The Last Free Light Bulb

My wife and I moved into our house in April of last year. One of the things that quickly impressed us was how hot all of our light fixtures were.

We did some prodding around and realized that the previous owners took a very scattershot approach to lighting. We have five fixtures that take at least 4 bulbs each. There were absolutely NO matching bulbs, and they were all at least 60-Watt. Some were "soft white", but most were pretty bare. One was a "Three-Way" bulb that could do 60, 90, or 120 Watts. A couple of them looked like they came out of prison interrogation rooms. One even looked like it came out of a refrigerator.

We suddenly got very happy about 40-Watt bulbs. I think we hit a sale or something. We wound up replacing every bulb in the house with 40-Watt's. We took all of the other bulbs and piled them up in the linen closet.

From then on, every time we had a single-bulb fixture go out (mostly our lamps), we'd replace it with one of the old bulbs. Since they weren't new they never lasted long, but that was OK. We called them our "free" light bulbs.

This week, we hit a milestone. The last "free" light bulb was used. Our linen closet is empty. I guess this means we can buy some towels now.

It's weird how quickly I got used to having a closet full of moderately-used light bulbs. It was like a carnival grab bag... I never knew what Wattage I'd end up with. Sometimes the free bulb would only last a week, sometimes a month. A couple of them are still proudly burning.

None of them worked when I stuck them in my mouth though. Not that I really expected it, but I *was* kinda hopeful.