The madness starts...

We had our first informal neighborhood meeting for this year's display.  We had 6 houses linked together last year and will probably add 3-5 this year.  It's probably the best thing I could have done since I gave everyone handouts on how things work, what the new people should expect to spend, and a rough outline of when things would happen.  I have a feeling that the workload on my end may have eased.  I think I'll get some help on the sequencing side and a lot of help on the setup.

I already figured out how to use fireworks with a DCx16.  Unfortunately, shooting fireworks in my city get you an extremely large $5K fine so I decided that as cool as that would be when the "bombs were bursting in air" that it wasn't worth it.  (Besides, my contact with all the stuff I needed didn't follow through.)

Glad you liked it.  The youtube crowd is quickly turning my Michael Jackson tribute into cult status.  The geysers are simply plastic sprinkler heads with the directional top taken off and normal 3/4" rainbird sprinkler actuators turn it on and off.  Just about any sprinkler head will do so long as the top is removed.  Somewhere on my youtube page is the how to video from last year where I do a slightly better job explaining how I made it work. 

My family recently went to Las Vegas where they saw the Bellagio water / light show.  After one of the songs was over, I'm told my 7 year old nephew announced matter of factly that, "Uncle Jon's show is better."  (I do a water / lights show for July 4th; the videos of the show are now up at www.youtube.com/jonathand1027 btw.)  I almost feel sorry for my brother.  I'm giving my nephew the bug early. 

Well we have 1/2 of an arch done so far. My wife is helping me so I'm kinds dependent on her timings...

However, she is pretty good while she does help me. I tried using one of the methods as seen on PC to make an arch by wrapping lights around a PVC pipe using a drill but that proved to be too dangerous. Never trust a 5/8 power-drill with an inexperienced handler ie: the wife.
The drill would go slow and all of a sudden, it would pick up speed while I'm holding on the strand of light. Nearly had my hand caught and wrapped around the pipe!!!

So after one segment done with a drill, I had enough of the close calls, so to speak, and decided that my better half would have to use some elbow grease. I made her a crank to turn the pole instead. It works like a charm. Much better control, lot safer and very energy efficient. We are going green!...oh wait, that's the color of the wire of the lights. My bad.

Anyways, when someone calls for me and that my wife answers telling them I'm (or we) are busy making our Christmas decorations, the conversation doesn't seem to go any further. Imagine that!!!

Oh and one more thing. I added a gadet on my desktop to show me how many days before Christmas. Just adds a bit of pressure on my part!!!


Edited by BigDPS - 02 Aug 2009 at 11:38am

Sometimes the reaction is well worth the price of the item