I walked out my front door the other day and found a 4-our foot long wood stake with a groove cut in the top, and six 6-inch long nails. Hmm. Only a few folks know I enjoy raw meat. There was also a letter from people I didn’t know asking me to add a string of white lights to the "kit" they provided and build a light tree in my front yard. Hmm.
Seems we have some young new neighbors on the block and they’re attempting to initiate the first (of what I assume they hope will be many) coordinated efforts to ‘Light up Lakemere’. They’re obviously new neighbors as they surely would’ve thought twice about leaving this task on the Pair doorstep. They haven’t experienced the 18 years of Pair Christmas light ineptness. Most years, a red bulb in one outside light, a green bulb in the other. And proud of it. But since Elsa, we’ve been attempting to string lights. When the season’s over, I cut ‘em off with scissors. We’re doing bushes now.
But I’m no scrooge and even though I haven’t met the young upstarts, I wanted to join in with my neighbors. So I looked in the box marked "Christmas Lights" and found there was only one strand left after Terry and El had "done" the bushes — The Color Purple. 
So purple it would be. I did actually plug them in to make sure they all lit, and it appeared they did (the sun was still out, looked like they were all lit). Pounded in the stake, used the handy diagram provided to place the nails in an octagon and began stringing. Time to plug in. Only half light up. Darkness falls. All the other houses on Lakemere have pretty white light trees and the street looks beautiful. Duh dah, our house. I’m sure all who drove by that night were as mortified as me.
I did go out the next day and buy a new set of white lights. But instead of taking down my hard strung purple, I simply added the new ones to the mix and you know, the mostly white and a little bit purple lighted tree at one house on Lakemere looks pretty good! Check out the 9800 and 9900 blocks of Lakemere — beauty!
Maybe those young new neighbors are onto something. Looking forward to next years "Light up Lakemere", assuming I’ll be able to find the stake and nails.
