Friday, December 14, 2012

Blue Lights

We have always had blue lights on our tree downstairs.  A.L.W.A.Y.S. Far Guy was progressing quite nicely with his project.  Imagine his frustration ..when two stringers of lights were half lit and half dark.  *&^%$%$#@

I rode along to town..I was tired and a trip to town means I get to relax for 20 minutes twice.  In and out of stores the quest for blue lights continued.  Wally World where there were only clear lights, the Dollar Store where there were clear and multi and Ace Hardware where there were clear and multi. 

Far Guy was disgusted, he said “I am glad you are with me.”  As if I wouldn’t believe that town would have no blue lights. So what is up ??  Do people no longer like blue or green or red lights?   Is everyone buying artificial trees that are pre lit?  Are stringers of only blue, only red and only green over the hill?  Perhaps they are collectable? Are twinkling clear lights the new “blue”?

We bought a set of multi..thinking that we have a bunch of lights off the blue stringers that we can switch out and make a new stringer of all blue.   Far Guy said “I threw them in the garbage, but I suppose we can take them out.” 

He neglected to tell me that he emptied his coffee grounds just before we left. 

Uffda. 

I rescued them and began a quick search for something that could be wrong..a loose bulb ..a bad wire.  I found it and marked the bad spot..onward and forward..the next stringer was not so easy..but we started changing bulbs and found the one lousy bad bulb… so the tree is blue again.  The brand new multi stringer is packed away.. and blue lights are on our list of things to look for should we go shopping in a larger town.

A few more gifts have been purchased.  The Christmas Letter was written, edited, edited again and sent.  Notes were even written in a few.  The Shiny Brite tree is finished and all the boxes stored away…and we have blue lights on the tree downstairs.  The Christmas menu is being discussed. We are moving right along..10 more shopping days.  Time flies when you are having a decorating/shopping blast.

I had to mess around with settings on my camera for half an hour ..but I finally got a good shot.   The exposure might have been a bit long…I put a small notebook on my list..I need one for camera settings.  Those blue lights sure are pretty:)

Blue Lights

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24 comments:

Anonymous said...

I do love your blue lights. Strange that you did not find any. Hope you have a good weekend.

troutbirder said...

I've always loved the blue lights. When outside the speak of winter....:)
And searching for the bad bulb or connection is a real pain.

Primitive Stars said...

After all that the tree with blue lights looks so so pretty......great job, takes a women,HA!!!! Enjoy the weekend,Francine.

Muffy's Marks said...

I love your tree with the blue lights. It will be more special this year, because of all the struggles to get it the way you wanted. Happy preparations!!

Anonymous said...

We celebrate Hanukkah and only have a tree that is plantable with blue lights, my hubbs got them years ago in denver/boulder, he kept buying them as their is a large population of jewish folks in denver/boulder and knew we would move to the west coast after our little one was born, been here 34 and 3/4 years but not in Seattle where we really wanted to live, it is pretty expensive to live up that ways now, but we may just do that,it is raining, cold, icy here now 200 plus days of that baloney, we live by Oregon number one state for hunger in all of the USA not a good thing to be known for and massive unemployemnt, the governor who is up to the bat for the 3rd and final time will enact a sales tax to save the state, schools will be paid and teachers too, more jobs, he is progressive the state is what is the word depressive and backwards, the largest Mall had a nut case kill 2 and severely wounded 1 young gal tuesday, it is the largest Mall in Washington and Oregon, could have killed many his rifle jammed, he killed himself when the cops got there in one minute they estimated about 12,000 people were there christmas shopping, we never go to that Mall I always have a feeling that some stone cold killer will do what he did and only 22 years old, my Mother buried in the largest catholic cemetery about 1 mile from that Mall a huge rural area to boot....He was not mentally ill like they always talk of in the news, no a stone cold killer, he knew he could not escape and killed himself in front of a business that will never reopen, can you imagine? We only do Hanukkah and pray for peace because this world needs peace badly! I enjoy your blog so much your doggie Chance sounds and looks great..Your hubbs looks great too and your daughters and grand daughters, it sounds like you live in an idyllis area, gone here are those areas, lots of killers come here and do irreprable harm and toss their victims in pristine areas, it taints it for us, we don't visit those areas at all, we go to the beach and fish and stay in a tiny cabin with friends I have had since childhood, we are apalled at the stuff that happens here...it makes me cry and be sad for months on end and the 200 plus days of rain, snow and sometimes ice is another reason we visit where we used to live colorful and dry Colorado they have almost 300 days of sunshine, it makes it nice..have a wonderful holiday your tree looks spetacular!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

DJan said...

Whew, that was a long anonymous comment, but I read it all and agree with most of it. I love your pretty blue tree lights, and it's sure a good thing you took the time to get it right. Now it LOOKS right!

MTWaggin said...

Ahh tree lights, can ruin a festive spirit in a heartbeat! Glad you got it resolved and the blue tree is lovely.

Red said...

I like this...blue lights with coffee stains! I still have the old multi colored lights blue, yellow , green , red...

Shirley said...

Ha- I'm doing blue lights this year too. Blue and silver will be the theme. With a few random treasures thrown in too.

LoieJ said...

I like blue lights so much that I strung them near the ceiling of the living room. I have them come on at dark year round (I have to change the settings on the timer. ) But husband tried changing out bulbs on a string for the tree. When he replaced burnt out bulbs then the whole string stopped working. Bad bulb back, string worked. Go figure.

Nancy said...

I haven't seen sets of blue lights in stores around here for a couple of years - lots of clear and multi, but no blue.

Glad the bulbs from the old set fit the new one - that doesn't happen very often.

Nezzy (Cow Patty Surprise) said...

Beautiful. My mom takes lovin' blue to a whole new level. When I was a kid and we had a bulb burn out on the lights, mom would always replace the burnt out bulb with a blue one. After doin' this over the years, Mama finally got her 'blue' light tree.

Camera settin' notebook...great idea!

Have a terrifically blessed day sweetie! :o)

Lynda said...

The tree is BEAUTIFUL and worth all your trouble to make us happy! You might want to search the internet before the season is over and see if you can find the lights and then will have them for next year or whenever you might need them.

lisa said...

Hmmmm, Christmas blues?! Love the lights. We have so many lights and bulbs that this year we decided to just put the special bulbs on the tree.

LindaG said...

Your tree looks lovely!

Terry and Linda said...

I love your blue tree. I always love blue lights. My oldest daughter decorates in red. Red everything....red light everywhere! Beautiful. But, blue is my favorite. Do you want me to look for blue lights here. I saw lots at our Wal-Mart two weeks ago, I don't know if there are still some but I would be glad to get them for you.

Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com

Jacqi Stevens said...

Too bad you couldn't go get any at K-Mart. They always used to have a special on those ;)

Your tree looks lovely and magical. Yes, you better shop for replacements early next year. Or, better yet, maybe we could all snatch some up for you on sale after Christmas this year.

Far Side of Fifty said...

Thanks Linda, I will check at K Mart when we get to the big city..someplace must have them:)

Anonymous said...

What a lovely blue tree! I must admit that I haven't seen a tree lit up with only blue lights before - it's lovely.

Gail said...

The blue is so perfect!!!

RURAL said...

My gosh, I get behind in reading blogs, and you get a giant tree put up, search the world for blue lights, and yes clear sparkling are the new blue. Everything is white now, at least until the designers get tired of it.

Love the shiny brights and is that a real tree? Or artificial? Can't remember from last year.

Jen

Far Side of Fifty said...

Both are artificial! I save two trees a year that way:)

Rita said...

I have no idea if they sell only blue lights anymore. Now white seems to be the thing, I think. I'm still hoping for a picture of the shiny brites tree... ;)

L. D. said...

I now mix larger lights with smaller lights on our main tree. It reminds me of the haphazard look that we had as a kid with different sized bulbs. When the new small ones came out it made everything funny with a small section of the tree with small lights and the rest with bigger lights. Our large tree is now diverse with all sizes mixed together and the ornaments are so many a lot of the lights are hidden.