One Year Anniversary - Christmas Tree

 

As today was my first anniversary of living in my Colorado Rocky Mountain home...

I decided to put up my Christmas Tree early to celebrate.

And today...

we had the largest and most active thunderstorm I had ever seen here.

In celebration for my first anniversary here...

my sisters and their extended families and I had a video chat

with the Christmas Tree in view on my video feed.

It was originally scheduled for a little later...

but with the highly active lightning...

I called my elder sister to move it up since I was afraid that 

I might lose the internet connection during the storm

(it turned out that everything worked fine throughout the storm).

The above videos were taken after I had finally put the tree together...

and most importantly...

after I had removed the artificial snow from each light.

OMG!!!

There are 900 individual lights on this 9' tree...

and over 2,000 individual twigs which bifurcate from the branches...

each of which had to be bent into shape to provide a natural look to the tree.

I had to clean EACH light by not only scraping each one with my fingernails...

but I then had to dig into the ends of each light with a knife blade to remove the 

artificial snow they had blown on the tree while the lights were already attached

(each light had a deep indentation on the end).

It had taken me about 30 seconds for each light at first...

but with practice...

I got it down to 10-15 seconds each.

On top of that...

as each light had a thick layer of blown artificial snow on them...

 I couldn't tell by sight alone.

I had to feel each of the almost 2,100 twigs to tell them apart.

I had started in the morning...

and I hadn't finished until after 7 PM.

Putting the tree together and arranging the twigs should take about one hour...

and gladly...

I only had to scrape clear each light this once...

and never again.

There were four major parts to the tree.

I had to bend each branch down into place...

 hunt for the lights and clean each one...

and then arrange each twig on each branch.

The Aspen leaves are starting to turn colors already.

As you can see...

most all of the pine needles could have actually been a light...

so I had to go by feel down each twig.

Here is one of the lights that I had to clean.

After scraping down and around the base of each light with my thumbnail...

...I then had to use a knife blade on each end to scrape out the artificial snow.

Here is one of the cleaned lights.

I then splayed each twig to make the tree look natural.

I had finally finished the first stage.

I then inserted the second stage and began the whole process once again.

For the first stage...

I just sat on the floor as I worked.

For the second stage...

I just sat on a rung of a step ladder as I worked.

After a while...

dark clouds began moving in.

Another example of how heavily flocked each twig was.

I found this light by touch...

and then cleaned it off.

The second stage was completed.

For the third stage...

I ended up using my extendable ladder to sit and stand upon as I worked.

Just as I had completed the third stage...

it had begun to hail.

Before I began the fourth stage...

I took a frozen pizza break.

For the fourth and final stage...

I decided I would open it up...

clean the lights...

and arrange the twigs while sitting in my recliner.

My back was very sore at this point.

Finally finished...

...and installed.

I hooked up the wiring and lit up the tree.

Man...

I was happy.

I was in no mood to have to hunt down any shorts in the wiring!

Luckily...

everything worked out.

It has a multi light capability in various combinations as manipulated 

by a remote control unit.

For the time being...

I just left it in the clear light mode.

I then fooled around with the remote to see the different modes available.

So...

was it worth it?

YES...

I love this Christmas Tree.

In the future...

it should take me about one hour to fully install...

and not the ten hours it took me this time.

I also ordered more ornaments...

a tree topper...

and a tree skirt.

---------

Thinking I would finish up the tree early...

I was planning on eating at an all you can eat sushi place

in Colorado Springs to celebrate.

Then...

the large thunderstorm moved in.

And so...

I am planning on having my celebratory dinner tomorrow.

----------------

Now that I have lived here for one year...

and have experienced each season...

I can honestly say that I have loved every moment here.

I had always dreamt of one day living in a high altitude mountain chalet

(9,650 feet in elevation here).

It has been even better than I had imagined.

It is my mountain temple...

far away from the insanity of today's world.

Living here...

I get a constant feeling of...

 absolute freedom in solitude...

blissful serenity...

being massaged by the fresh and crisp mountain breezes...

and all the while...

feeling one with nature.

Am I going to live here the rest of my life?

I am going to die here...

filled with peace and serenity.

I so love it here.

Each season has its own distinct flavor...

and so...

I can say that living here has been...

nothing short of...

absolutely delicious. 

Bandi's Sunset / Night Run

 

Song:  Until The Last Moment

Artist:  Yanni

Bandi and I went on a sunset and night ride/run this late evening.

We had arrived at the top of the mountain just as the sun had set.

Once stopped...

and as I sat on the trike seat...

Bandi was so happy...

she put her paws on my arm and climbed up on me and began licking my face.

She loves her runs...

and once we got home...

she drank a lot of water...

and then lay down on my bed...

stretched out...

and went to sleep...

as she always does after each run.

She gets all of her energy spent...

and then gets so comfortable and relaxed for the rest of the night.

The temperature was in the high 50s F ...

and there was a fresh and light mountain breeze.

I just love my mountain trike rides with Bandi.

Colors are the spice of life.

In them...they are visual music.

The song they play at each sunset is a beautiful sonata.

As the last of the colors faded...

I turned on my lights and we headed down the mountain top...

and up and over the next ridge...

and then down towards home.

But...

as Bandi is getting in much better shape...

I decided to keep going past home...

and farther down the ridge.

We stopped a couple of times for a brief rest for Bandi.

But...

as she was not breathing hard...

we had only stopped for a minute or so at each rest stop.

We arrived adjacent to the driveway to home...

but I decided to continue on down the ridge line for a night run for Bandi.

We had stopped for another break...

but I noticed that my rear lights had died...

and so...

I turned the trike around...

and Bandi and I started back for home.

We are not too far from home here.

It is up beyond the top of the rise...

and around a slight corner.

------------

This was Bandi's first night run.

And although it was hard to see her in the dark as she ran alongside my trike...

I have her leash wrapped around my right upper arm as she runs...

so just by feel...

I can tell if she starts dropping back...

signaling to me that she is beginning to get tired...

and so...

time for another break.

-------------

Bandi just has so much fun here.

She especially loves her runs...

and her country car rides.

And...

I love my trike rides with Bandi...

especially our sunset rides.

I just love seeing her happy in life.

A dog is the most loyal of companions...

and they have the purity of heart of a young child.

She is so deserving of all the simple pleasures in life I can give her...

and as such...

I never give her just kibble to eat.

Dogs love food as much as do humans...

and so...

I always add things to her kibble...

from leftovers to especially hardy canned soup.

I always buy a variety of soups to mix into her kibble...

and I always pay attention as to which are her favorites...

and I stock up.

She never gets the same meal twice in a row.

I give her a delicious variety of foods...

for just as humans get tired of the same old thing...

so do dogs.

I love seeing her gobble up her food with gusto and joy.

It is so good to have such a fun loving companion in life.

What a wonderful night I had.

As my body is now cooled down some...

I am going to stretch...

sit in the IR sauna while I listen to more beautiful music...

take a hot shower...

and then I feel like just relaxing in bed with Bandi

as I put on a good movie.

If you are not feeling fully enthusiastic about life...

do something about it.

Life is just so good...

as joy in life is greatly amplified by its great simple pleasures

to such an extent that few other activities in life can give you

 that which gives for so long and with such lasting and deep serenity...

as can a good long session of exercise and a beautiful sunset.