Heat Miser & Snow Miser
Heat Miser & Snow Miser

It’s still April, but as I was driving my daughter to soccer practice this morning I noticed someone taking down their Christamas lights which I didn’t really think was too strange since I had only taken mine down a few weeks ago.

Anyway, it got me to thinking about how much time and effort goes into setting up for Christmas, all the decorations, cooking and preparation – then it’s over. I know some people (in-laws actually) who take down their Christmas tree and decorations on the 26th. We usually wait a few weeks until about mid-January, but this year the weather was so cold, and there was so much snow, there wasn’t good enough weather until mid February.
Naturally, on the first day of good weather, my daughter wanted to go outside and play some soccer. So after about 30 minutes of slipping in the yard in half melted slush and the last few mounds of snow, I headed inside to change my boots and put on sneakers so I could climb the ladder and take down the outside lights. With my sneakers on, the slight twinge in my back turned into a fully aggravated sciatic nerve that landed me on the floor writhing in pain.
About a week later, after slowly regaining my ability to walk without searing pain, NY was hit by record rainfall, so the lights stayed up a little longer. Finally, by the end of March, the weather had cleared and my back felt better, so about two weeks before Easter, I finally got to take our outside lights down (just in time to start decorating for Easter).
So as I was driving to soccer and saw someone else taking their lights down, aside from a sympatheic twinge in my back, it was no big deal, but started me thinking  about how many more days it is until they go back up (fyi ~ 230 days).