I'm an idiot!

So the bus station lights lasted less than a week. They became dimmer and dimmer, and finally one night they refused to come on at all. I hauled the ladder down to the gate, and took them down -- no easy task, as the ladder wobbled on the uneven ground and I, ever the optimist, had asked Ian to string them rather thoroughly through the holes in the gate and roundabout the branches of the vine.

The company I bought them from returned my money, and all I was out was the return postage.

Almost the next day, my friend in Calgary informed me that Canadian Tire had stacks of solar lights for sale. I was excited. That weekend I bought two sets and, as my son and his wife were visiting, I took advantage of his good nature (Ian having decided by this time that he was not going to have any part of the solar light experiment) and asked him to help me set them up. He obliged happily and scrambled like a monkey onto the top of the gate in order to set the little solar panels at the best possible angle. (How to feel your age: watch your 30 year old son do something athetic that you couldn't attempt to do, even if your life depended on it!)

All was well for a couple of weeks. Then one set began to look much dimmer than the other. I checked the connections on both sets (I think perhaps breaking one -- I couldn't be sure: I didn't have my glasses on...). Two nights later the dim set refused to come on.

I was so disappointed.

But I was also determined.

Ah those solar lights. I went though four sets last year. I became embarrassed to walk into Canadian Tire. I was sure the ladies behind the counter were going to call in some officious manager, who would probably be not much older than my youngest son. He would examine my solar-light-returning record, and ask difficult questions, like: "How experienced are you in this technology?" or "Just where have you been hanging these lights?"

As it turned out, the last two sets of lights pooped out in January, and by the time I got them off the yew trees by the back deck (I'd given up on the Magic Gate now -- too difficult to string lights with frozen fingers, while teetering on a ladder in the snow, and I had no faith in their longevity) all the Christmas stock had been taken down and put away for the season. But the lady behind the Returns counter was the soul of helpfulness: "Just hang on to them till next November dear", she said. "They've got a year's guarantee!"

So I did.

Ian groaned when I returned, triumphant, from Canadian Tire this autumn with two brand new sets of lights. I put them up myself, having left the supports for the panels attached to the gate.

And strangely enough, they've worked without a hitch. Some nights they've been beautifully bright, and some nights they've been much dimmer. And on a couple of nights, one set hasn't come on at all. Because the panel was covered in snow....

One thing I've learned.

Solar lights need sunlight to work (Duh!). On cloudy days, they don't get a lot, and they use up whatever they've stored in their batteries quickly. After sunny days, they blaze away for a few hours.

I don't know if last year's lights were really broken, or if my antediluvian brain has taken a whole year to figure out how they work.

But the Magic Gate has its lights, for now at least.

I'm going to put off installing the solar panels on the roof for a few years....