Man: I spend the entire year plotting my big Christmas display

This year, Scott Loftus has his display set up so that 100,000 lights blink in time with a 43-minute, nine-song loop that's synchronized through a computer program. "I think about it all year long, what I'm going to do, and it's about three to four weeks to set up the display." (State Journal-Register)

Comments

[nav]

This guy needs a life. Oh, well; I gess it's good he has a hobby. I wonder what he does the rest of the year?

[twerp]

So much for energy conservation....

[nellagain]

A 43 minute tape loop playing from 5 to 6 hours a night EVERY Night from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

Do *none* of his neighbors own guns?

[angrysockmonkey]

I wonder if that includes saving up for the electricity bill that this display generates

[Russ]

This guy only lives 200 miles from me. Hmmm...

[cherie]

So they listed his address, I'm gonna guess the neighbors wont be overjoyed by the bottlenecking caused by rubberneckers driving through the neighborhood every night.

[Russ]

The tape loop plays on a low-wattage FM radio transmitter, not out loud. I'd be more troubled by the traffic, and I'd be afraid of getting a sun burn if I left accidentally my shades open at night.

[Russ]

Check it out:
http://www.xavierlights.com/

[Dick Tater]

Fortunately, I am surrounded by my own property and do not have any neighbors. But if I did live next to this moron, I can assure you his display would be shut down. I would sabotage it every day until he finally got tired of trying to repair it. I loathe and despise people who go overboard during the holidays...people like this man and the mindless horde that trampled the Wal-Mart worker in New York. My family does not celebrate Christmas or exchange gifts. Last year, one of my suppliers tried to give me some sort of gourmet food basket as a Christmas gift. I refused to accept it and explained why. I am 37 and have never purchased a Christmas or birthday or anniversary gift for anyone. If other people want to throw their money away, so be it. But the fool in this story needs help. He is mentally defective.

[Russ]

Wow Dickless, you sound like a ton of fun!

[Jesus the gun owner]

bah humbug to you too dick tater
especially on my birthday
glad you arent my neighbor because i would have shot you for messing with my birthday display.

[Rock Marine]

I'll bet the ladies find Dick to be very romantic, especially on thier anniverary, or Valentines Day.

[A.V.]

dick taster's skidmarks must be in the front of his underwear.

[lynn]

Russ---can you see him from your house?
With 100, 000 lights you should.

Nell, This would be the best time for the neighbors to split a line into his electical service, he will not notice the additional electricity or the increase on the bill...

Especially since he isn't paying the bill at all.

[Jesus the matchmaker]

all of dick tater's dates usually end the same way

with the girl getting out of her restraints and tearing the duct tape from her mouth while running away screaming

Sick

[sometimesilie]

I gotta agree with Dick on this one. His neighbors probably want him to convert.

[jj2]

Wow, you're giving us quite the mental picture today, Dick. A guy who celebrates nothing all year long. Who lives far away from others and has guns in every room. It all sounds so dreamy.

Some people do tend to get carried away with this particular holiday. Then, there's the other extreme.

The displays are his hobby. It lasts one month, and he gives others a thrill with it. Where's the harm?

[Soo]

So he gets corporate sponsorship for his display? Sa-weet!

Only, I agree with Nell (and sort-of with Dick [?!]): if I were his neighbor, I'd probably be shooting the lights out, regardless of how much time I'd do for it.

If my last tenants can shoot up my steel shed with bb guns so that it leaks like a spaghetti sieve, then surely I can take out a few hundred lights or so from the safety of my shrubbery.

I just watched Deck the Halls, and I think living next to that kind of display, with that kind of traffic trolling by to take a looky-look, would make me snap.

[outofsalt]

I'm glad this d00d derives some derivement from this--and good for him for figuring out how to do it! If I were this guy's neighbor, though, I'd find myself more than a little irked by it. The light alone would be a killer - try getting your 9 hrs of sleep per night with Christmas lights, soundtrack, and traffic noises of gawkers!

Sleep-deprived neighbors are unhappy neighbors!

My outdoor Christmas decorations consist of: a Christmas wreath. It takes all of 2-3 seconds to hang, 2-3 seconds to take down, and creates no energy bills. Bio-degradable too! It also helps to avert the well-intentioned but erroneous Happy Channukahs from the neighbors.

[outofsalt]

One thing, though: if he's going to inflict this on his neighbors, I'd hope he'd ask for their feedback on music selection. If I had to listen to "Barking Dogs Christmas" or "Chestnuts Roastin' on an Open Fire," 1x every tape run, hmm, 6-7 times a night for 30+ nights, I'd snap. I'd absolutely snap, and y'all would be making witty repartee about what a lame-oh I am when my article made it into OSRR!

[Soo]

Honestly, Salt, my bets are on us cheering you on.

[lynn]

aggggg , the barking dogs of jingle bells...salt that would be reason to flake out.

we would be agreeing with you if you got in here and hoping your addy would not be in the article.

[MONKEY JERK]

SOUNDS LIKE A REAL CHRISTMAS DISPLAY HERO HERE.

[nellagain]

Christmas, as I may have mentioned, is BIG in CT. We get presents, dinners etc from our vendors. Managers feed us at all levels (your manager, your manager's manager etc). Secretaries, sorry admin assistants, form roving gangs taping holly and evergreens etc on every available surface, including perfectly innocent copy machines.

Which is a bit weird since a good third of my co-workers are Jewish; Hindu is well-represented (what can I tell you? their math skills are legendary), and there's enough atheists for us to have our lunch group. And there are the requisite number of pagans/wiccans over in IT.

And then there's the pre-adamic christians: not a vocal group but they don't celebrate christmas or any of those other pagan rituals that somehow got mixed up with christianity.

[sometimesilie]

Soo, pretty funny picturing you in the shrubbery with a bb gun. I keep hearing "Shrubbery" as in Monty Python.