snagabag

As noted recently I put up outdoor Christmas decorations for the first time. They had been up a week when I woke up this past Sunday morning and came outside to get the paper. Lo and behold! What did I see but my Christmas decorations strewn about the front yard in disarray! We arrived home around midnight the night before, and everything was as I arranged them… but something happened overnight. As the weather was gentle, and due to the nature of the scene, I could only conclude someone or some people had decided to rearrange our decorations.

Click on the photos for a clearer view.

Well, if you are reading this and don’t know me very well (odds of that are slim I know), let me give you a little insight. I saw the Christmas tragedy and was amused by it. I immediately decided I was not going to fix it. Rather I set about reconnecting all the cords and proudly displayed my Christmas Crime Scene that night. On Monday I even thought about getting some crime scene tape from a local party store to wrap around the mangled decorations. So Monday night I arrived home from work and promptly plugged in our Christmas Explosion display again. About an hour later, Aparna, Liah & I came outside to go run an errand and were greeted by this shocking sight:

Someone had assembled and set up our Christmas decorations! Even more amazing, this had to take at least 10 minutes and was done around 6:30pm while Aparna & I were home! No note or any notice was left for us. Anyway, I figured there are three possible explanations.

1. The parents of whatever kids did this figured out their kids did it and made them fix their mess.
2. Someone in our neighborhood couldn’t stand the sight of not properly set up Christmas decorations.
3. Our snowman, deer, and Christmas presents decorations are magical and fixed themselves!

Personally, I think #3 is the most likely answer.

In the final analysis I’m a bit amazed that someone would make changes to their neighbor’s house without asking or even notifying them. It is just something that would never occur to me to do. While I appreciate the help, I sorta liked my Christmas Crime Scene.

Update: While going through a stack of papers in my office (a never ending activity), I stumbled across the flyer for our neighborhood’s “Christmas Decorations Contest.” It contained the answer to the resurrected Christmas decorations miracle… individual blocks were up for an award. In other words, someone wanted to make sure our designated block had its best foot forward for the judging in a neighborhood contest.
The optimist would say whoever fixed our decorations right before the judging without notifying us was being very friendly and “neighborly”. The cynic would say they had already made up their minds we were inconsiderate holiday decorators, and felt they had to fix the decorations themselves and were too annoyed to notify us. Which one is right?

Further proof that my transformation to a suburuban dad is complete. Yes, that’s yours truly hanging out ten feet above the ground putting up Christmas lights! First time I’ve ever put up any outdoor Christmas lights as far as I can recall. Yeah, I should probably have someone holding the ladder, but I also needed a picture to show you.

ASP goes from myth to reality.

Oversized condoms a headache for many Indian men.

Something about Liah is different in this picture. Can you tell?

Can’t tell? Here let me give you a little hint.

Ok, so maybe the hint wasn’t so little, but you’re eyes do not deceive you. We had Liah’s ears pierced today! For someone who likes to plan all big events, this one was surprisingly casual. Aparna & I hadn’t talked about it for a long time, and when we arrived at the mall today Aparna mentioned a store at the mall could do it. I said let’s go see if they are busy, and five minutes later Liah’s ears were pierced! The only photos I have of the event are currently sitting inside Aparna’s camera phone! I’m happy to say Liah was a true champ. She only cried for a few seconds and was back to her cheerful self in no time.

So what’s the net effect? That a whole new spending avenue has just opened up.

Driving back home from Dallas last weekend we saw something we had never seen before…

(click the picture to see a larger version)

What you are looking at are random strangers, all who parked their car on the interstate and are cleaning up debris from an accident.

We saw parked cars in front of us and other cars crossing over grass to get on the frontage road. Well, we elected to do as others were doing and make our own exit. Thus enabling us to take a picture of the event without actually stopping.

It was a little surreal seeing all those people walking around on an interstate. I shudder to think about how long those people had to wait before being able to get moving again…