The tree turned out to be more difficult than expected because of its sheer weight and crooked trunk. Today the tree weighs less, and it's about a foot shorter than yesterday.
With four tops headed different directions and giving no prominent place of honor for one angel, I snipped all four stems to the top of the main trunk. Yes, it looked stupid, but the angel at least commanded a central focus.
I tried numerous times to position the tree so that its beholders would not be taken on trip off toward Nellie's as it insisted on leaning off one direction.
Just about every attempted position had a visual fault, but I finally figured that the view from the living room was most important, and after several tries, I could stand back and accept that it was looking about as good as it was gonna look.
Never mind that candelabra-style light fixture that some interior-designer flunkee---before our ownership of the house---decided to hang just a couple of feet away from the sliding-glass door, nowhere near where anyone would put a dining room table and low enough that every single 6-footer who's ever entered the house from the sliding-glass door has endured the gong treatment on the top of their head.
After seven years, a couple of my brothers have still not remembered that the attacking light fixture is gonna get 'em if they don't duck when they come through the door.
Well, the light fixture did its thing yesterday too. Every time I would grunt and groan and lift that heavy tree toward the ceiling, the light fixture would sabotage the effort. About the sixth time, I finally learned to turn it slightly before bringing it to a standing position.
Now, let's talk about that gong-show light fixture and what it does to distract from one's beautifully decorated Christmas tree.
Yes, the angel finally got her place of prominence, and yes, the tree looked fairly straight from the living room, but the viewer pretty much had to "imagine" how beautiful that angel was cuz the light fixture blocked her from any clear view.
Poor Bill.
By the time I was finally putting ornaments on the tree, the good ol' headache that loves to pound on the back of my neck had kicked in to full gear. I took an Advil and hurried through ornament placement. Then, I grabbed all the leftover decorations, stuff them in the bag and decided Christmas decorating had ended for 2014.
And, when Bill came through the door from "the church," as I call it when the first question he hears every Sunday (What's new down at the church?), he never heard that question. He heard every miserable detail of this year's Christmas tree decorating debacle.
He also heard a dissertation about that demoniacal light fixture and how whoever designed this damn house so that you can only put the tree in one spot and that the "spot" is right near that light fixture which serves no practical purpose except to gong visitors on the head.
As usual, Bill just listened as he watched me take my bag of leftover decorations up the stairs.
"Fake tree next year," I yelled as I headed up the stairs. You can imagine how awful that threat sounds to a forester.
A little while later, he said he might go for a hike on the Albertson property off Gold Creek Road. I said I'd like to go with him. So, when he finished his lunch, we started getting ready to leave.
Bill and I were standing near the kitchen island when it happened.
POP! The tree fell to the floor with a audible thump. Ornaments scattered. Lights stayed on. Bill unplugged the lights and thought about the next step.
I intervened.
"Leave it; let's go for the hike," I said. "I don't want to deal with that tree anymore right now."
So, that's what we did. We loaded up the pups and went out to a spot where Bill says not too many folks know. It's off the grid. We could hear a generator going for a home down the hillside from where we walked.
The snow was just right. Not too deep. Soft for walking, and definitely fun for Foster, who hasn't exactly learned the ropes of staying with the family. Several times we had to stop and urge him to come back to the trail.
It was a great place for a little guy to leap and bound and run 'til his tongue was hanging out. We just didn't want him to run into a moose or some wild creature who might do harm.
We had a lovely time on our walk, and it did occur to me that the trees out there in the woods are pretty happy, much happier than most Christmas trees are in late December.
Some plot revenge, and I'm guessing we have one that spent a long time planning how it was gonna get back at whoever hauled it home from the lot.
The tree fell down because of its weight, which was too much for the stand.
Today I'll be buying a new stand, and we'll decorate the tree for the third time. I completed a second decorating session last night after Bill cut a bunch of bottom limbs off from the lower trunk.
It has stood all night, but we still have to buy a new stand because water tends to flow from a cracked tree stand.
And, so North Idaho resilience, once again, is alive and well. I knew deep down when I was writing my blog posting yesterday that an incident-free decorating session would be expecting the impossible dream.
As usual, I had my holiday nightmare, and from the comments I've seen on Facebook, I'm not alone.
Happy Monday.
3 comments:
Don't suppose it would make you feel better to know that Rick got the last tree in the area that would fit in "the spot", it went up easily, is perfect on all sides, decorated easily and has stayed up. If I had your problems, the tree would have gone through the window (or maybe the door since I would be too cheap to replace the window) and we would have been without.
Janet
You have been in that house how many years? And this light has hit how many of your tall brothers and son's and Bill? AND you have not called an electrician to have that light taken down and replaced with a flat light? I sure would have in the first year...
Your dog's happy smile is priceless. It's really nice to get out and take inspiration from nature in home decoration this holiday.
http://www.aignerart.com/10-deco-ideas-season/
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