The Christmas Dinosaur

Published Dec 20, 2024, 9:02 PM

Jack asks--what kind of person embraces outdoor holiday decorations? 

Ah, yes, the Christmas Dinosaur. It's one more thing.

I'm one more thing.

Did you, Joe Getty put up any outdoor Christmas decorations this year? No, not really, But in the past, when your children were younger, you did, if I remember correctly.

Yeah. Oh, absolutely different hood now And they actually have like rules on inflatables and that sort of thing.

Oh really, I can believe that.

Yeah.

Huh.

I've seen them flouted somewhat, which is fine with me.

God, you are a certain sort of person if you would go complain about somebody putting up something for Christmas.

But it's undignified.

Uh, what the hell ever?

Uh? But you used to put stuff up? Oh yeah, yeah, we had. My favorite one was a h an inflatable carousel. It was like a big like, you know, cylinder inside of which was a carousel in which Santa, a penguin, and an elf I believe were riding the carousel and it actually rotated.

Oh that's pretty cool. That's fantastic.

It was fantastic. Hey, and it was lit from within for a nighttime news.

It was lit. You were lit. Everyone was lit. Katie. Do you have stuff outside? Yes?

I do?

Oh you do?

Okay?

I have a little light up candy canes and an inflatable snowman.

I see, I wouldn't have been able to guess whether you'd be outdoor Christmas decorations or not. I have not found that that is a trait that goes along with any other traits that I can identify. And I don't know if there've ever been any like psychological surveys the kind of person that does this stuff or the kind of person that doesn't, But I've not seen any consistency.

For the record, I would like to go full Clark Griswold. That would make me happy. I would like to go nuts. It's just a question of logistics and timing. And I just didn't really come together this year because I've got the standard stuff, because because I've.

Known people with very outgoing personalities who do nothing and people who are like quiet into themselves who do a lot, and vice versa. So I just I don't know what is what makes you a I'm gonna dedicate the time and money to this or not, I don't. I haven't done anything for Christmas. I did a fair amount for Halloween. My dad never did anything when we were kids, and then when he got older before they retired and moved away. His thing was they in front of the garage, Like a lot of garage, you get two little floodlights that are white year round, but like two weeks before Christmas, he'd replace one with a green bulb and one with a red bulb, and then he changed again the da that was it. It was this old and people would say can you geta b up the red and green light bulb and says here, oh, you know, I am, but my son and I have started collecting as anecdotes. Where did when did this become a thing like the gym we go to. First they had an inflatable Santa playing the guitar. Okay, Santa, why is he playing the guitar?

Ry? Fine? Then it doesn't play the guitar.

Then then then it was added to it a robot with a Christmas hat. So you got a robot and a Christmas hat playing the drums, and I guess they were putting together the band slowly. Then it was a dinosaurs.

Like a white stripes thing there for a while, drums and guitar.

Then it was a dinosaur in a Christmas hat playing bass, and I don't know why a dinosaur or why a robot or any of these things. I'm missing the theme. Yeah, well, it has become very clear to me that there is everything is okay now, just any character of any sort you put it in a Santa hat and it's part of Christmas. I guess.

Well, of course Dickens classic at Christmas Carol, he does mention the rock and roll Christmas dinosaur. No wait a minute, no he doesn't.

Man, the people that really go big. We've got a couple of houses in our neighborhoods that are the how long, not not to mention what it costs, but just how much work would it be to put that up and take it down? Talking many, many, many hours? And yeah, do you do you have a guess as to what the personality trait is that makes you want.

To do that? Oh goodness, that's an interesting question. You love Jesus the obvious answer when it's all Santa stuff. Yeah, that's right. Uh, I don't know exactly. I don't know how to describe it. I've met people like that, and they're usually like jolly people who are open, they want to talk to their neighbors, they want to interact with people. They're extroverts and generally fairly light hearted. I just like the way lights look, Yeah, I just I think it looks beautiful.

Yeah, the lights.

And then also my neighbors were putting out decorations and like, ah, I can't be that one house.

Yeah, I'm that one house in our little cul de sac. Oh, I'm new to the neighborhoods, so they're already looking sideways at me.

Yes, Michael, there's the neighborhood in where I live where they actually decorate full sized trees. They go to home depot and get a lift and put the Christmas lights on top of them.

And has the neighborhood risen to the point of people drive from other places to go down the street. And yeah, which is its own thing. You either want to be in a neighborhood like that or you don't.

Right right, I know, just speaking for myself, it reminds me almost of the relationship between like a performer and the audience. That anything I did, the energy would be returned by my kids.

And they would be ensused.

And so I think this is fun, and I'd add more or come up with crazier show ups and surprise them with something. It was just big fun. Now it's mostly just for me and I guess the neighbors in a way, and it's like.

And the home depot, for instance, the giant category where they have a ten foot looks like Frosty the Snowman ten feet tall, different snowman, ten foot angel. If you want to go with that ten feet ten foot gateway with Grinch on top, so people would have to walk through your arch to get your house, that's pretty cool.

Lots of stuff, of course, is mentioned only in the Book of Matthew. Interesting.

I remember that part. That's right, Doctor Susan evented the Grinch, and it's been my around my whole life. So it kind of seems christmasy, but it's not by nature anymore christmasy than a robot or a dinosaur.

Right, a rock and roll Christmas dinosaur.

Twelve foot giant sized motion led pre lit cone tree. What I like about this one is it looks like you take it out of the box, stick in the ground done. All you need is electricity, Yeah, perfect. Ninety dollars. Giant stuff has become very positive.

How big is the tree?

That thing was twelve feet, which is pretty tall.

Now ninety bucks, that's change. Book back on your general grant.

Huh, I also think these that is that.

No, Benjamin's Benjamins are the hundreds, Grant is the fifty. I don't throw cash around much.

He only deals with the big bills.

No.

I think the inflatables are probably popular because they're so easy. Yeah, you know, you unplug it and the thing deflates and you roll it up and stick it back in the box.

It's not that is an advantage. Like my giant Jack o' lantern. Man, it took me like five minutes to set that up. But the tethering, you gotta tether it, or your neighbors knock on your door and say, hey, you're pumpkins down the street. That's happening to me. That a couple of times.

So yeah, that's a good point. So to put up Christmas lights, especially if you go beyond the basics, is time consuming, frequently dangerous as you're dangling out over ladder reaching for the in the corner of the gutter and the rest of it. That's a hell of a lot of time and effort to get the wow. Or you could just go down to the home despot or the lows and spend one hundred and fifty dollars on some sort of fifteen foot tall rock and roll Frankenstein or robot or whatever it was with a Santa hat on inexplicably, and you'd get that same wow.

Mm hmm. You missed out on this, Katie because you're young. And they started wiring all Christmas tree lights in parallel. But before they started wiring them in parallel, they were they were wired in a single line, and so if one bulb went out, the whole thing didn't work. Oh and the only way you could find out where the problem was is go socket by socket with a bulb you knew worked until you found the dead one. And it was really a pain in the ass. And it was just part of the Christmas tradition every year at my house anyway, growing up.

I'm not I'm not too young for that. That's actually how I learned a majority of my cuss words from my dad around Christmas time.

When you would oh yeah cool, yeah, he'd plug.

Well, we made the mistake when you're putting them up before checking them and wow, was that some Christmas cheer?

Yeah?

God dang it.

You know.

Oh yeah, that's one of the famous lines from a Christmas story with Ralphie his dad. One goes out, they all go yes.

Dad, Oh man, Oh that stresses me just to remember it. Yeah, you get all the lights up on the tree. We did that I think one year without testing them and it was fed up.

Oh, it's like, oh, yeah Christmas. My mom, who is very frugal because she grew up in a rough part of the country depression wise, was big on saving the tinsil every year. We weren't gonna buy new tinsil every year. So after we put all the tensil on the tree, then we had to pull it all down, one strand at a time and put it back in the box for next year. And that was like a two hour job, boy, to save us a dollar.

That's frugality.

That was part of the Christmas tradition. Oh you know, stock market crashes, the Nazis bar on the march. You're gonna wish you had that tintil back and goes the way she looked at it.

I don't know if you guys remember back the late seventies how hot outdoor light bulbs used to get. You could put your hand on and you would burn yourself, serious burns.

Oh yeah, people would have a just completely desiccated, dried out Christmas tree by the twenty sixth, running incandescent bulbs on it that got super hot, with the obvious result in many a household. Mmoof.

Well, I guess that's it.

Armstrong & Getty One More Thing

Armstrong and Getty cover the rest of the stories not covered during the regular broadcast. This non 
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