Snow (at last!) :-)

[Paul Mather]

On Wed, 31 Dec 1997, StevenTice wrote:

> Well, I'd probably be very jealous of you if we hadn't gotten fourteen inches
> of our own yesterday. :-)  Considering we hadn't had more than a half inch up
> until then, I'm much happier now!  Too bad it waited until after Christmas,
> but at least SOME people still have their outdoor decorations up....

Speaking of outdoor decorations, whilst sojourning in Gulfport, FL, last
week, I came across a sanity-defying outdoor display in neighbouring St.
Petersburg, FL.  It was brought to my attention via a flyer under our
windscreen wiper, left by some unknown entity in a Wal-Mart car park.

The barely-contained pride is evident in the lead-in (which,
unfortunately, cannot be reproduced in all its typographic glory here):
"Spectacular CHRISTMAS light display; hundreds of thousands of lights;
may be the highest number of lights for a 1/2 acre display in the world;
App. 450 moving and animated figures..."

The flyer continues, extolling the awesome spectacle offered by the "70
foot Christmas tree to the glory of Jesus Christ... A huge, 16 train,
H.O. scale outdoor railroad... App. 200 lighted outdoor figures & 60
Snowmen... Mickey Mouse and friends... Jurassic Park... Takes 8 people
3-mo. to set up..."

Naturally, something compelled me to go see this.  All I can say is that
if R'lyeh has outdoor Christmas lights, they probably look something
like this... :-)

(The owners even have an electricity meter out front, for all to see it
spinning round, to proudly display how much they're blowing to power all
this.)

As a Brit, I still can't quite comprehend this phenomenon.  And just
when I thought I'd got to grips with the "Gingerbread House" and the
Yule light onslaught that is Merrimac in Blacksburg, too...

Just thought I'd share.

Cheers,

Paul.

obCD: Hawkwind, _The 1999 Party_ (yes, Santa was kind to me!:)

e-mail: paul at gromit.cs.vt.edu

"I didn't mean to take up all your sweet time"
        --- James Marshall Hendrix