Let There Be Light!

It's been dreary here the last few days. It is the downside of living in a cabin in the woods, especially on a rainy day. And it has rained for two days straight. The lake is rising, the streams are full, and the mourning doves that scour the ground for food have begun gathering twigs. I think they've decided to build a raft.

Normally, on a gray day, I turn on all the lights in the house. This is much easier when Larry isn't around to wonder aloud if the Power Company had a sale on electricity. There is another issue, however, with the lights that helps to keep me in the dark. Four days ago, the kitchen light quit. Just like that. It is one of those LED lights that is guaranteed to work for 50 years. I think it lasted about 15 months.

When we bought our little cabin, there was an ugly fluorescent light with an opaque puff cover over it. It provided ample light, but was, quite simply, UGLY. I wasn't sorry when it died. When Larry and I checked our local Home Depot we studied the assortment of overhead lights suitable for a kitchen, and came home with one we thought would fit our small space. A cute little chrome number with 4 directional LED lights.

This is a good time to mention, I have few 'Designer' skills. And it became apparent as soon as we installed it in the kitchen that it was a poor choice. It was modern, sleek, bright enough to land aircraft and completely out of sync with cabin décor.

For the first few months, every time we turned it on in the morning we had to shield our eyes. I'm pretty sure it would have given a blind man sight. I told myself I liked the bright light, but as time went on I admitted more and more how much I didn't like the overall effects. The light was just wrong for the room.

And then it quit. Boom. First a flicker, then a brown out, then..... nothing. This time I decided to exercise patience, and forethought. We checked the local light store and found fantastic Farm House style lights, Cabin lights, cool looking rustic lights.... great lights. I went home and studied the space. And I realized the ugly 4' fluorescent style was actually the best fit. For some unknown reason the light fixture is not centered in the ceiling and all of those cool looking lights would hang in the wrong place. A wide spaced, flush mounted, unobtrusive design is what works best.

This morning I awoke up to another dark, dreary, damp day. I can't function in the dark. I would shrivel into a Styrofoam peanut if I lived in Alaska. I was ready to turn on all the lights in the house but there was still a large dark corner in the one place I needed to see what I'm doing. Today, we went to Home Depot and picked out another flush mounted, non-obtrusive ceiling light with LED lighting.

Is it just me, or does this look as though a UFO is settling in our kitchen?

Once again we can bring sight to the blind. I suspect even the Space Station has detected a new glow emanating from somewhere in the North Georgia mountains. That's ok. This time I am ready.

Let there be LIGHT!