Turning 40

The Herald of Arkansas State University published a very fitting tribute to the anniversary of obtaining "University status" for the former Arkansas State College in 1967. It took a Rockefeller to finally bestow upon a once small agricultural & mechanical college the title of "Arkansas State University".

What is still amazing to me in this piece is to read how when ASU first tried to get University status, it was the University of Arkansas who put the kibosh on it. I guess it is fitting to have the razorback as a UofA mascot. They've always had a history of hogging as much as they can.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree.....!!!

We took down our Christmas tree today. It had stood, bare of any ornaments, for at least a week before I started the process of disassembly. "Process" because the tree is pre-lit & must be plugged in very particularly or not all of the sections will be illuminated.

When I was a kid, I enjoyed crawling up into the attic of my house & helping my Dad look for the boxes containing ornaments & all the other parts of our Christmas tree. I would help lower the boxes down as my Dad would hand them to me & then we'd spend a Saturday afternoon matching the paint color on the tip of the branches to the color on the pole to create a very nice tree for the holidays.

For me now, I would rather take a beating than to spend more than 30 minutes trying to erect this 250-pound, 7 ft. pre-lit tree. In the past, I would get the box, stored in our basement, and try to lug the thing (which was as heavy & awkward as a casket) up our basement steps. then lug it through the length of the house to our living room. We'd then slide the bottom, middle, & top sections into place, "fluff" the branches out, & before adorning it with ornaments, I'd spend 3 hours with my arms stuck inside the prickly branches of the tree trying to figure out the jigsaw puzzle in getting all right plugs plugged into all the right plug-ins to have all of the sections lit up evenly. I can safely say, I am not in the Christmas spirit when I finish.

Once it's up, it's a sight of beauty. I think it's so pretty we should just leave it up all year & call it a "Valentine's Tree", a "St. Patrick's Tree", an "Easter Tree", a "Veterans' Tree"....etc. Either than or put a large bag over it & slide it in a corner. Nevertheless, against my desire or motivation, it has to be disassembled & taken down. So, facing no other alternative, I begin the task armed with a roll of masking tape & a Sharpie. I am determined this year to label every plug & every section of this beast so when it's time to erect this thing in 11 months, it can be done with the least amount of frustration.

Instead of lugging the whole box back down to the basement, I choose this year to carry each section down separately, placing each in the box. My wife asks if it was "easier" to do it this way. I reply that it is never "easy" to manhandle this tree every year...but taking it down in sections did "break up the task" better.

Before the tree is laid to rest in its "coffin", all of the pre-lit leaves must be "defluffed" & then the branches folded up. The only way for the branches to stay folded up (and therefore easily stored) is to tie each layer of branches up with rope. My wife & I work to keep all the branches from falling back down while one of us finagels the rope around the section of the tree to tie up each layer of branches. None of us have enough hands to do this & basically the whole scene looks like a very bad Laurel & Hardy movie.

However, as of today, the thing is down, in its casket, & buried until after Thanksgiving. It has been labeled for the next assembly & I now plan on bringing the beast up one section & a time & plugging in all of the lights to see if they all twinkle properly. Yet as I was taking the tree down today, I noticed that there was still one plug dangling that seemed to be all alone & somehow out of place. I couldn't help but wonder if there was a section of lights that went all season long without being lit.... But at this point, I am in no mood to explore the other 57 versions of combinations in plugging in those pre-lit branches to find an answer. I'm actually maintaining a good mood today.