Friday, December 25, 2009
The strange case of the flashing Christmas angel ornament
Physical State: sleepy
Mental State: noggy
Music: No Love For Ned - Christmas 2005 compilation
Fashion sense: pajamas pants @ 4pm (whoo hoo!), grey sweatshirt
For many years my family would decorate our Christmas tree and we had one traditional angel that would go on the tree every year. This angel was on our family's tree before I was even born. Indeed as you can see from the pics above it is pretty ancient. I think it was made in the early 60s out of some toxic vinyl ha ha. Inside it has a lightbulb to light up the whole angel when you plug it in. You can also just simply have it on the tree without the internal illumination. Well after many years this historic ornament started doing something that was truly bizarre. When you plugged it in it was supposed to stay on but as long as I can remember growing up it didn't stay illuminated all the time. It would flash on and off, but not continuously. It flashed on and off in an intermittent pattern. One year my dad and I talked about how it resembled morse code because there were long stretches of illumination and then quick bursts. I have joked, somewhat darkly, many times over the years about how these were probably morse code signals from the dead. The more time goes by the more I think that this is a strange phenomenon that only someone like George Noory could explain on Coast To Coast AM. Sometimes it freaks me out. I have even sat for long stretches of time trying to see if there is a distinct repeating pattern and the flashes are ALWAYS random, combinations of "off" and "on" for long "dashes" and short "dots," all the time! This is one of those things that makes Christmas truly memorable in my family in an X-Files kinda way. Weird but cool.
Physical State: sleepy
Mental State: noggy
Music: No Love For Ned - Christmas 2005 compilation
Fashion sense: pajamas pants @ 4pm (whoo hoo!), grey sweatshirt
For many years my family would decorate our Christmas tree and we had one traditional angel that would go on the tree every year. This angel was on our family's tree before I was even born. Indeed as you can see from the pics above it is pretty ancient. I think it was made in the early 60s out of some toxic vinyl ha ha. Inside it has a lightbulb to light up the whole angel when you plug it in. You can also just simply have it on the tree without the internal illumination. Well after many years this historic ornament started doing something that was truly bizarre. When you plugged it in it was supposed to stay on but as long as I can remember growing up it didn't stay illuminated all the time. It would flash on and off, but not continuously. It flashed on and off in an intermittent pattern. One year my dad and I talked about how it resembled morse code because there were long stretches of illumination and then quick bursts. I have joked, somewhat darkly, many times over the years about how these were probably morse code signals from the dead. The more time goes by the more I think that this is a strange phenomenon that only someone like George Noory could explain on Coast To Coast AM. Sometimes it freaks me out. I have even sat for long stretches of time trying to see if there is a distinct repeating pattern and the flashes are ALWAYS random, combinations of "off" and "on" for long "dashes" and short "dots," all the time! This is one of those things that makes Christmas truly memorable in my family in an X-Files kinda way. Weird but cool.
