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Tonight is the annual Fontana Preview where we invite neighbors to take a look at this year’s Christmas Lights Display. We’re hoping the rain currently falling has moved on, which is the predictions from the local weather forecasters. But it will be chilly with temperatures hovering around 40º. That will help people get into the Christmas mood.

Finally got all the songs sequenced, which was a chore. Almost doubling the number of controller channels presents unique challenges. Also I’ve got to learn that when I save files, not to overwrite one song over another. That happened with the first one, so I had to do it over again. The only good thing was the first song is the shortest.

And before I jabber on, I’ve got to thank those helping to put up this year’s display. Son Brett flew in from Raleigh to get the Z-Tree erected, which is a story in itself. It was nice to have him with us for five days. Then friend Jim drove over from St. Louis and spent 6 days with us. Daughter Tracy also lent assistance. And our three elves, Jingle (aka Taylor), Jangle (aka Jangle) and Elf Judy (aka Brooke) again add their voices to our display this year.

Z-Tree Builders Tim, Brett & Jim

Mary and I had our own preview at 10:30 last night and think everyone who has the opportunity to stop by this Christmas Season will be pleased. Memories in the making. But that’s just the two of us. Tells us what you think and any ideas you would like incorporated into the 2010 display.

More later after our preview.

Can’t believe the time is barreling ahead and there are only 28 days until the lights go on. But progress has been made. The leaping arches, vertical light tubes and Z-Tree all have been wired up with lights. Lettering for the Listen To The Lights sign has been adjusted to make the FM frequency more readable. And the Heartland Habitat donation box has been completed.

Lights on Ridge Line

Now I’m tackling a way to outline the roof ridge with C6 lights. I’ve come up with an idea that I’m not real thrilled about, but after all my searching, can’t seem to find anything better. I’m using 3/4″ thin walled PVC and stuffing the wires through a slit that was cut on the table saw. Just a real tight fit and tedious to construct. Then installing them on the roof isn’t a joy. I’m holding them down with some strapping and shingle clips, but not sure how secure they will be throughout the season in wind, rain and snow.

Over the years I’ve heard many stories from people who come to see our Christmas lights display. Today I received a message from a friend with another one. She said:

It was a Friday night in December and I was hosting 8 girls for my daughter’s birthday party.  I had all these activities planned and as the parents were dropping them off our lights went out!!  There was no storm, but someone had hit a transformer with their car!  My husband and I kept waiting and waiting and waiting for them to come back on, but two hours went by with no luck.  The girls were troppers about doing their craft project by candlelight.  Well you can see where this story is going – your Christmas lights saved the party.  My husband and I got them in our cars and he followed me to your house and then on to the Plaza for their lights and hot cocoa at Starbucks.  The girls thought that I was really cool for having a friend like you!!  I already knew that! Can’t wait to see what you come up with this year.

If you have any stories about your experience seeing our show, please leave a comment or send me an email. Memories and celebrating the birth of Jesus is what it is all about. Now back to the PVC and lights.

Last weekend was a great weekend to hold the first HAM-PLUS in the KC area. Thirty-two persons attended, coming from as far as Alexandria, LA. It was amazing. Pictures of the event are now posted on the HAM-PLUS website. Here is a group picture at the end of the day:

Below are links to five of  the presentations:

Working with Coroplast - PPTX file

Working with Coroplast - PPT file

DC Boards & MR16 LEDs – PPTX file

DC Boards & MR16 LEDs - PPT file

DC Boards & MR16 LEDs – PDF file

Leaping Arches – PPTX file

Leaping Arches – PPT file

Z-Tree Construction – PPTX file

Z-Tree Construction - PPT file

Mega Tree - PPTX file

Mega Tree – PPT file

Mega Tree - PDF file

There are videos linked to several of the presentations.  Instructions to see them are found within each presentation. You can save them to your computer or view them. They are big files, requiring some time to download. There is an option in the Coroplast presentation to viewing video on Vimeo.  This option will be added to the other presentations as time allows.

Tyson’s presentation taking the perfect picture and video of your display can be found on his website, G-Town Christmas

Where does the time go. It’s been almost a month since my last post. Anyway, I’ve been working on a couple of display elements which include the Z-Tree. I finished (almost) painting it today. Nice weather and not much breeze.

And since it was a good painting day, I painted the donation box framework. As posted earlier, we’ll be trying something new this year, and that’s asking people to make a contribution to Heartland Habitat for Humanity.

The actually donation box will stick out slightly from the open hole at the top, with a sign on it which looks like this:

And I continue to work on the upcoming HAM-PLUS. Right now we’ve got 30 signed up,  coming from LA, IL, and NE, as well as KS and MO. That is a better turnout than anticipated. To help me get ready, I called for the assistance of Elf Jangle (aka Fisher) to help me construct a way to display a leaping arch. I think he likes it.

It’s been over two months since my last post. A lot has happened, but not as quickly as I would like. And there has been some bad and good news during that time.

At this point, I’ve wrapped 4 of the 10 vertical light tubes and one out of 4 (started to be 6 but I’ve scaled back) leaping arches. The bad news is I’ve run out of clear mini-lights, so I’m on hold for any more tubes or arches until the lights are available from Hobby Lobby or Wal-Mart. That should be the later part of August. Also bad news is that I’ll have to pay the full retail price at that time. I may just push it and see how long I can hold out for the prices to go down. Read the rest of the article »