On the 26th day of January Rick Hadley said to thee, "Take down your freaking Christmas tree."
I understand there are some who believe in celebrating the twelve days of Christmas. Giving all that latitude, we are well beyond any reasonable timeframe for getting those Christmas decorations down. Yet, on my street alone, several houses still have their lights on display.
Since many people get the decorations in place well before Thanksgiving, that means the Christmas finery has been on display for a full quarter now. And that's way too long, isn't it?
There is one house on the street where I live that gets what I call the white trash exemption. Their icicle lights burn year round. By the way, you ever try to spell icicle? Even auto-correct was confused by it. For the record it's i-c-i-c-l-e. Anyway, I don't know why these icicle lights remain in place 365 days a year. Is it laziness? Is it forgetfulness? Is it an intentional statement? I don't know. However, if you insist on burning your Christmas lights year round can you at least make sure more than 1/2 the lights actually burn?
I lament this every year. You've probably heard me gripe about this before and you'll hear it again. Yeah I know I should live and let live, but I have to look at those lights for night after night…week after week…month after month.
Lawmakers are in Austin crafting legislation on things like texting and driving, spending bills and the like. I implore our representatives to get busy on the critically important measure stipulating guidelines for holiday displays. I'd ask the City of Dallas to get to work on it, but these are reforms I'd like to see in my lifetime.
That's what I'm thinking.
Rick Hadley
24/7 News