2004 Christmas "canned" response

Thank you for writing to me about my Christmas Lights.

I first want to apologize for this "canned" response,
but I have gotten over a thousand Emails from around the
world from folks like yourself who have enjoyed turning
on and off my 17,000 Christmas Lights at http://www.komar.org/
there is just no way I can personally respond to everyone.

The best way to sum up the overwhelmingly positive notes is this composite:
   The world could use more people like you. 
   People who still are "kids" at heart, and 
   have a positive outlook on life - you made me smile
   and my kids really liked playing with your lights.
   There is a small part in each and everyone of us that remains a child,
   and for you to let others do this is wonderful!!. 
   I may have a turn on/off myself later..he he he )
   I'm absolutely enchanted with your website and your nutziness;
   I wish I was one of your neighbors.
   My Dad passed away in July so it's been a little quite around here
   but you made me laugh out loud several times in the past hour.
   This is amazing! I'm having so much fun annoying your neighbors. 
   You put a big smile on my face :)
   Thank you for making the holidays that much more special for everyone.
and again, I'm sorry I can not thank each of you personally.

In case you are wondering, the story from the local paper
was carried Internationally and showed up in dozens, if
not hundreds of online and traditional media outlets.
Here is what CNN wrote:
    http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/12/14/internet.lights.ap/
and I've lost track of how many radio and TV interviews I've done.
Speaking of which, if you have a high-speed Internet connection,
some of those pretty funny video segments can be seen at:
    http://www.komar.org/christmas/videos/
which includes one unique view as I report live from the
Channel 7 helicopter 1,000 feet above my house!   ;-)

My "15 second of fame" as been fun and quite the ride,
but I suspect coming to an end ... which is just fine;
I have no desire to be a "star" and my wife correctly
said last week "you may be a media celebrity, but today
is trash day, and you still need to take out the garbage!"

With all this going on, I did somehow manage to pull off 
a SURPRISE 40th Birthday Party for my lovely wife last night. 
   http://www.komar.org/christmas/2004/updates.html#Wendy_Party
Somehow, despite the considerable distraction of the Christmas 
Lights stuff, I managed to pull this off; don't ask me how!


My closing comment in one of the video segments mentioned above is
"Happy Holidays from Komar.Org" ... so ditto with this Email.
alek