Darkoshi

An except from daily notes:
I got into my car, annoyed at the waste of my time. I had trouble pulling out the seat belt because even though I felt like I was reacting calmly, the seat belt could tell I was annoyed.

..

On some days, there is the feeling that every little thing which can go wrong, is going wrong. (Not big things, just little ones.) But realizing that lets me take the little setbacks more in stride. Oh yes, everything is going to go wrong today, so of course that happened.

..

We are doing Christmas Eve on Christmas Day this year. Perhaps for the first time; perhaps not. I'd have to check my notes.

I listened to Christmas music on the radio while baking tonight. I made a package of double chocolate muffins. I also made a veganized version of this recipe; it turned out very good:
Salted Butterscotch Apple Bars

After tasting the "Watkins Original Gourmet Baking Vanilla" which I bought last time as it was a better price than the other vanillas, I realized it is not the same as vanilla extract. I was probably tricked by the label saying "with Pure Vanilla Extract" in bold, but under that it says "with other natural flavors".

I am up way too late again; it's a habit and the "way too late" keeps getting later and later.

Fireflies Holiday Lights at Segra Stadium (the Fireflies are a local baseball team) - another pretty photo at the link:





A couple of well-lit houses:

Is there a word that indicates that something has been in the family, or in your own possession, for a long time? Sort of like "heirloom", but not necessary involving multiple generations nor even multiple people? For example, to distinguish a Christmas ornament you've had for ten or twenty years versus a brand new one, or one that you've only had a few years?

Perhaps a word for a quality an object obtains in increasing quantity with age and familiarity?
(and perhaps with or without fondness... there could be ornaments you've had a long time, which you've never been particularly fond of, or not as fond of as others.)

Sometimes there are objects I've had a long time, but don't remember having gotten, so they are low on familiarity - like when you find something in the back of a drawer you must have bought some time ago and completely forgotten about.

Skimming down my shopping receipt, I see "Hapy Dancing Duck".
"What?! I didn't buy any duck!", exclaim I, and muse whether one of my items rang up as something else.
But it's correct; it's the birthday card with the cute image of a duckling playing in glittery dandelion fuzz.

I got the holiday cards done done and sent out today after all. Even more cards than usual; sent some to Qiao's family too. But with no newsletter-type insert, only a couple photos. I don't expect the cards to get to their destinations before Christmas, although there's a chance the in-state ones may. If I'd had more time, it would have been nice to come up with a poem about the year to include in the cards. But I suppose any such poem would include references that only made sense to myself, so would probably not be a good idea after all. That would be better put here, on my journal.

My lower back remained achy this morning, even after lengthy and repeating stretching. Going shopping, as always, made it worse. It seems lately that whenever I go shopping, I start feeling like I might be coming down with a fever and getting sick. It must be from the lower back pain getting to me, and/or from being exhausted. Once I get home I start to feel better.

I shopped at World Market (Cost Plus), Big Lots, and Kroger.
I had browsed World Market's online store last week; didn't see anything that looked good. I got tired of scrolling and gave up. But in the actual store, I found lots of good stuff. Some food items to give as gifts, and some for myself.

At Big Lots, in the corner of the store by the door to the Employee-only area, I again smelled weed smoke. Strong enough even through my face mask to make me start feeling slightly nauseous. And yet this was a *different* Big Lots store than the one I smelled weed in last time!

At Kroger, I may have set a record for the most-ever items purchased through self-checkout. (But none of the non-self-checkouts were open anyway, so.) The automated kiosk thing stopped me at least 3 times, at about 15, 32, and 64 items, making me wait for an employee to enter their code on it and let me continue.

Also, I think today was the first time ever at the Kroger self-checkout, that the machine *didn't* call for an employee over after I selected the button for using my own bags.

Here are photos from my outing last week to the holiday market downtown.


Nice "HOPE" sculpture which I hadn't seen before.
In the background, the building lit from inside is the main library where I worked during college.
The trees along Main Street were all wrapped in festive yarns.



Bright oversized ornament that you could walk through.



The Christmas Tree at the state capitol.



Looking into the state house through its front door windows, another smaller Christmas tree.



SC State House, with Mars visible in the sky up by its dome.

Prior episode.

I've now taken this LED light strand outside to put up on the porch for the holidays. It has bulbs of 5 alternating colors (red, blue, green, yellow, pink/purple).

When I plugged it in outside, there were several bulbs in the strand not lighting up. I think these same bulbs weren't working inside anymore either, but I didn't check it carefully before so am not certain.

4 of the non-working bulbs were at the far end. I pulled out the first of them (the one next to the working bulbs). The other 3 that were out came back on. Hrmmm?

The strand had 2 spare bulbs. I plugged one if them into the empty socket, and it worked.

In the middle of the strand were 2 more non-working bulbs next to each other. I pulled one of them out. The other one came back on. Hrmmm. I put the 2nd spare bulb in the now-empty socket, and it works. I am now out of spare bulbs.

Near the beginning of the strand are 2 more non-working bulbs. These are the 2 mentioned in the prior episode, which would sometimes flicker on and off. I pulled one out. Again, the other one came on. I pulled the 2nd one out... the whole strand goes out. Apparently that happens whenever 2 bulbs are out. You can have one out but not two.

I put the first bad bulb into the 2nd one's socket, and the 2nd one in the 1st's socket. The strand comes on again, except for those 2 bulbs. I try pulling the next light on either side of those 2 out. Each time, those 2 remain out, as well as the pulled-out one now being out.

Curiously, all 3 "bad" bulbs I pulled out are pink ones. I saw the last one flicker on and off the last time I put it back in, so I think they're not completely bad. But they may have a bad connection inside, as previously suggested by randomdreams.

I do a web search, but find no page discussing a weird LED light strand problem like this, where one bad bulb makes another one (or another 3) not turn on.

.

Earlier I did find something useful, though. I'm putting up 2 different strands on the porch, and they would fit best if there was an extension cord of about 6 feet put between them. I tried a normal indoor extension cord, but its plug is polarized and therefore doesn't fit into the end of a light strand.

I searched online for a 2-prong extension cord *without* a polarized plug, but didn't find any.
But I found these tutorials on how to make your own, from an old strand of lights. I have some of those actually, which I'd been planning to recycle. But now they can still be of use to me!

The first of these videos seems much simpler than what's described in the 2nd, but I think they are basically doing the same thing.


Video title: How To Make a Christmas Light Extension Cord (HowToLou.com)
Posted by: HowToLou
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOw8TgRVJ70
Date posted: Nov 23, 2012



Video title: How to convert Christmas Light strings in to FREE extension cords for Light O Rama
Posted by: Leechburg Lights
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrQMTEVb3JU
Date posted: Dec 29, 2012

I'm taking the Christmas tree down. I might have kept it up longer, but for the lights having completely gone out. At the start of the season, half of the green and half of another color were already out. But some time after Christmas they all went out, and even after taking them off the tree and jiggling them all around, they still don't work. The controller may have broken. The fuses seem ok.

These lights were the mini-bulb incandescent kind, from K-Mart (I still have the box), called "Magic Lights", with 4 colors (red, yellow, green, blue) and 8 functions (combination, in waves, sequential, slo-glo, chasing / flash, slow fade, twinkle / flash, steady on).

I mostly used the "steady on" mode, but "slo-glo" was also nice. That would cycle through each color individually, slowly fading out one color while fading in another, staying on that color for a little while before fading out to the next.

I'd been wanting to replace the incandescent strand with LEDs anyway. So I bought a multicolor LED strand to replace them. The new strand's description listed the exact same 4 colors and 8 functions as the old one, so I was hopeful it would work the same way. But it doesn't. The new strand always has at least 2 colors on at the same time. Slo-glo simply switches between both sets of 2 colors. Also, the fading in and out is too fast, and the fade-in isn't done at the same time as the fade-out, so there is a moment where all the lights go dark. That is not nearly as smooth and relaxing as slo-glo on the old set was.

Based on videos I found online, it seems possible for LED strands to do slo-glo mode the same way as my old set. They can at least fade in and out in a slow and gradual fashion. But I didn't actually find any multi-color ones for sale along with a video demonstrating all their modes so that one could be certain how they worked.

So I've gone ahead and put the new strand on the tree. (When putting the tree away for storage, I fold the branches in against the trunk, and store it in a "Christmas tree bag" in the attic. I keep the lights on the tree so that setting it up again in December is easier.)

To put the lights on the tree, I first wove the light strand from the center of the tree up one branch on the left side of the branch towards the tip of the branch, and then back down the right side of the branch the same way. I did the whole first bottom level of branches like that. It was quite simple to do it that way; faster than my usual method. But then I determined it didn't look so good that way. Too much visible cord, too many straight lines of cord.

So I started over and did it my old way: wrapping the cord around the branch a few times from the center up towards the tip, and then weaving it back down the right side towards the trunk. It does look better that way. The cord isn't as noticeable as it doesn't have as many straight lines.

However, I ran out of lights before I ran out of tree branches. The top foot of the tree is relatively dark. Both the old and new strands had 300 lights each, but the old one was 112 feet long and the new one is only 105.

Another difference is that the old strand was really 2 strands, both attached to the same controller box. The new one is one long strand.

It occurs to me now that I could get 2 completely different strands in different colors, and put each strand on alternating branches. Then I could have either one, the other, or both sets on at once. I feel like having pink lights at the moment, and orange. But oh well. What is, is. The lights are on the tree now and I'm not taking them off again if I don't have to.

But I just remembered, it's the winter solstice today... in 6 hours, tonight.

..

It's grey and cloudy out
Do you wanna shout or go about exclaiming,
it's the solstice day tonight.
Whoo rah, whoo rah.
The tree will come out, and the tree will go up,
on the solstice day, the solstice night.
Ding aling aling.

The left side of my head feels sore as if I banged it on something. I don't remember doing so (which isn't unusual for me), and can't think what I might have hit it on. Maybe it's a spider bite instead, but it seems an odd place for that.

Last weekend I took down my Christmas tree and washed the dogs.
Accomplishment.

Too sleepy now to write more.