Here we are then. End of the year, start of another. Fireworks, champagne, promises and reflections, as the clock gently ticks over.
I am not fussed. I’m researching lightbulbs.
Hey kids, want to know what fuddy-duddies get excited about? Over here. 6500k lumens versus soft white, efficiency versus brightness, halogens or LEDs? This is where it’s at.
When I was young and cool (maybe two weeks in the summer of 1995?) I would have laughed at the idea that lightbulbs could one day be exciting. But they are, aren’t they? I mean, Thomas Edison works out how to pass electricity through a wire filament and it’s so bright and small and revolutionary, it’s as though a (ha) lightbulb (sorry) has just come on! No more gas lamps! They’re dirty and greasy and expensive. So long, naked flame! Hello, electric illumination! And then suddenly, it’s the twenty first century and here we are making our bathrooms glisten with daylight!
The funniest thing of all about being a fuddy-duddy though, is that it proves that we’re connected, like points along a ruler. Here I am at this end, watching videos about lightbulbs, and there I am too, young and silly, and laughing at middle-aged people who get excited about lightbulbs. You’ve got to admit that’s funny - like a person in a queue for a roller coaster thanking God that the terrified passengers whizzing over head will never be them.
Anyway, the little marks along the ruler of time are reaching an improbable measure of 2024, and we tick on. The plan for us is a little family time, some quiet games (we’re not exactly party people) and quite probably a cup of tea, Big Ben, and the inevitable volleys of fireworks that signal so much hope and so much thankfulness.
Oh, and maybe another quick flick through Amazon to see if they have any sales on lightbulbs.
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