I was in the Home Depot at Chatham Shopping Center last weekend when my eye caught this year’s holiday décor offerings. Every year it seems that the envelope of tackiness is pushed just a little farther. Technology has enabled a whole new era of holiday overkill.
A few years back, an enterprising electrical engineer named Carson Williams outfitted the outside of his home in Mason, Ohio with lights synchronized to the Trans Siberian Orchestras “Wizard in Winter” orchestration. The resulting video became a phenomenon the internet and subsequently was even featured in a beer commercial. This year you can actually purchase your own home light show synced to music for around three hundred bucks. No doubt some of these will debut in neighborhoods around Howard County this holiday season.
For this reason, this elephant décor item is this week’s scene in Ellicott City.
With all the gloomy economic news it is nice to see a local merchant who is thinking of the future. For as many years as I can recall, Feet First has been a mainstay of the local running scene. The locally owned athletic shoe store has served Howard County soccer and running enthusiasts’ since 1979. Up until last month all those years were spent in a small corner store in Wilde Lake Village Green.
Times change. With the arrival of new competition like Road Runner Sports in Gateway Overlook, Jeffery and Karen Cohen decided to up their own game by relocating into an expanded space at the Hickory Ridge Village Center. The new store is about twice the size of the old store and carries a lot more merchandise.I stopped by yesterday and picked up a brand new pair of Asics GEL Kayano 14’s and six pairs of running socks. The new store looks terrific. For their optimism about the future of their business in Columbia, I made Karen and Jeffrey this week’s scene in Columbia.
