Countdown to Christmas 2011

[Christy Carol]

355 days, 4 hours, 32 minutes and 44 seconds til Christmas 2011!!

We lost our last countdown post so lets start again tonight! Now where were we??

[NicksMom]

I got a feeling I am going to need every day, just to get organized and do repairs. In my advanced age it will take a while to set everything up. I would love to have everything set up to turn on Thanksgiving eve.

[Christy Carol]

I had all sorts of ideas last week how I was gonna do anything and had intended on starting a notebook listing it all out by month. Yeah, well thats what I get for not getting up and starting on it right then. The mind is the first thing to go!

[SusieSnowflake]

354 days..........geez!

As I pack up all my Christmas goodies I am making totes to either freecycle or give to Salvation army/ goodwill, some things I have not used in years, and they are all good, so let someone else enjoy ..Tons of lights too, when I was in my Blue/silver phase!

[Christmas Always]

I'm thinking about giving some stuff to the Salvation Army myself this year as it's just too much to have to repackage. But I think I am going to try and stock up on C7 and C9 light bulbs because I heard that either by 2012 or 2014 the government is forcing companies to stop making incandescent light bulbs and going with LED of CFL's

I think I saw something on the news the other night that IKEA has already stopped making incandescent light bulbs.

I don't like the LED's as they aren't as bright as the regular lights and actually the regular mini lights are brighter than the LED's.

We have several CFL light bulbs in our lamps, but they don't really save energy. Electrical energy, maybe, but physical energy definitely not. I do to turn the light on and sometimes it will light and go out as if it was a regular bulb that just blew out. Then I have to turn the switch on and off several times before the light will actually come on. If you use them on a timer, forget it as 90% of the time the light won't be lit and than you will have to go and turn the actual switch on the light on and off several times before it will light, so they are wasting my energy.

Being they will stop making these bulbs, they will be going for much more on eBay than they are now so when I can purchases a couple packages here and there, I'm going to grab them.

A couple months ago, our night light in the bathroom and kitchen burned out. They are the C7 clear bulbs. I went to the store and bought a 4-pack but didn't notice that they were only 4-watts instead of 7 and they weren't bright enough. Then I went to Walmart and all they had was the 4-watt ones. Then I found some LED ones and asked an associate if they knew what wattage they are but she didn't know and it wasn't marked on the package. I ended up buying the LED ones, but when I got home and put them in our night lights, they weren't that bright at all.

Later I had gone to Dollar Tree and was able to find the clear 7-watt ones in a 4-pack. I spent more on the 4-watt ones and the LED ones than I did for the ones I got at Dollar Tree.

Now for our Christmas decorations, I have three 3-light candelabras that we put in our front windows and if I can't get the regular C7 bulbs anymore, they will be useless, but they are vintage as are most of our ornaments.

I know everyone wants to save energy when possible, but this is ridiculous Christmas doesn't last that long so how much energy are we really using?

Why can't the government leave well enough alone? We live near a hospital and also a professional building and the professional building closes at 5:00 PM, but basically all the lights are on in the building all day and all night, so how is that saving energy. Pretty much everyone is out of the building by 6:00 and at some point the cleaning crews come in, but it isn't necessary to leave all the lights on in the building when it's unoccupied.

Where I live, we don't get our power from a Nuclear Power Plant or Coal Generating Plant, but ours is Hydro power and unless the Great Lakes run dry and the Niagara River stops flowing, we have an endless supply of free power. Free to create electricity, but not free to us lol. We're not polluting the air by burning coal and were not using radio active items to make electricity.

A lot more people want to go with a retro theme and use genuine vintage lights and if they stop making the bulbs they won't be able to do so.

[NicksMom]

I also like the c7 and c9 lights. On a side note, the compact flourescent lights have mercury in them. The disposal instructions on them are serious business.

Just my cynical self thinks that the government isn't happy unless they are jerking the citizens of this country around. They should go name a post office and leave our Christmas decorations alone.

[Christmas Always]

I had forgotten about that. I remember reading that they contain mercury but the government wants us to use them. Doesn't make sense. Then what happens if one of these lights get broken? I remember when a friend accidentally dropped a thermometer on a ceramic tiled floor. The mercury spread into tiny balls all over the place and he had to get down on his hands and knees with a plastic spreader that they use for plaster and stuff to smooth it out and then he mopped the floor a couple of times just to be safe as they had a puppy and their daughter was only 5 years old.

As I mentioned in my previous post about buildings leaving their lights on all night when they are unoccupied. Why don't the make them turn the lights off to save energy? I'm sure they use more electricity than someones Christmas lights and it's not like our Christmas lights would be on 24 hours a day.

[NicksMom]

Probably a combination of 2 things. Someone can break in under cover of darkness and rob the place. Or some dope will be on the property and hurt themselves and sue.

[Christmas Always]

The building has 7 floors and they also have an alarm system and security cameras. I could see leaving some lights on the first floor but leaving the lights on all seven floors in every room when the building is empty.

All the wiring is underground, so a person couldn't cut the phone lines for the alarm system. It's just a shame that the general consumer has to be the one that ends up losing in the end.

I would love to use C7's and C9's the rest of my life, but being the government is forcing the manufactures to make LED's and CFL's to save energy just doesn't seem right when these office buildings etc that are empty at night are allowed to leave all the lights on 24 hours a day.

Then too as you mentioned about the CFL's having mercury and the disposal instructions being serious business.

[Christy Carol]

351 days, 4 hours, 18 minutes and 33 seconds!!!