December 1st. The day (or night depending on how you see it) of the Willamina (in Oregon) Lighted Christmas Parade had finally arrived! After several weeks of talking, planning, scrounging up items and annoying others with the details, my dear, sweet wife wrapped me up in about 1000 LED lights after donning my camo coveralls and backpack filled with electronic hardware. A bit of testing and we thought we were good to go, however....
We arrived at the starting point at one end of the town with the rain just pouring down. There were at least a dozen entries there before we showed up and several more came after we got there. We came equipped with umbrellas and as predicted, we (I mean I) were going to be the only one(s) walking the 1.1 mile route through town. Just to make sure, we conducted another test and found out the system wouldn't work. You may know how frustrating it is to find out your creations don't work, much less trying to repair them in a downpour. Then, after pulling everything out of the backpack, my wife (trying not to blow her cool, trying to follow my directions and me not being able to help or see what she was doing) finally found the problem. A faulty switch on the APC was not on, causing the whole thing to fail. She pressed the button and beat on the thing to make it come on, then put the whole mess back into the backpack and sealed it up just in time.
Having to walk the route meant I was going to be last in line but just before SANTA in a one horse open (you probably thought I was going to say sleigh) buggy. The man driving the buggy won last year with a beautiful Cinderella coach. Walking with me was my Dachshund Penny and she was dressed up in a Mrs. Santa skirt made by my wife. It was decorated with bells, white fur and 35 LED lights! Penny was well aware of the horse following us as she had never seen a horse before. I wonder if she thought it was a giant dog. She kept looking behind us to see if the horse was trying to get her. =LOL= I kept pulling her leash a bit and talking to her, telling her it was alright. Amazingly, while the rain before the parade had come down in buckets, it stopped almost completely while we were walking the parade route. We were given an entry number (mine being #8) at the beginning. I had the lights turned off to conserve power and still the parade director asked me if i had lights? with 1000 LEDs obviously zigzagging all over me. I promptly hit the ON button on my remote and lit up!
So on we walked, Penny and I, down the center of the street (technically a highway) through Willamina. What fun that was, people clapping and pointing at us, a great feeling it was. Meanwhile, my wife and our friend were following a ways back, handing out mini-flyers for our Christmas Light Show that starts on December 10th. They handed out over 80 mini-flyers and walked most of the route. Kudos and Good Job to them!
Waving to the crowd and shouting "Merry Christmas!" in a parade is something I have never done and let me tell you, your arm will get tired. As we got near the old drugstore where the judges were, I did a little dance and got Penny to do her prairie dog trick (sitting up and bouncing a little). The crowd in front of the store clapped and cheered including the one with the clipboard. Sweet! Continuing on, we passed the grocery store and went over the bridge to finish the route. We rounded the last corner and arrived at the old High School when all at once, the APC in the backpack ran out of power. Talk about a close call! It failed as predicted by our tests earlier in the week almost to the minute.
Penny and I waited there until my wife arrived and it was then we learned we had taken 3rd Place! WoooHoooo! We (Richard-that's me, Sandy-my wife, our Good Friend Marianne and Penny the wonder dog) had done it! Now there was going to be something extra in our food collection bin. We will shop around and buy as much food as we can with the prize money. We did that last year when we won 3rd place (I hope that's not going to be the trend) in the Home Illumination Contest.
We still have a chance to win that again this year with the judging to be on the 21st or so.
A lot of fun was had by all!! I'm still trying to convince my wife to join me in the parade for next year.
