had the opportunity to do, so. So
hopefully today in the grandeur of Mom Nature, clear skies, crisp cool air,
I can look at things in the right perspective. I always remember how blessed
I am now and throughout my entire life. I try not to forget that. Alas,
there is 2 more nights for the Display. I went out last night and looked at
all the maintenance I did not get around to fixing due to my work schedule.
The Display still looks great, but needs attention. I hope to get pictures
myself, and a regular visitor took a lot plus video, and I will sort through
that to post my Photo Entries for 2016. Peace,
love and happiness to you all in 2016.
12-27-15- Sorry the lack
of updates here. It has been crazy. Work completely tossed a wrench into all
plans and activities. I was head down, basically 10 hours till time to set
up the Display, manage the street, work a bit after Shut Down, go to bed to
start all over. Did all my shopping online. I am exhausted right now. I
worked last week, which is supposed to be off, and I will work again this
coming week till this project is presented to the customer. I will get my
time off after the 1st of the year. The week of Christmas saw our
traditional visitation ramp. I lost all my WHS volunteers. Not a one showed
up. That was very disappointing. If it was not for my neighbor helper Jacob,
one of my best buddies Bruce Lobree and a new friend, Christopher Kent, I
would have had to manage all the street and parking myself on my busiest
nights. Bruce and Chris came out Christmas Eve THANKFULLY! Our family
gathering for Christmas was at the Woodinville Grange. We rented it to have
a larger more open venue, which turned out great. Bruce came on Christmas to
manage things till I got home at 7pm. Tracy and I normally have a long fun
day shopping, and it was Christmas Eve to have lunch, and split up to get
things done for Christmas Day. Sadly IceZee suffered in all this. Once
again, he was not active in the Show. He looked great in his new stage. His
one song got about 1/2 done and remained there as I just had no time. Even
regular maintenance suffered some. Christmas Night I noticed some weird
stuff happening on the roof, and yard. After focusing on it, I had to
replace one of my wireless waypoints that controls the roof and DMX
universe. Once that happened, the roof then looked like it should. The
visitors have been awesome! A lot of newbie's and some really LONG time
visitors who continue to support us. I have no idea where our donation total
sits as I have not been able to sort, straighten and count the monies. I am
going to see if Tracy can spend some time tomorrow on that effort to get
running total. So we have one more week and I decided to close down on Jan
2nd. I hope to get some pictures and possibly video of the display. I had
some long time guests, the Pittman's take a lot of shots and vids, so I am
hoping maybe something comes out of that. The RGB
Tree has gotten A LOT of attention. It too needed tightening, since I had
really not seen that programming in 3 years. I will have to scrub all my
songs to really get that to look even better. I only noticed the glitches in
programming, but it still looked marvelous. Man, without regular updates, I
know there is sooo much I am missing. I will close for now to get some more
work done and then go to bed.
12-16-15 - Well my 2 week
break evaporated for now. It looks like I will be working the next 2 weeks.
I was looking forward to that time off, and it will probably happen in
January. With burning the candle at both ends and then the middle out, I am
now fighting getting sick, not surprising with all the directions I have
been pulled this year. The by product is that Ice Zee may only just be a
vision in the display, and not an active part. That will be disappointing,
but, hey, he is looking good, and giving folks a taste of what's to come. 9
more days till the BIG day! Plenty of opportunity to come see us.
12-13-15 -
My oh my. The week we just went through was
un-precedence in all the years doing a display. 10 days, 5 major storms,
almost all with wind and rain. Finally last night, the wind got us. It
knocked out the power at 9pm on a Saturday. Not good. We had a house full of
guests and visitors. Not too many on the street, but they still had to be
escorted to cars etc... Then I found out our backup generator lost the AC
output. Without knowing how long the power could be out, I found a neighbor
who had a spare just to run the 2 fridges. I personally am worn thin. I have
2 more grueling days and then a bit of a breather through the remainder of
the year and Display Season. The yard needs to be blown out with some of the
debris, but at least we are running. We have some maintenance to do, and I
lost a controller tonight, that needs replacing. OK so off to close the show
down, push these updates out, and get some work done for my regular job.
Keep checking in.
12-11-15 -
WOW! is all I got. What a week and a half. We went
from cold to warm (relatively speaking) and then wet, Wet, WEt, WET! On top
of that was wind. We must of had 10 inches of rain in 10 days. Our Season
got off to a bit rough start, as one of my key Elves, Don Kohler helped me
get 300+ connections done on Sunday before Light Up! Testing that night went
to the wee hours of the morning, 1:30am to get a punch list. Monday the 31st
was spent getting the major issues taken care of. The RGB
Tree, fired up, and tested fine, but was a bit "off". I had a firmware
update for it on Dec 1st and installed it. More on this. On Dec 1st, we did
some final testing and delayed Opening Night! till 7pm. Some of our regular
visitors were out there chomping at the bit to get going. Don Kohler and his
wife Roxy were here, Don has been a Godsend this year for me. Without him,
we probably would not have made our Dec 1st schedule. ight at 7pm, the Show
started and was a bit rough as Opening Nights go. The RGB
Tree, looked awesome as it was WORKING finally, but there were a few
glitches in it. Some edits to configurations, and checks of everything
yielded slightly better results, but was still off. Then on Friday, Dec 4th,
another beta firmware hit my inbox from Advatek. BANG! it was ALIVE! Oh man,
I was doing a happy dance at the Street Entrance almost all night! I finally
saw that tree operate as intended when I started 3 years ago. The Madrix
programming was rough, but also the majority of that was set 3 years ago and
never seen, so never tweaked. As rough as it was, it was marvelous! All the
visitors were very impressed. Things were moving in the right direction. As
usual, items had to be fixed that had been sitting idle in the elements for
weeks. That punch list is still in place and has quite a few items on it,
most guests would never know. The one major exception, is that the Road Tree
is still not lit. I hope to get to it. Ice Zee's new stage looks great, the
Present Gang is getting a lot of uuhhss and aahhs. Thomas the Train. Well we
thought he might be a static item all Season, but even he is cooperating.
However when the weather gets very cold, he does not run. Oh well, I need to
re-think him for next year. Now for Mom Nature. Oh MY GOSH. We were (and
still are) saturated. All our rivers are at flood stage. The wind. While we
did not suffer much damage, the East Yard was dark Tuesday Dec 9th due to
the fact that the Northpole sign took a header in the wind. While not
significant from a Display perspective, the only thing broken was the actual
North Pole plaque at the top. However, the communications for the East Yard
equipment sits on top in back. So it just made sense to wait till I rebuilt
the base for the Pole. All is fixed at this writing. Other display Goomba's
did not fare as well. I noted on
Facebook
those with issues. I am looking to make a big sound adjustment this weekend.
I am going to use a job radio in the East Yard, but put outdoor speakers in
the main Display area. This will give me one point of adjustment to those 4
sound points and improve the sound quality greatly. Impeccable timing, as
UPS just knocked on the door and delivered the new speakers and control
center! They will go in the Display tomorrow! So we are off and running. I
guess one more update, is that I am having some logistic issues with my
normal Woodinville H.S. volunteers. Tonight I will go off without anyone,
except my faithful Elf buddy, Don Kohler. Did I say he was a Godsend? Work
tossed me a Hot Potato project, a critical customer presentation this coming
Tuesday, so I have really been max'd out. I need a nap before the show goes
off, and to check one set of lights. Thanks for checking in. There is a lot
more, but this gives you a good taste!
11-30-15 -
A quick update. "Baby its cold outside" has been the
case for a week. Temps have been in the low 20's at night. The past 2 weeks
have been productive, but hindered with a 36 hour power outage, and now the
big FREEZE. The display is set up. Almost all the connections are complete.
Yesterday was a 17 hour day to finalize most of the connections, and do a
test of those connections. Now starts a long punch list. Some of which
involves the roof and with the cold, it is not safe to get up there. Typical
logistic items, but the cold has not helped things at all with regards to
sitting idle. I am hoping for a Light Up! and Opening Night on our planned
date, tomorrow Dec 1st. I am back at work today and will get to the Display
about noon to get working on things. A lot yet to do. Please follow us on
Facebook too. While I love doing the Blog, it is a weird way for me to
release and express things, but I have to make an cognitive effort to update
it. More of an update once things get rolling for the Season. Thanks for
checking in.
11-10-15 -
A good weekend last weekend despite the fact that I
did not have my neighborhood helper. Instead I had to call on neighbors and
buddies to get 2 more trees out into the yard in their respective locations
for this year. The Spiral Tree and Tree within a Tree get assembled in the
driveway and then hand carried out by 4 of us to the yard. With my abdomen,
I had to bow out and get 4 helpers. The West Yard is pretty set now. Center
Stage and the Street Entrance is getting there, and the most sparse so far
is the East Yard. Thomas the Train is getting a work over on the tracks and
once done, and the tracks get in place, the rest of that vignette can get
set up. Everything is out from under the house. So the Blow Mold collection
sits outside my Home Office window and has been slowly dwindling as they get
put in yard locations. The west roof pitch got a makeover as well, and I
really liked how it looks. Next is to see it in action for the final
judgment. Tracy started Woodinville Wonderland Inside, early by all
accounts. She wanted to get a jump on things as things always seem to take
longer now. What's up with THAT! This always poses time challenges as she
does such a fantastic job of decorating, but certain things she needs help
with. One of those, is the setting up of the Tree in the Window, which did
not make it out last Season due to my wrist injury. I have started on that,
and am coming to the sad realization, that, yes, we are getting older.
Debugging the lights, I have a highly specialized tool to assist with
incandescent mini lights. It creates a buzzing sound at the bad bulb/socket.
My buddies say how they get help now with this and I always shushed them, as
I had no problems. Well I got problems now! I can locate the area, just not
the exact bulb. So I ordered a stethoscope to help with that one! So that
Tree set up is going slower that needed due to that. Since the Tree did not
make it out last year, there are a lot of lights that are out on the tree.
Way more than usual. So Inside is transforming, I have my things to help her
with, and still need to balance outside and the remaining computer work. I
am off work as of this coming weekend until we Light Up! Not sure Mom Nature
is going to be kind, because the long range forecast right now looks wet all
the way through Thanksgiving! Time to push an update, and get back to work!
Thanks for checking in.
11-5-15 - I
need a break tonight. Don Kohler came over yesterday and we whipped out the
Sprial Tree, and I had him start the Tree w/ in a Tree while I finished
mowing the East Yard. Tuesday I started getting all the crud up off the
lawn. Oh my. That was a lot of work. It took me hours to mow 2/3rds of the
yard, mainly the West Yard, where all the cedar dropping were. There had to
be over 1500lbs of that stuff to get up off the lawn. However, the point to
note, is that it is UP and the lawn is mowed. Below is a picture of the size
of leaves I have to contend with. Fortunately these only fall in one part of
the yard, but they laugh at the mower when I try to suck them up. So after
Don left last night, I got a bite to eat, then started hauling out some
Leaping Light Arches for the RGB
Tree, and Icicle Tree that is already up. I set up the Lighted Forest for
the Icicle Tree vignette, and the train wireframe was taken down out of the
attic, tested and put out in the yard. It is not secured yet so I hope no
wind crops up. I started Ice Zee's song this past weekend. It will be slow
going, but should be done by Dec 1st. So tonight, I gotta take a break as I
had some things to get done at work, early Physical Therapy this morning,
after a late night last night in the yard (11pm). Tracy mentioned she was
possibly coming down with something, and I felt some wierd things too. So a
break tonight, update all you with a Blog entry, then find the coach to veg
a bit. Below is a picture of the RGB
Tree all set up and ready for testing. It only needs controllers, comms and
power to get fired up. Possibly this weekend. If all goes well, I can run it
at night on Fridays and Saturdays in support of UW and the Seahawks. Give it
some added burn in. Starting the 14th, I am off work till we Light Up!
Updates will be fast and furious here and on Facebook. Thanks for checking
in.
11-3-15 -
A productive weekend despite Mom Nature. She opened the faucet and turned on
the fan Friday and Saturday. I thought I might get a chance to start the
major clean up on Sunday, but NOOOOO. The yard was saturated, AND it rained
more on Sunday. The yard was sloppy. The big PITA this time of year is the
cedar droppings. They get wet, heavy and plastered into the lawn. So it
takes mowing, raking and mowing to get them mostly up. That will have to
wait till the yard dries a bit. Maybe Tuesday or Wednesday. So thanks to
Jacob, we managed to get all the stuff out of under the house, and tested.
The Candy Canes on 236th are in place, and most of the Road Arches in front
of the house. Turns out somehow, I am missing a few brackets for those, and
had to order a few more from
3G Lighting. I don't have time for a search and rescue, so Mike there is
sending out some new ones. Jacob has been a great help, along with Don
Kohler & Pete Peters. Between at least Jacob and Don since they are very
close, if I get more help from them here and there, I should be back on
schedule soon. I guess most of it is that I am off the way I normally go
about things. I have 2 weeks off, and 4 weekends in November, so I should be
OK in the schedule in the long run. I still have to get IceZee's song done,
and then get him into more of the songs during the show. The RGB
Tree is completely up, tightened up and possibly ready for a test at any
time. I just have to put the controllers out there, get the comms in place,
and fire that baby up for a test! So probably later this week. So I push
this update up, take a break from the garage and do some sequencing! GO
BABY! Keep checking in.
10-29-15 -
BOO! OK that is all I do for Halloween...... Friends of mine, also Christmas
decorators, are quickly trying to get things rolling for the next few days
to raise the dead so to speak. Here its all I got to get Christmas up and
running. A lot has gone on in the last few weeks, albeit in reality I am
very much behind schedule. Due to my abdomen injury, I could not get
onto the roof, plus Mom Nature did not comply when I had some help. However,
the house Icicles are up, and the roof/house is starting to shape up. There
is a lot of lights on the house and bushes that are not there yet. My large
Icicle Tree was the first major item up. As of this writing, the RGB
Tree frame is up, pixels have arrived, and I tested them, and got them into
the strips, and hung on the Tree. Everything needs to be tightened up, and
finalized. That Tree I hope will finally be the spectacle I have planned.
Both Tree within a Tree, and the Spiral Tree frames are up and waiting on
lights. The Candy Canes line the driveway as well, plus some of the Road
Arches for the East Yard. I am working on Thomas the Train track to
hopefully make traction better as well. This time of year, I really attempt
to bend time due to all my time constraints, but needless to say, I am
juggling, and that includes Tracy still tossing Honey Do's at me too!
Friends, Pete Peters and Don Kohler, have helped out so far, and I have
secured one of the Neighborhood kids, Jacob to help out. Jacob gave a hand
last year with yard stuff. Speaking of yard stuff, Fall is a bit late, and
there has been one cedar dropping so far. The leaves are doing OK, but we
need a bit of a breeze to get the next set of cedar droppings to fall. They
are actually the main PITA in the yard. The leaves are tough to get up since
we have some maples, with HUGE leaves around us. This weekend they are
calling for some wind, and that would mean a full day on Sunday getting the
yard cleaned up, and then lights too. So it is beginning to look a lot like
Christmas, but there is SOOOO much to do, and yes, I am behind. Keep
checking in, and look at the Facebook page as I can update that a bit more
regularly.
10-9-15 -
Slow but steady progress on the computer work. My RGB
Tree is making me nervous, because the pixels are not yet in hand to get
those stings finished. I am trying to get an update on delivery. I am fixing
LED strings and checking lights now, since that is all I can do at the
moment. In that, I took a look at my DMX floods and had to send 5 of them in
for work as they had LEDs that were out. Complimentary elements got
delivered for the Present Boys. I am getting excited about the layout. There
will be just enough different to really give some sizzle to the layout. In a
normal year I would have been on the roof last Sunday, but that is not in
the cards for a week or so...... Keeping my fingers crossed, I see my Doctor
next week and will ask him what he feels my limitations need to be moving
forward. Off to do more computer work, maybe get in the garage later to
assemble a few things............ We are rolling now. Keep checking back.
9-25-15 - If you are checking in here and not
on the Facebook
Page its time for an update. Since the injury is hindering what I can't
do as far as lifting, exerting etc... I have to focus on what I can do, and
that is light garage fixing things work and computer programming work. There
is going to be 2 cool new vignettes to compliment Center Stage. Part of this
is to get IceZee into the Show. The other part is something that was
re-purposed to us from Mike Ziemkowski, of Sherman Oaks, CA and
Lights on Display.
Mike is a fellow Polack and very cool decorator, and I get to call him a
friend. He has been doing Christmas, Characters, animatronics, etc...
forever. Our hobby has gotten more ideas from Mike than almost any other
decorator. He is IceZee's Dad so to speak. Mike has his company
Seasons Greeters, and he
wanted to update his own Display this year with the new generation product,
so he flipped me his Present Elves as seen below. Not sure what I will call
them yet, but I am leaning toward Snow, Moe and Bill (say it fast). Sorta
fun. This year they will be bopping about, not sure how much background
vocals they will get. Between IceZee and these boys, a lot of the Show needs
re-vamping. All most likely 2016 updates. I have a handful this year
already. I have started my computer programming work. A huge thing is to
refresh and update the "master template" which then gets overlaid onto all
my older material. Only THEN can the new updates be programmed. A picture of
my Animation screen is below, and it assists me in my song updates, and
actually now better reflects the yard set up. Especially the Icicle Tree and
Mega Forest. There is a plan for 2 new songs, we will see how aggressive
that is. I have new hardware for the RGB
Tree in hand. The pixel risers are made and waiting on the pixels to arrive
and get plugged (literally) into the material. That frame will need some
work to accommodate the new stringers as it will be slightly taller! In the
garage, I have started fixing light elements that have LED light problems,
and attempting to create a plan for when Set Up starts, what can I work on
first, since the roof is out at least till the middle of October for me. So
there is going to be a LOT of new things to see and experience this year in
2015. I hope I can get it all done in time, tick, tock!
9-1-15 -
The abdomen situation is still a bit iffy. They are taking the approach to
address things with physical therapy for now. While still a serious injury,
they are not looking to surgery right now. They can't rule it out,
especially with one of the muscle tears, but hope that PT does the trick. I
start that effort today for 2 weeks then follow up with my GP after I get
done. Over this last weekend, on Saturday, we had a weird storm blow
through, literally. Rain and wind. Knocked power out for us for about 20
hours. Storms like that usually occur in late Oct or early Nov. I rely on
those storms to assist with knocking leaves down, but to have one like that
in August is very strange. No damage to our yard, per se, just a few
branches down, but a mess in the yard for sure. I spent the first part of
Sunday blowing debris out of beds, from the street and driveway onto the
lawn to mow up. I started to mow, and realized I was pushing things too much
with the injury, so Mrs. Claus, Tracy, thankfully finished up. I am not
supposed to be pushing myself, nor lifting anything heavy for a while. With
the yard cleaned up, there is the matter of the front yard fountain. That
may have to wait a week or 2 after Labor Day to get a buddy over to help get
things finished up. We will see. in the mean time, I can work on small
projects, and get things moving inside on the computer for 2015's display.
We will have to see how things progress and hope that I can get some help
from my new neighbor Ian (who has child coming any day now, and wants to get
involved) or get some of my elves from last year to help for a day here and
there. More updates to follow, that's it for now.
8-26-15-
Well life just continues to pummel me. Taking a long weekend in Idaho
visiting friends, I managed to completely trash my groin/abdomen while wake
surfing. I can't believe it. My wrist last year, my mid-section this
year. Today I am seeing the Seattle Seahawks Orthopedic Surgeon to see what
my fate is going to be. I have been walking around for the past 10 days to
some extent, which by some is amazing in itself. My regular G.P. is the
former Seahawks Physician and is very well connected and got me into this
specialist. The injury I have is not very common, and to list the details
makes me even wince. So needless to say, my display has been on hold for
other reasons, and now it continues to be on hold till we get past this
appointment today. Over this past weekend, Pete Peters our long time
electrical guru, and close friend, came by to install "D" rings on my roof
so that WHEN I can get up there, I can clip in. Tracy is happier now, but
who knows when I can get up there now. We are still waiting on the new RGB
Pixels to arrive, and they should be early September. The items we bought in
Ft Worth while shopping at the Decorators Warehouse there have shown up. A
lot of that is to build out Ice Zee's stage, and to create a really cool,
Kodak Moment spot for our guests. Mike Ziemkowski generously flipped me his
older elf presents, and they will be re-purposed here. I will ensure they
have a great new home, and we are looking forward to getting them into the
'Show". Anyway, I just wanted to post a quick update, keep me in your
thoughts and prayers as I head out the door for this appointment.
7-19-15 -
Just getting back from a week in Ft Worth, TX and Christmas Expo! What an
amazing, AMAZING time. While a tremendous amount of work while there, since
I was teaching and helping, the energy, seeing old friends, getting to see
forum buddies and meeting them for the first time face to face, was just
phenomenal. 2015 Christmas Expo was definitely a success, and it was great
to be a part of it along with my peeps who were either on the committee, or
buds from WA and other states teaching subjects. I am beat, as we just
got home. I am posting my class presentations for folks to grab before the
CE site gets populated. It was HOT in Texas. Every day was 95-100+ degrees
with a fair amount of humidity. We got a chance on the front end to chill a
bit, run Tracy around to some quilt shops to get some kits she wanted for a
big national quilt of some sort. We spent some time at a place called
Decorators Warehouse, self defined as the largest Christmas Store in Texas.
While we have no idea if that claim is true, it was HUGE for sure and we
dropped a few centavos on some display items for the house. We will be using
some of this to modify Ice Zee's stage, and attempting to create a true
"Kodak Moment" for our guests. We will see how far we get. There is so much
momentum coming off this trip to get moving on the Display, however, next
weekend we have a wedding to attend out of town, and I have the fountain,
plus a pergola to finish for my great friends Bruce and Rosy's wedding. Now
to unpack (literally), do some catch up around the house, and for sure,
attempt to go to bed early tonight.
7-2-15 -
A big order was placed this week. Advatek Lights was the vendor selected by
us to be the pixel technology for the famed RGB
Tree. This effort started during the 2014 Season, and progressed through the
year till now. Greg Young of Holland's Holiday Lights, The Monkhouse's of
Magic Christmas, Darren Huffty of
Christmas on Cyrstal Springs, and Pete
Peter's of Christmas at Pete's were all part of the discussion. Advatek is
in Australia. Luke Taylor the principle owner put up with endless questions,
via email, IM, Skype and phone calls from all of us. He was revamping his
pixel technology line and the product, warranty and pricing all were weighed
in this decision. I think all of us are excited for this to come about. We
won't get the items to start working on till late August, so there will need
to be a big effort to get the pixels restrung into a new configuration. This
will increase the height of the tree at bit, but it should be the marvel we
set out to create 3 years ago. Bell Wireframes showed up for the new addition. I
hope to get those in place before the pixels arrive in August. These will
hopefully be accompanied by a new song for our neighbors across the street.
I started to look at options to get Thomas the Train chugging better in the
display as well. I only have 2 projects at the house standing between me and
the 2015 Display. The Dolphin Pond and a Pergola. Lots to do and time is now
already running out.............
6-23-15 -
A bit more timely in posting, and mainly this is a test. With the new home
computer, what I call the Build Computer for the Display, as mentioned
previous, I ordered a new one. Switching over is always time consuming, as I
have to ensure everything vital to household, life, Display etc... has to be
backed up, moved, then ensure things are running properly on the new one. I
am in the final stages of completing. This is one task. The website. I use
an older tool to manage it. So this ensures that all gets transferred both
ways properly. 2 of the trees will be getting new base rings. There are 5
altogether. So the Tree within a Tree, and the Spiral Tree are affected. The
rings are now assembled, cleaned and hopefully today they will be painted.
At least movement on the display! One more significant Honey Do on the list
and one pergola to build for a very good buddy of mine. Tick tock......
THanks for checking in.
6-12-15 -
Wow, 2.5 months since my last update. This has got to be one of the longest
dry stretches in my Blog ever. Sorry about that. Needless to say, it
has not been all fun and games. Where to start. Shortly after my last post,
in April our Golden Girls, Jasmine and Deeogee turned 14. 3 days after that,
very sadly we had them both, together, walk across the Rainbow Bridge. We
were devastated. Our companions, our source of joy, the light in our lives
was gone. Both had individual health related items that help us make that
decision. Had we let one go, most likely within weeks, we would have had to
let the other go. So it was better to take one sad day than spread it out.
We had someone come to the house, and Tracy, Chris and I were all around
them. As sad as it was, they left knowing how loved they were. It was a very
symbolic day, as we had beautiful weather up to that Monday, and then that
day, it was dark, gloomy, and rainy. Now you think that is tragic, and it
was, but our story is not over. Since January, Tracy's Mom had been in and
out of the hospital. Mostly in. Battling many, many things, but initially it
started with the flu and pneumonia. That manifested into complicating her
congestive heart failure she had been battling for a few years. Other
complications ensued. Alas, one week after our Golden Girls, almost to the
hour, we passed Mary into Heaven. A gut wrenching 1 -2 punch in our lives.
Tracy is still having a hard time with it all. Her and her Mom were so very
close. They shared sewing as a passion together and spent much time in
sewing rooms, and classes collaborating. With all this, I made the decision,
that the Memorial Heart we did for my Mom 3 years ago in our display, will
be resurrected for Mary, Jazmine and Deeogee. We will feel this loss for a
long time to come. But life goes on. During that time, I was still in PT for
my wrist. There is no bad news on that front. I am mostly done with PT
visits, and doing stuff at home, and now working the wrist to get it
functional. The feeling is S-L-O-W-L-Y coming back to my thumb, index and
middle finger. Typing has gotten SOOO much better, finally. It will be at
least 18 more months before things fully settle down and I see what it will
be like for the rest of my life. At this point, scar tissue still hinders
it, I still have discomfort and it is still weak. However I do see progress.
Come October and Setup! we will just have to go with what it is. At least I
am able to mow the lawn using my large 36" commercial walk behind machine.
Also several weeks ago, I pushed out 3 yards of topsoil into some of our
planter beds getting ready for compost. Topsoil is HEAVY, and the wrist
really felt it. Then, starting the Saturday before last, and finishing this
past Sunday, all told I pushed out 15 yards of compost into all the beds.
Yes my wrist REALLY felt all that. I have given it a break the past 3 days
and started some exercises just today a bit. Lets see. Next our CLAP meeting
was the first Saturday in May. A great success and time. I had buddies stay
with me here and then we convened at Nancy Foley's house the night before. 8
of us packed her place for a sleep over, rather than the 80 minute drive on
Friday and Saturday back and forth. It was a nice diversion to talk about
something fun in all the crap we were dealing with. Also in all that, I also
was working on our National gathering, Christmas Expo that will be in Ft
Worth on July 16-18. Most of the Education and Planning effort finished this
week. I am teaching 3 classes, and fortunately all my material was already
done, only one class really needed a good dust off. A good article was
written with some info in the Planet Christmas - Spring 2015 Magazine.
Here is a
LINK if you want to read about it. A list of the
curriculum I helped put together can be seen
HERE. So from here we have about 6 weeks to cruise into
a weekend of talking Christmas. I soooo need that break. Tracy and I will
spend some time with Christmas buds in Ft Worth for 3 days before Expo kicks
off. In all the hullaballu, with us being now close to empty nesters, Tracy
and I decided to buy a little Travel Trailer to spend some time camping and
chilling. We got it right after her Mom passed away, and have yet to use it
unfortunately due to our schedule. BUT! the maiden trip is this weekend.
Starting tomorrow we join our friends to break in our abode on wheels in
fabulous Kent, WA. Yes, Kent. In the KOA they have. It is close to home, and
few biking trails, so Saturday will be a bike ride. We have been spending
all kinds of time and money, decking it out, stocking it and getting it
ready to go. We are looking forward to some time away with nothing much to
do. There are some RGB
lights planned for it, but they have not yet made it here to
go on this trip. We CAN'T NOT have lights on this beast! So this Blog is
really supposed to be about my Christmas Display. Well needless to say, not
a lot has happened on that with a few minor exceptions. We have decided a
direction for our RGB
pixels for the failed Tree. No order yet, but discussions
have been taking place with the vendor. We are waiting for some samples to
test before we pull the trigger. I am going to try to add some bells. I have
long wanted to do this, and my buddy Darren Huffty, the famed week 3 winner
of The Great Christmas Light Fight, is giving me an assist. He and my
neighbor Marti across the street were the catalyst for these. Frames are
ordered, and being made, I need to purchase some new controllers and get
them made. Some new rings were ordered and picked up that will retrofit on
the Spiral and Tree within a Tree. Those need to be painted and fixed to
those bases. I have a LOT to do with how the Tear Down! went from the end of
last season. I probably have more on my plate than time, but we will see
what we can get done. There is a few more Honey-Do's for the house, and a
buddy of mine getting married this summer. So eventually sometime will have
to get spent on the display. Wow, it just hit midnight, I did not think all
this would pour out of me. I guess for now I will call it quits and post on
Facebook that I posted this. I pray the rest of the year comes and goes
without any more difficulty. Pray for us too. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, my
primary home computer, the one I do MOST of my work on is in a state of
disrepair. I ordered a new one (no time to build on myself) and am in the
unenviable spot of having to get IT ready so I can START all my work for the
upcoming Christmas Display Season. Yup, our lives are not ever without some
sort of complication! Have a great Summer, more to come soon. Promise.
3-22-15 -
We are hitting our stride getting into the off season routine. I have been
working with a few fellow decorators attempting to iron out the situation
with pixels for the twice failed RGB Tree. We have had some great
discussions among ourselves and with vendors. The list is getting
shorter and closer to making a decision. Hopefully in the next few weeks. I
am going to move in a different direction for the carrier, and I am hoping
that this too will help with making things faster. They say the third time
is a charm, right? I certainly HOPE! so. Efforts have bee underway working
on Christmas Expo and our local meeting, C.L.A.P. CLAP is May 2nd, and
fortunately Lowell Fuher and Kevin Thomas has managed the heavy lifting this
year with getting things managed. It helped a LOT. I had a bit of a mishap
with the wrist yesterday. It was banged very hard in a slip/fall. It is the
sorest it has been in a while. I fortunately get x-rays tomorrow. Both the
doc and my Therapist are not going to be happy. I hope I did not create a
set back. Taxes, argh! I spent most of today getting the end of year stuff
cleaned up, all my stuff figured out to take to my accountant this week.
Spring is here, and with that comes yard work. With the unseasonably warm
winter, trees, plants and bushes started blooming last month! Well with
that, the lawn started to wake up as well. I had to put a bunch of moss
killer down, because it was bad this year. I had the gardener punch the lawn
yesterday, and very soon it will need to be thatched, leveled or filled in
area. One thing so far, is there has been no sign of moles since the last
one I caught in November. I'd love it if they gave me a break for a season
or 2, but I doubt THAT will happen. I have really not focused much on the
display except to plan a bit. There will be NO new items this year. I need
the RGB
Tree, Ice Zee and the new roof outline in the show. My buddy and
Great Chistmas Light Fight winner, Darren Huffty has spurred some changes I
may try to attempt on the roof. We will see....... Thanks for checking in.
2-9-15 -
Almost a month since the last update. So tonight I decided to get the
website updated, and in some cases, fixed up. I did not realize some of the
pages were as bad as they were. During the Season, one visitor offered free
of charged to spiff and update the website, for FREE! She friended the
Facebook page, we connected a time or two, and well, these days, nothing
happens lickety split in my world. After the Season, I went to look for our
PM's and dang! she un-liked the page and I lost all contact with her. A
missed opportunity. Lesson there, in the moment, if someone makes you a hell
of an offer, snag it right then and there. So for now we still have our
antiquated site. Although, I still like the way this site looks and feels.
Some have given me the same feedback. The
Display is fully down and out of the yard, off the house. The garage and
shed needs some organizational work, but things are mostly out of the way.
The elves that helped were awesome. We finished up Superbowl Sunday getting
the miles and miles of cords out of the yard. One of my best buds, Tom Lieb,
who lives in Roseville, CA, and was also here the day I fell, came back up
to help. Monday after the Superbowl, all the cords were in their bins or
totes and at least out of the garage. Again, I am soooo thankful for the
help. But, after all endeavors like what we just did, there is going to be
more time next year in Set Up! while I try to find where everything is at!
Things are tossed in bins and not fully marked. Nor are all the bins put
away. The covered area next to the shed is packed full. OK so the wrist
update. This week marks 11 weeks since the fateful fall. Today, I had x-rays
and the first of my once a week therapy sessions. I also had to come clean
with a confession to my PT Kristin, that I was on my roof yesterday. Tracy
was not happy as was Kristin. I needed to get up there to put some Moss Out
on it. There was a lull in the rain that has been pelting us for the past
few days. Work is under way for our local C.L.A.P. meeting in May, and the
team at Christmas Expo asked me to be a part of that team again. So I have
told everyone that my role in those 2 events will be reduced this year to
focus on healing the wrist, as October is only 8 months away. Lastly on our
donation front. I finally got he numbers completed. We came in with
donations, and the matching funds from my company with $6265. Outstanding
given the shorten season we had. All proceeds will be sent off this week. So for now it is off to the hot tub for another
session on my wrist. Thanks for stopping in, check back and see our progress
during the year.
1-13-15 - Happy New Year!
When I looked and saw nothing since Christmas, I figured I should take a few
minutes and provide an update. The Season for us came to a close officially
on the 4th. However, we did have an Encore! Thursday the 8th, and pictures
were took on Friday the 9th. Saturday the 10th, 4 of our Special Elves came
over to strike the Display. We have 2 days under our belt, and quite a bit
down. There is a lot still out there, but 2 more weekends should do the
trick. Upon looking back, I realize that I did not go much into detail of
the "accident". Not that I want to provide gory details (as there are some),
for those who may only touch this site, you were left in the dark. In
the fall I took, I essentially fell about 9ft to the concrete in one of the
highest traffic areas on our property. Right outside the side garage door,
in front of all our garbage, recycle and yard waste bins, is where I landed.
My left wrist had a major compound fracture, where my Ulna bone punctured
the skin, severed an artery, ligaments, and muscle. In all the damage (I
essentially pulverized my wrist). Where bone once was, nothing existed. The
only bright spot in an otherwise tragic accident, is that the 2 nerves in
your hand, were amazingly in tact, albeit pissed off from all the trauma. I
spent 5 hours in surgery where my ace orthopedic surgeon, Dr. John
attempted to piece the jig saw puzzle together that I gave him. Today, just
about 7 weeks later, I can tell you he pulled off something short of
miraculous. He had never in his career seen a wrist damaged like mine. I
have a LOT of hardware now in my wrist. Plates, rods, screws. Dr. John then
turned me over to his hand picked Therapist, Kristin. This duo, worked like
hand in glove together on a plan so I could have function out of
devastation. Both at points in the Season, brought out their respective
families to witness what they could only see in their minds eye from my
descriptions. They came, they saw, they understood, and got "it". I was in
therapy 2 times a week since I got out of the hospital. I saw Beck at just
about every therapy visit (even outside my appts with him). I will owe life
to them. As of yesterday, I am in my 5th apparatus on my left arm. Only one
week was I in a full cast. They were aggressive on therapy, but cautious at
the same time. I now have a brace to wear outside of the house. I spend 30
minutes or so 2 times a day in our hot tub doing work on things. Progress to
date is ahead of where they thought I would be months from now. There is a
LONG way to go yet. Feeling has not fully returned to thumb, index and
middle fingers. Scar tissue prevents me from making a fist normally. I can
get close only after working one of my 5-7 sessions a day on my wrist, hand
and fingers. A LONG way to go. OK enough about me. December was a blur,
literally. I thank one of my best friends, Bruce Lobree for pitching a hand
on Christmas Eve. One of our busiest nights, and one I had and can get no
volunteers. It rained, and was cold, which worked in our favor, as by 9:30
the crowds were thin enough we both called it a night. Our RGB
Tree
failed for the second year, although after about a week I disguised it and
it looked great. Ice Zee never made it out of the garage, much to Tracy
chagrin. With all that was bad of the Season, then, after 3 hours working on
a "Picture Sequence" so I could get some great shots of our huge success for
the year, the Icicle Tree, the sequence turned out to be corrupt. Never
fails. We got some pictures, and will work to pick the best ones to post,
but alas. The Icicle Tree was better seen live for sure. It was marvelous.
The Display had its weak points, a few gremlins, and typical light failures,
but all in all, it was one of our best Displays to date. The yard juggle,
the new additions, the Icicle Tree vignette, the East yard vignette, all
turned out great. No one noticed the little flaws. I have 8 months to get my
wrist to a point here I can start Set Up! in October. There will need to be
a lot of work fixing things. I have a light order that has to be turned in,
in 3 days. I need to take it easy and heal. Work, family, health. I am going
to have to adjust priorities this year, and stick to it. Sorry for the
length of he post, I could go on, and on, but the hot tub awaits for my
night session. Bless you for getting to this point.