Bookstore, rest and relaxation.....

Della and I play hookey once in a while when we get so cramped and closed in at the house. We love to hit the bookstores in our area. We browse all the magazines, search all the books on art or architecture, home improvement books are fun and art books are great. We buy coffee and just relax. My wife ended up buying a Photoshop magazine that helps give her directions for editing pictures and storing them in folders. There is no manual when you buy programs and the tutorials get to be irritating. Anyway, hopefully the magazine can help her do some of her computer work with the different sites she works with to sell art.
I know you are wondering, what is with the bubble lights. That is a Christmas thing, but let me explain. I found a book on Christmas decorations collecting. Most of the ornaments made from the early 30's to 60's were mostly cheap plastic except for some few glass blown ornaments that we could by at hardware stores or dime stores, but this book had page after page of bubble lights that people are collecting.
Anyway, when I was three years old or a little younger, I went to a Christmas party that my three brother's country school was having, and I saw bubble lights on their tree. The school was near our farm close to Hopeville, Iowa. I was so in awe of them, and then I never saw any ever again. In the past years they have started coming back and you could see them in Christmas shops and now in our superstores. I was fortunate to find some on a %75 off sale a year ago. I was so pleased as I wasn't ever going to pay full price.
The thing that I discovered in the Christmas collectors book was that there were only a couple different companies that made them and a lot of the older ones have oil in them or harsh chemicals that bubble up when the little light warms the fluid. When the bulbs break you have trouble. The thing that really surprises me now is that on Ebay there is a large following of collectors of these strings of bubble lights and there are unlimited amounts there to buy for very high prices.
The lights that I remember at the country school actually made a jingling sound as they bubbled. I know this seems silly but back then, TV was just being made available for the public to buy, it was 1953 and anything like this space shaped light was really beyond a curiosity. I was mesmerized. It seems to me to be such a treat to own then now today.
Being a kid at heart, I also collect glass blown ornaments. I like to buy the ones that resembled the old classic German ones of simple shapes of acorns, santas, mushrooms, little houses, etc. I also like to buy the ones today that are antique looking even though they are a new product. The sad thing going on right now is that the Chinese are making blown hard plastic ones and are painting them with the same glossy paint. One has to be careful to be sure they are glass.
The second picture of the Christmas tree is the little one that I keep my lights on and also the glass blown ornaments. It is fun to keep adding to the collection but I may have to get a bigger tree next year. Alright, I will quit, it is so out of season to be discussing this. Collectors get to be crazy don't they. Thanks for reading.