I put up my SOX 18w wallpack in my tiny backyard.

Turns out those things actually are pretty damn bright. Definitely gonna attract attention. I've had it lit indoors on occasion but somehow to the eye it didn't look particularly powerful, but outside in the dark it's just a sea of yellow, brighter than the cone top public street lights which are pretty dim here because you don't want those to shine into your bedroom window either.

I'm gonna make a little shroud for it so it doesn't shine into the houses opposite mine.

That sounds lovely! And yes indeed, they're surprisingly efficient, and to our eyes they appear incredibly bright! I personally would absolutely love if one of my neighbors had a SOX light - I'd enjoy it!

And at dusk

It looks really lovely there! A very nice spot for it

[ Context: Around 2015, I found a random fluorescent tube laying out on the sidewalk, and I took it to a small mall parking garage, that I remembered had an EOL tube. I decided to put the lamp I found into that fixture (with the help of a worker with a ladder). It was the wrong color, 2700k instead of 6500k surrounding it. But I was proud of my "work". I visited it every year since.
When it was time for the group relamping, all other lights were eol, except the one I placed. The workers followed my lamp and used 2700k on all other fixtures.
Since 2015, the mall has expanded a lot, but my original lamp was still there. They upgraded the dead fluorescent lamps to 4000k led, while let the working ones stay.]


Today, I visited the mall and found my tube eol, after 10 years of overnight use.

Replaced my outdoor Christmas light timer.  The old one was a mechanical 24-hour timer that can be set in 15-minute increments.  It fits in a standard single gang wall box, which makes everything really tiny.  After a year of power outages and blinks, the time is always off, and it's pretty difficult to set accurately.  I ended up replacing it with a 24-hour 2-program digital timer.  Much easier to set, and actually what it's set for.

A couple days ago, looked through & re-organized some of my Christmas lights.

Today, repaired 2 sets of lights (had to remove from the small tree they were in .. now I'll have to put 'em back & re-decorate it)

Tonight I changed out about 20 or so EoL or near EoL F32T8s.  Most were GEs from 2018-2023 that with no surprise, did not last very long.  Had a few older Sylvanias (2001-2010 ish vintage and a few Philips from 2018-2024 vintage as well.  (Changed out a few Sylvanias at another building that didn't make it 5 years as well.  Stupid transition over to Chinese manufacturing The newer ones were all the 900 series.  The old ones were the 700/800 series. 

On January 3rd, 2026, I replaced the ballast in my bathroom fluorescent light with a NOS Universal 446-LR-TC-P from 1985. The old ballast was a cheap electronic ballast that came with the fixture. Also put in a new set of warm white lamps while I was at it.

On January 10th, 2026, I installed a Lithonia Lighting single-lamp F20T12 strip light in the garage workshop above the workbench window. I also got some GE fluorescent and high-pressure sodium lamps on sale at Lowe’s.