Interesting Stuff
In Light Of Christmas Spirit
December 16, 2007 
Mrs. GUARDIAN decided it was time to pack up the cute little foo-foo dog and take a low speed drive around Boise to look at Christmas decorations.
The GUARDIAN reasoned the dog should stay home and it was really not very green to drive around burning gas and polluting the air. At the very least we should peddle bicycles into the cold night. Like Team Dave, she reflexively disagreed with the GUARDIAN position, so we headed out in a Japanese car built in Kentucky with foo-foo snuggled in her lap.
Due to space and interest limitations, we will cut to the chase. The place on Quail Ridge (above Hill Road, right off Collister at the fountain, up hill and fork to the right…just follow the traffic) is spectacular.
These folks pay tribute to Jesus, Rudolph, LED, incandescent, flood lights, you name it, they have got it. In the true Holiday Spirit, they have angels, stars, trees, and a lighted arch in the driveway where people pose with their kids. The lawn is fenced, but they welcome visitors on foot into the driveway.
No doubt about it, they win the prize. Conspicuous consumption, sharing, joy, love,pride. It’s all there. The street is jammed with noisy V-10 pick ups, rattling diesel engines, little cars, SUVs all driving slowly past, turning around in drive ways, crushing sprinkler heads, oohing and aahing at the lights. It is a major attraction during an otherwise bleak time of year.
Bending to peer pressure and aiming to please Mrs. GUARDIAN, we parked at the curb and proceeded to make a few pictures of the spectacle. The pleasant well lighted evening was suddenly punctuated with the incessant blaring of a car alarm. HONK, HONK, HONK, HONK! We despise car alarms.
With accusations of Scrooge dancing in his head, The GUARDIAN stomped back to the car just as a Soccer Dad was backing away in a van. The offensive horn was emanating from the GUARDIAN staff car! We quickened the pace lest Soccer Dad escape after bumping the car. After finding the mute button on the key fob, the GUARDIAN inspected the rear bumper.
“I did NOT hit your car,” said Soccer Dad before we uttered a word.
“OK.”
“You don’ believe me? I will put my lights on it. See for yourself.”
“OK.”
“I didn’t even come close. I don’t know what made the alarm go off.”
“OK. Have a Merry Christmas,” says the GUARDIAN.
“You too,” says the soccer dad.
The foo-foo dog popped his head up just as Soccer Dad drove off, clearly ashamed that his bouncing around in the locked car caused the alarm to sound. Mrs. GUARDIAN rolled her eyes and snickered.
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Dec 16, 2007, 3:28 pm
laughs~
thanks for sharing your tale, it made me giggle
and i think we can all relate at some level to at least part of the adventure 🙂
t
Dec 16, 2007, 6:42 pm
*snicker*
Foo-foo dog my eye! He knew when to fight and when to take cover. Smart doggie.
Dec 17, 2007, 1:02 am
Yep, shoulda taken bicycles!
Dec 17, 2007, 2:36 am
great photo, fun story about why we need more and more and more electricity in the valley. did not know you had a foo-foo dog.
Dec 17, 2007, 4:20 am
I must admit, I have never had enough Christmas spirit to start putting lights up in September!
We used to have a retired Idaho Power exec aroung the corner and he would start right after Labor Day. The rag once said he put up 1/4 million lights! Very pretty and enjoyed by many, but I used to wonder how much he dreaded Jan. 2nd.
Having two foo-foo’s myself, you should know Guardian that it is ALWAYS their fault.
Merry Christmas to all!
Dec 17, 2007, 1:05 pm
My pagans sure know how to do up Christmas.
Dec 17, 2007, 1:10 pm
A true, humor-filled, and observant story of the advances that have made possible our modern day Christmas! And what did our nineteenth century ancestors do to create such an entertaining Christmas? Probably sat in the dark…..watched the shimmering stars and listened to the quietness of a world asleep. A night so silent that if a neighbor approached along the salmon-bearing Boise River (still free flowing to the ocean in those days), they would be heard. Oh yes, and, they kept foo-foo as close as their loved ones so she didn’t get eaten by a prowling wolf! Best wishes this holiday season!
Dec 17, 2007, 4:23 pm
That was too funny, Guardian. I laughed so hard my husband came from the next room to check on me. Great picture, by the way.
Regarding Quail Ridge: if Mrs. Guardian is in such good shape (or Mr. Guardian – except that I don’t think so) that she could ride a bike up Quail Ridge, I would really like to hire her as my personal trainer so that I can actually fulfill one of my perennial New Year’s resolutions of shaping up.
While such displays are definitely pretty and happily not paid out of public funds, it does seem a bit much – kind of like that 10,000 square foot house in the same vicinity.
We actually put up a little homemade wooden sign in our front yard that says “North Pole” just to get in the spirit of the season. The money we saved we gave to our kids so they could pay some of their bills, holiday or otherwise.
Dec 17, 2007, 4:56 pm
Great picture Guardian. Scenes like that make me want to go caroling and sing Silent Night. You should come to my neighborhood and go down X-Mas Alley and see the lights and all manner of inflatable X-Mas icons. You can listen to competing electronic X-Mas music piped into the street. Americans really know how to put the X in
Christmas. Thanks Wal-Mart, for helping make Christmas American.
Dec 18, 2007, 12:45 am
Jim, it’s Mrs. Guardian who has the foo-foo dog. The foo-foo dog has the Guardian. Clear?
Dec 18, 2007, 9:17 pm
Crystal! They may not be real dogs, but they are kind of cute.
Dec 19, 2007, 4:26 pm
Well done!
You entertain as well as inform.