We have been having

an ongoing debate on the word "working"

Husband and I for years have had an ongoing battle about using the terminology in regards to "the prop was/is working".

For the continuation of our long and happy (and less blood loss) life together we have decided to disagree.

That does not stop the frog queen from trying to make her point.....nor has he budged on his. We have been running in place for a long time boys and girls.

Anyway - I am going to do my best to present both sides fairly. Cross fingers.

"Prop working" - Husband definition

Partly working = working

Example - Coachman. If the lights fade up, his eyes start to glow, the sound cues, and the head is moving, the prop runs and cycles back through and starts again.....but the jaw and/or head is not moving. That is a "working" prop.

Well, yes, if you put it that way, I guess it is more "working" than "not working"

"Prop working" - frog queen definition

partly working = not working

Same example - Coachman. If the lights fade up, his eyes start to glow, the sound cues, and the head is moving, the prop runs and cycles back through and starts again.....but the jaw and/or head is not moving. That is a "not working" prop.

I guess I am more of a glass half empty type frog queen :)



See where the problem is? (Besides me being crazy :D )

To be fair - the Coachman worked most of this year....except of course, on the night that it was being filmed. :D So we do not have footage of that either :)

This year, the reliably "working/not working" prop in question was the preacher ghost. The new video was spectacular (I don't think anyone called him a civil war ghost, like they used to) and the audio worked....and the footsteps did light up for the most part, just not with the sound cues....so you would see lighted footsteps but no sound, or sound and no footsteps. Not the effect I was hoping for.

We blame a lot of it on rain...rain and electronics are never a good mix. And no, I do not want husband or any of the crew out there working on the electronics in the rain (sometimes bringing the prop in to work on is not an option - as with the preacher where it is connected to lighting and a projector and wires on the prop board.) nothing is that important. So I live with it, unhappy (and I make sure everyone knows this) but, as husband likes to remind me "there are many other props that ARE working. Get over it, this is a free yard display!!!"

After 11 years of working on this years we are no closer to solving this problem.....I guess I need to find a good way to define a "partially working" prop.