Well, the computer gremlin struck again. Yet another computer bit the dust. A quick swap with a temporary one brought the show back up until we can get this sorted out.

Putting on a light show like this is a consistent care and feeding exercise. Problems always crop up at the most inopportune time. One has to deal with lights going out, technical difficulties and the weather. So far this year, we have experienced a few failures with the master computer. The original computer (8 years old!) failed, and attempts at recovery were fruitless. No problem, we have a backup computer. That one was swapped in, but the hard drive started making the all too familiar 'click-click-click' sound associated with a drive failure. OK, time to scramble. A temporary computer was installed until repairs could be made. Unfortunately, this computer had other issues causing the show to 'stall' at various times. Now it is panic mode! Swapping in various computers and trying to piece something together, a laptop (barely able to function let alone run the show) seems to be working with minor show hiccups. This means going back into the sequences and slightly modifying them to overcome this problem. On top of it all, some of the controllers doe not seem to like the cold we experience, so additional tweaks are needed. I hope this is the last of the Gremlins.

The annual Thanksgiving lighting went off smoothly. We had around 40 or so cars come out to see it, and hope for many more in the upcoming weeks. The show starts daily from 5:30pm UNTIL 10:00PM. Be sure to hang out with Santa on December 19 at 7:00pm. We will also have a donation box out on that evening for can goods for the food pantries. Grab some directions and come on out!

There has been activity every evening and weekend since the day after Halloween. A lot of the lights are up, with the goal of having all lights strung this weekend. The boom lift from Riggsby Construction of Lake In The Hills is coming Saturday so I can do the roof and help the neighbors (that again for your support!). Also, thanks to Tony from Tony The Light Guy for lending a hand. But even though lights are going up, there is still a long list of things to attend to:
- Rebuild mini-tree
- Run the miles of extension cords
- Build new controller
- Plug existing controllers
- Re-address controllers
- Get more extension cords
- Sequence more songs (8 are done)
- Stage the 'Tune-To' sign

And only 14 more days to get it all done, not to mention going to my day job and attending to family matters. Mrs. Elf and the 'lil elf need attention to!