37th Street lights in Austin, Texas, December of 2007, A tangled braid of life and technology

The 37th street in Austin, Texas is famous for its unusual holiday decorations.

Here is a holiday “tree” decorated with bicycle parts.

CIMG8477 A bicycle tree made of holiday lights and segments of bicycle frames

Some of the 37th street decorations are more mysterious than others. A vacuum cleaner (?) sitting on a chair, a hand raised as if for greeting, a cowboy hat on its head. You have to wonder if it some kind of puzzle.

A chair with a hat and a hand - a holiday lights display — CIMG8489 A chair with a hat and a hand – a holiday lights display

A goose with golden eggs, penguins, and hot peppers. One of the penguins has fallen down – accidentally or on purpose?

A goose with golden eggs, penguins, and hot peppers - a holiday lights display — CIMG8502 A goose with golden eggs, penguins, and hot peppers

E next to a motorbike, all decked out with holiday lights. Is this what modern day Mary and Joseph would ride into Austin on?

CIMG8504 A motorcycle decorated with holiday lights

A fireplace made of holiday lights, with stockings outlined in lights, and virtual presents on stalks, also made of lights

CIMG8506 A fireplace, stockings and presents, all made out of holiday lights

Virtual presents under a ghostly tree

The blue icosahedron hanging off of this tree on 37th street is supposed to represent an aquarium. The next picture shows it up close.

CIMG8518 A blue icosahedron made of holiday lights hanging off of a tree

The blue icosahedron hanging off of the tree, up close. Among all the coke cans, it has little fishes in it. So it is an aquarium of sorts.

Holiday “lights” in the form of Ezra Brooks bottles

While I wondered if it was milk in those glasses that made Santa pass out, or some harder substance, the two-year-old E found a simpler explanation: “Snowman hit Santa!”