Small Mysteries: Part 1

This is the first post in what may become a series.

For the sake of brevity, I am calling it "Small Mysteries."

I would rather call it, "Those Weird, Unimportant, Things You See Every Day That, For a Minute or Two, Make You Think, 'What the Fuck?'"

Join me now, won't you?

Shortly after Thanksgiving, 2012, The Blog and his neighbors put up Christmas lights.

Like we do.

But the "Small Mystery" involves just one of those houses.

Just around the corner from Casa de Blog, one house put up a minimalist string of icicle lights around the eves of their house. 

                                          Not a photo of the actual house, but close enough.

Nothing unusual, so far.

That string of lights glowed, festively, through Christmas and New Year's Day.

Still, not unusual.

Your PC likes to keep his lights going for a week or so after the new year, because that's what he likes to do.

But, this one house.

The lights continued to glow through the month of January.

Past Valentine's Day.

Past St. Patrick's Day.

Easter, Memorial Day, July 4th, went by.

The lights still glowed.

Every night.

Labor Day, still lit.

Yom Kippur and Halloween, still lit.

You are getting the picture, here.

Around Labor Day, this house moved from being "the last people to take their Christmas lights down" to "the first to have them up."

Every neighborhood has that one house that never takes their lights down. It tends to be the same house that mows their lawn twice a year.

But, the folks in this house did not turn their lights off, for an entire year.

The small mystery began around February.

"Why are those Christmas lights still burning?" I wondered.

By July my puzzler was puzzling, "Is there something wrong in that house? Did the house's occupant die in December, and no one has noticed?"

Did someone just give up on life and say "Fuck it. I can't be bothered to turn off my Christmas lights, let alone, take them down?"

Did someone lose a bet, or enter a contest?

By September, I started thinking, "Would it be rude of me to knock on their door and say, 'Hi! I'm a total stranger who lives around the corner. What's up with the lights?"

About a week after Thanksgiving, 2013, a part of my question was answered.

A reindeer made of wire and lights was added to the display.

So, a sigh of relief and a sign of life and Christmas cheer.

And then, tonight, the mystery thickened.

Some 390 days later...

The lights have been turned off.

Except for the reindeer.

It's still glowing.

I wonder if that reindeer will continue to glow for another year.

And, I wonder why.

it's a small mystery.