Front of house - Photo by Sheryl Dinkle
Well, the show is winding down over the next couple days. Kind of a sad time for me. Most of you that know me, know I would run it year-round if I could 🙂
It has been a good show season, though. I met some nice people out in front of the house. I noticed one couple sitting out watching the show one evening. They made it through the whole show and were a couple songs into the repeat when I went out to talk to them. It was an older couple (older than me, anyhow), and their comment was that they “were mesmerized” by the show. The gentleman asked me a handful of technical questions about the controls and about the FM transmission, and then I thanked them. They watched most of the way through the second time around before finally leaving. Another night, I was standing across the street filming the show for my videos, and a car pulled up. The couple in the car watched the show for quite a while, then noticed me standing there. They rolled down the window and asked if it was my show. I replied that it was, and they both got out of the car to come over and talk to me. They stood and chatted about the show for quite some time, thanked me, and went on their way. I have never been one to walk out in the street and talk to a stranger, but this has definitely forced me to change, and I am finding that I enjoy it. Maybe I am finally growing up 🙂
There were a couple picture takings for visitors, and I saw literally dozens of visitors recording the show on various smartphones and the like. (If you are one of those and would like to submit a picture or video, please contact me via the contact page). We had limos, buses, and from what I understand, quite a line on Christmas Eve. We were in Ohio with my parents, so I didn’t see it myself, but would have loved to. The exposure on the Johnson County tour site definitely added to our traffic. We saw an increase as soon as it was posted. While there are often no cars in front of the house the last few nights, many times during the last weeks of December, there were as many as 8 cars at any given time. I had to put a sign in the neighbors yard across the street to encourage people to not block their driveway 🙂
Technically, the show ran smoothly for most of the season. A couple nights (including the open house), I had computer glitches. I had to restring one snowflake and one angel, and tweak a couple other strings into working again. For the amount of stuff I had going it was a drop in the bucket. Even the arches I added a couple weeks into the show performed flawlessly. All in all, I am very happy with how ‘hands-off’ it has been. It even ran unattended for the week we were gone to Ohio.
I have already started thinking about next year, and maybe doing a July 4th show this summer (on a much smaller scale, of course). I also plan to use a controller and a few colored floods for year round illumination of the flagpole I installed for the mega-tree. Lots of options to explore. I will probably expand the show for next Christmas, and maybe try to invole a couple neighbors in the fun. I have been offered the option to have a live show here at the house by one of the artists whose music I feature. If I can work out the midi inputs, I may try to make a go of that: a live rock and roll Christmas concert. That would be pretty dang cool 🙂
For those that have come by and spread the word to their friends, thank you! There’s still a couple days left if you want to come out, and I may run a special night a little later, as that worked well last year.
Bruce
