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| - Dave's 2006 emails - |
12-30-06 - Xmas Display News #5 - Storm, Food Drive, Elves....
Hi All,
We have three nights to go, and then we go dark until Nov-07. It's been a great season. The crowds were huge, no doubt
due to the good press we received in the San Jose Mercury and the Sunnyvale Sun. Word of mouth seems to be picking up
too. We had nearly 25,000 hits to our website in December. The snow machine was the big hit with the kids, the new
strobes and the Mega Tree with the adults. Thanks for all of your support in many areas:
Neighbors who had to put up with the traffic and noise
Food drive donations
Words of praise/encouragement
Passing the word
Coming out for Opening Night
Many of you were five for five on the above list....
Our display is becoming a holiday tradition for many families. We made a lot of memories, and we fed a lot of people. We
are proud of that, and you as our supporters should be proud as well.
STORM
The wind storm on the 27th did some significant damage to the display, specifically the new Mega Tree. I got up at 7:00 on
the 27th to find dead reindeer on the front lawn. The star over the house was getting pounded and the American flag was
swinging from it's support wires. But overall, things didn't look too bad. The dog was not to be denied his walk, so we left
to walk around the block. We saw branches down all over the street and since it was garbage day, everyone's garbage was
out, filled with lightweight Christmas wrappings. About half of the cans were on their sides while the other half all had their
lids blown open. Paper and peanuts everywhere. About halfway through the walk two huge gusts of wind came up that
caused me to have to turn and hide my face as all kinds of leaves and dirt and twigs came flying at us. When we got home,
the Mega Tree (which was fine when we left) was laying in a heap on the lawn. Whaaa!!! Go to this link to see a picture.
It's not pretty, I would only recommend looking if you are the type of person who watches auto racing just to see the
crashes....
www.severex.com/images/xmas06_mega_down.jpg
So Andy and I stood there looking at it for a while and decided that the work to rebuild the tree for 5 more nights would be
too much. Andy took the first shift of cleanup and I began working on it after lunch. I was just about to put all the lights
away when I had the idea that it might be an interesting effect to just lay the lights on the grass. I put the lights down in
parallel strips and wired them back up to the LOR controller. Andy showed up and we decided to change the strips and make
a tree shape. Our 3-D tree was now a flat 2-D tree! And windproof! It's an interesting effect and we feel it was a good
recovery, given the options. So come on by and see our flat tree!
Don't worry, the Mega Tree will be back next year!
Other storm damage:
- We discovered at 4:00 pm that the whole LOR network was down (streetlights, Rudolf, Magnolia trees, Mega Tree,
and lawn animals). Fortunately, we quickly narrowed the problem down to a bad connector on the cable from my
magnolia tree to the lawn animal controller. - Reindeer pond was out.
- Dead deer.
- Snow flurries were out.
- Star over the house had to be lowered while the storm passed.
- Major portion of the lights in my magnolia were out.
- Spotlight for snow machine was blown out alignment.
- Icicles on Andy's house out and hanging loose.
- Many lights in the birch trees out.
- It took two days to get everything up and running again.
FOOD DRIVE
Wow! We are almost at $27,000! Also, 10 barrels of food. Last year's record was $22,400. Great job everyone! Thank
you! We were pulling $300 a night out of the donation box on the three nights before Xmas. Traffic was crazy. We are
trying to get people to park at the Nursing Home on Tilton and walk down Utica (which looks fantastic this year) to our
display. Please help in passing the word for next year. The website also has parking and viewing tips as well as do's and
don'ts. The two big don'ts: No Honking, and No Loud Music......
ELVES
Ever wonder what I would look like dressed as an elf doing The Macarena? (I'm really hoping the answer to that question is
an emphatic "No!")
Well, now that I have put that image in your head, you might as well find out.....
http://www.elfyourself.com/?userid=88ab608ab25bd46c0276ee2G06122310
Elf your friends!
MISC
For those of you new to this list, archives of this years updates can be found here: http://www.severex.com/xmas-emails.
html
The main website: www.severex.com/xmas
Happy New Year!
Dave
12-06-06 - Xmas Display News #4 - Upcoming Events
Hi All,
Here are some upcoming events over the next three nights:
Tonight! 12/16 @ 5:30 - 6:00 pm - Santa!
12/17 @ 7:00 - 8:00 pm - Christmas Carolers. The sidewalk speaker will be turned off, but the FM broadcast will play as
usual.
12/18 @ 5:42 pm - GEEK ALERT!! The International Space Station and Space Shuttle Discovery will be directly overhead
while Elvis is singing Blue Christmas. This is our chance to be seen from space! The forecast for tomorrow is clear skies.
This information was provided by one of our fans at NASA. Click on the following link to see a spreadsheet with more
details. Remember, once you "go geek" you'll never go back..... www.severex.com/iss_pass.xls
Along that same vein.... Here is what happens when Engineers get to involved with Christmas:
www.severex.com/files/xmas_spec.pdf
www.severex.com/files/santa_claus-an_engineering_analysis.ppt
Other News:
The website continues to get updated. We have added a page called "Sparks" (of Inspiration). This page showcases
artwork that has been inspired by our display. It includes, a crayon drawing by a 5 year old, a ceramic plate with Rudolf's
likeness, an electrical engineering project, and a poem. www.severex.com/xmas-sparks
More Press. We we featured in the Homestead High School newspaper. Nice article by Monica Chen. http://www.severex.
com/images/homestead_hs_epitaph_12-13-06.pdf
This year's full panorama hi-res photo is now complete and on the website. http://www.severex.
com/images/xmas06_pano.jpg Note: Most browsers will size the image to fit the screen. Click on the image to expand it
to full size.
The website is averaging 800 hits per day, with a max of 1,251 on 12/9.
The kids love the new snow machine.
We've seen full size tour buses and limos.
Food drive is over $18,000!
That's all for now!
Dave
12-06-06 - Xmas Display News #3 - Carolers are coming....
Hi All,
Two pieces of news to get out to you:
1) Sunnyvale City Councilmember, Chris Moylan and his merry band of Christmas Carolers will be singing at our display on
Sunday, December 17th at 7:00 pm. BYOEN (egg nog) and come join the fun!
2) We are on the cover of today's Sunnyvale Sun. I was told that the article would be in the issue on the 13th, but I picked
up my copy of The Sun today and there we were! I thought I had more time to get the website in order.... Thanks to Erin
Hussey (reporter) and Jacqueline Ramseyer (photographer) for the nice article. I was also told that we would be on the
cover of the Cupertino Courier, but I have no confirmation at this time. Also, and this surprises me, the online version of the
Sun (www.sunnyvalesun.com) does not have the article up yet. You can see a PDF version of the article on our website's
Press page (www.severex.com/xmas-press.html). Oh, and we already have plenty of copies, so thanks, but no thanks.
Other News:
Opening Night II drew 30-40 people with deep pockets as we added another $3,000 to the food drive total. We are now
$2,500 over last year's pace and hopefully the above press will help boost the totals.
I have taken video of the new stuff for this year and posted it on our New Stuff page. The video is pretty bad, but it gets the
idea across. The Mega Tree and the Magnolia strobes are a huge hit! www.severex.com/xmas-new.html). The website is
pretty close to being up to date. I still need to get the News and Statistics pages done, and add more photos to Behind the
Scenes and Display Photos.
Coming soon to the display....
Elf jokes! No, we will not be telling tasteless jokes about Elves. The Elves are telling the jokes!
Example:
Elf #1: What do you call Santa with no money?
Elf #2: I give up.
Elf #1: St. Nickel-less. (giggle, giggle....)
Now that is some pretty high quality stuff. You'll have to come by the display to hear the rest...
Cheers,
Dave
11-28-06 - Xmas Display News #2 - Opening Night II
Hi All,
We have set a date for Opening Night II. It will be this Sunday (Dec. 3rd) at 5:15 pm. Kelsey is back at school now, so the
part of the Grinch will be played by the Understudy (Me). So if you missed Opening Night I, or if you just want to come out
and see me jump around like an idiot, please stop by. Note that we will not have a block party permit, so there will be some
traffic. Nor will we be serving refreshments. Bring your own and also bring your food drive donations. We chose Sunday
for a couple of reasons. We wanted it to be before the lights normally come on so traffic would be minimal. If we did it on a
work day, a lot of people would still be at work. The show will start promptly at 5:15, so arrive a little earlier than that. It
will run until 5:30 when the normal light show starts.
Other stuff....
I've been getting a lot of questions about the laser. Last year Rudolf had a green laser in his nose. This year he doesn't.
Why? One of our neighbors had a concern about it. We take our neighbor's concerns very seriously and we removed it.
Rudolf has some new additions that should make up for the loss of the laser. He will tell you about them on Sunday.
For those of you who haven't seen the Opening Night sequence, I would recommend that you do not click on the following
link, or it will spoil the show. If you have already seen it, or if you don't intend to see it you should listen to this version of
the Opening Night Script. The voice of Rudolf this year is once again performed by my friend Mark's son Erik. The following
audio clip is Mark, Erik and his other son Evan doing a single take of the entire Opening Night Script using different accents,
ranging from Abu (Simpson's Quickie Mart), to Crocodile Dundee, to Bob and Doug McKenzie (Hosers, Eh?). It is really
funny. This will be posted on the website later, but as email subscribers, you get first shot.
www.severex.com/audio/grinch_script_accents.mp3
Some new FAQs:
Q: Who is Rudolf's optometrist, Dr. Jiif Beeman?
A: That's a little inside joke. Jeff Beeman is my buddy who made Rudolf's new glasses this year.
Q: Is Dave such a Geek that he would synchronize his computer to an Atomic Clock server so that the show starts at
EXACTLY 5:30 pm every night?
A: Yes.
New lights vs. old lights.... One of our brand new reindeer just blew 10 bulbs out of 200. In comparison, we replaced about
20 bulbs on our 6 year old icicles (5,000 bulbs). We find newer lights more troublesome that older "seasoned" lights most
of the time.
The power audit is complete. 184 amps for the whole display. Both of our houses have 200 amp service...
See you Sunday!
Dave
11-26-06 - Xmas Display News #1
Hi All,
Opening Night is behind us and the Grinch is back in his lair at the top of Mt. Crumpet (or maybe in her apartment at Long
Beach State, I get it confused sometimes...) . We had a great crowd, and we beat our last year's Opening Night Food Drive
total with a grand total of $12,534 and 2.5 barrels of food! Thank you all VERY MUCH for your generosity.
But if you think all of the work is done, then guess again.... Yesterday's first task was cleanup from Opening Night. Then I
had to disassemble the failed LOR controller and install the new controller. I then had to remove the borrowed controller
and return it to the generous donor who lives in Los Altos Hills. Then I installed the new controller and tested it (in the
rain). In a semi-Christmas display related task, I had to crawl under the house (I really hate that... I once paid Kyle $20 to
do it, but I guess $20 doesn't mean as much to him anymore...) to retrieve the end of a cable that a rat had chewed
through. This cable is the data cable for my solar system and since I plan to publish electricity usage graphs on our solar
site, it was kind of important (see below for another rat story). Then I had to quickly slap together the regular nightly play
list before 5:30 when the lights come on. All this time semi-watching the 49ers blow it, (Boo!) and the Raiders blow it
(Yay!).
Today is Food Drive totaling day. Getting the spreadsheet up to date, calculating the check for the matching money,
converting all the cash to a check (I never need to go to the ATM during December....), and mailing it all in. I also have to
get the food barrels ready for pickup and leave out the barricades for the City of Sunnyvale to pickup. We did receive a visit
from the Police at about 7:15 pm on Opening Night. Someone had called to complain that we had blocked off the street. He
checked out our permit and said it was all good and that he would come back later with his kids. Today is also "power
balancing" day. I'll go around and measure all the circuits to confirm that the load is balanced. This is not as critical this
year, since I had a sub-panel and 9 dedicated outdoor outlets installed as part of the solar project.
Then it's time to review all the photos and begin the website upgrading for this year. This usually takes about a week. I will
send out another email when it is done (it's never completely done...), but you can also check back every few days, as I post
pages as soon as they are done.
Then there is the nightly maintenance, bulb fixing, bad connections, filling the snow machine reservoir.....
Now to the other rat story. I was getting the PA speakers out of the shed in the side yard on Friday. As I'm sure some of
you know, a lot of speakers have a hole in the back for the bass sound to exit. As I'm carrying this speaker with my fingers
in this hole (a nice handle), I hear some noise from inside the speaker, and all of a sudden, something alive is trying to
squeeze out this hole that my fingers are in. I'm not exactly sure what sound came out of my mouth, but it was a sound of
pure fear. So this huge rat comes flying out the hole, hits the ground running, shoots under the gate and is gone. Mind you,
I'm not scared of rats and mice, just unknown creatures that I'm not expecting that are touching me. I was laughing as soon
as I saw what it was.... And, he didn't bite me and I didn't drop the speaker. So there's a little insight as to the things I go
through to put on a big show for you guys.
For those of you who missed the Grinch on Opening Night, let me know if you are interested in Opening Night II. It should
be on a weeknight around 5 ish, so the crowds and cars won't be too bad. Just remember, the Grinch works for food. :)
Cheers,
Dave
10-11-06 - Xmas Display Opening Night
Xmas Light Fans,
I'm sure you've all seen the Christmas stuff at Costco and OSH, so I feel I'm safe in sending out the first Severns-Pease
Christmas Display Email-O-Gram of the 2006 season. I've already been to both places to see if there is anything new that
might be of interest. There were no great surprises. LED's are slowly making progress. Their cost is now down to 3x that
of incandescent mini-lights. $11 for 100 bulb strings. So instead of spending 70,000 x $.11 = $7,700 to convert the entire
display to LED's, we spent over 5 times that amount and installed a Solar PV system on our roof to give us FREE electricity.
Hmmm.... When you look at the numbers that way, maybe we should have gone the LED route.... Doh! Well, what's done is
done. Our PV system is pretty big and can generate 8,400 watts at peak power. It is sized to give us a net zero electricty
bill over a one year period including the Xmas Display. For more info on our PV system including graphs and charts of
current production you can go to our new Solar PV site at www.severex.com/pv . There is also a link to the Solar site on
our Xmas site: www.severex.com/xmas .
Opening Night as usual, will be on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend (11/25) at 8:00 pm.
What's new for 2006? That’s for us (and the Inner Circle) to know and you to find out. Naturally, all information is
compartmentalized, and each Inner Circle member is on a "need to know" basis, so if you happen to capture one, you won’t
get the whole story.
Here's what to expect:
* A new Opening Sequence that will only be seen on Opening Night (It might be repeated if you are very good at begging....).
* New songs - For the first year we will have some songs that have been choreographed by someone other than Dave!
(Andy and Diane)
* Lights! New kinds and new capabilities.
* Cookies and hot cider.
* Food Drive.
* Free stuff! (surplus and used items from the display that we don't use/want anymore)
* The famous bulb counting contest.
* Behind the scenes tour.
Donations for our 4th annual food drive through Second Harvest Food Bank (www.secondharvestsjca.org ) will be accepted
starting Opening Night and continuing until the display is shut down. You can bring food or money, but if you bring money,
the Severns Family Foundation will match all monetary donations (up to a maximum of $500 per donation and a maximum of
$20K for all donations).
Our Motto: You give us the food/money, we give you the lights, nobody gets hurt....
Last year we collected 7.5 barrels of food and donated $22,466 to Second Harvest. In February, Second Harvest awarded
us with the 2005 Food Drive Community Champion Award and we just squeaked into their Blue Diamond category. This is
their highest level and we are now schmoozing with the likes of Applied Materials, and Cisco. Our award will be on display
on Opening Night. So…. The bar is getting really high. Start going through your pantries now and pull out those jars of
peanut butter and cans of lima beans (bleeechh!!). Speaking of jars…. Plastic is GOOD. Glass is BAD (glass breaks during
handling and makes a mess). Also, no perishable foods. And….. I know that none of YOU did this, but some people used our
barrels as a Good Will truck and put all kinds of weird things in them last year. Food only please. Remember that monetary
donations get matching money, so you will double your donation if you bring cash or a check.
One reason for this early email is to make sure that our email distribution list is in order. Every year, we get a lot of "bounce
backs" and have to reconnect with folks. So, spread the word and if someone says they didn't get the email have them
contact us to get on (or back on) the list.
That's all for now. We will send out more info as the date approaches. Remember, the website does not get updated until
after Opening Night, so it won't do you any good to go there looking for clues as to what's new. Of course, it won't do you
any harm either..... www.severex.com/xmas
See you soon!
Dave and Sharon
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