...uh,oh...

it was dark when I returned home the other day...
& as I pulled into my driveway, I saw it...
glowing malevolently in UnklePhil's porch flower box...
positioned so I can't miss seeing it from my kitchen windows...



the tacky flamingo, once again was glowing with holiday splendor...
at least the other one has disappeared...
& this one's Santa hat is nowhere in sight...
[please, DO NOT consider this a "challenge"...]



[here it is in daylight...it's solar, so it's tacky, 24/7...]

then, on Sunday, as Fr Toolbelt encouraged everyone...
to visit their neighbors during the holidays...
and invite them to our services...
I turned around & playfully invited MY neighbor, UnklePhil...
[who sits behind me in the choir]
to come to a service...

not to be outdone [when is he ever... outdone, that is...]
he later informed me that he would have to miss L&C...
because he was visiting "his neighbor to the north"...
[that would be me... sigh...]
and planned to "help decorate while she wasn't home"...

my relief that he would be at L&C after all, passed quickly...
as I realized the impending resumption of the "Light Wars"...
[lights were flashing in my head...
& a mechanical voice intoned,"danger, Catsinger, danger..."]

FYI: last year, in order to "help" me get in a festive mood...
UnklePhil festooned my house & yard with assorted, tacky, seasonal neon...
things so tacky, even he didn't use them anymore...
all because I dissed his precious flamingii...

so in an attempt to head off more "helpful decorating"...
I told him that in order not to go broke...
paying my electric bill...[which is true]
I wasn't even putting up my lights on the lemon tree this year...
so he agreed to "refrain" from random acts of decoration...
which was a relief... for a while...

you might say that I'm waiting for the "other holiday bulb to light"...
[if I may coin a metaphor...]

he said that he wasn't going to decorate, "much", this year...
but that the "tree of lights" would get done...

this is my 21st Christmas, here...
and he's always had a "seasonal reaction" break out about now...

so we'll see... and if he has a major seasonal reaction...
they'll see the glow in the "sleepy village 13 miles to the north"...
as will Santa in the sleigh, any astronauts in orbit...
and all the angels on high...

POSTSCRIPT...

after writing this on 12/22 to post on 12/24, I returned home to find this...



an "UnklePhil Seasonal Disorder Reaction" in full swing...




he claims that this is only,"phase one"...
"phase two" will be the neon Nativity on the lower roof...
"phase three", the "tree of lights"[the big liquid amber]...

we'll just see if that's all...
if not, they'll probably "see" the glow in Ahnoldtown...