fun with lights

Honest, I took these pictures around 9:00PM. Look, the solar lights are on. I guess that all the Christmas lights (I guess they're still called Christmas lights even in July) give off enough light that it only looks like daytime.

Our friends Bill and Sarah Gann helped Pat and I put the lights up for Katie and Sean's wedding. We were mulling over what to do with the lights after the wedding when a certain brother-in-law of mine said: Why don't you just leave them up for Christmas? That sounded like a good idea because I have better things to do than unwind lights off of trees (like read Donald Kagan's book on the Peloponnesian war). Well, we took down the ones we couldn't see from the patio and kept the rest up. They look pretty cool when we're sitting outside; you can even read. My neighbors say that their little kids like to look at the lights. I told them that I accept their offer to plug into their outlets. For some reason they don't think the lights look as cool after that exchange.
Pat and I were enjoying the lights tonight when out of nowhere I suggested that Mr Penguin and the deer could go out back this year. Maybe the 20 foot tall light tree too.