It seems that every store we go to, they have those solar powered yard lights. They have a plastic spike on the bottom, so they are simply pushed down into the ground and they charge all day, then light our paths at night. And they’re cheap, too!

Of course I had to buy a couple. They change color and are very pretty. Not only that, they cast just enough light to see our black dog as he wanders around the back yard. I’d never thought about it before, but we discovered the hard way that it’s very easy to lose a black dog once the sun goes down.

My husband thought this was a great idea, so he bought a different kind of solar powered lights and mounted them on the fenceposts at the back of the yard, to shed more light in. I think the idea is that when the lawn is mowed, we don’t have to find where the kids put them and reinsert them in the grass. But they are white and boring.

Being a great idea, my youngest son decided that since he and his girlfriend revamped my flower garden in the front yard, that needed a couple of solar powered lights, too. I don’t know why anyone might need to see the flowers in front of my house in the middle of the night, but there they are.

I couldn’t let that be. In order to see our black dog a little better, I bought a few more last night and put them all in a nice row in the yard, so now we have even more dog-height lights. Potentially, now we will be able to see our dog anywhere, all night long.

I guess the rainbow kaleidescope of color became too overwhelming. I thought it was all very pretty, but the word ‘tacky’ came into the conversation, and all my nice lights all got turned to plain white.

Oh well. Our yard has lost its sparkle, but at least we can find the dog.