Ramble 4: The red-nosed Rudolphs return!

I hadn't noticed how much I depend upon seeing these harbingers of the holidays until it seemed they may not appear this year.
I've been scanning Eighth Street along Washington Park since before Thanksgiving (have you noticed that, these days, holiday decorations appear before the annual turkey food-a-thon?).
I suggested to Sergei that maybe this year the reindeer headed south for the winter with the Least Terns and flocks of our other feathered friends.
Skeptical of my descriptions - "Reindeer palm fronds, Marge? Are you hallucinating?" - and, to his credit, Sergei's disbelief may be warranted: he'd never seen them before and he appreciated discovering them. (Hmmm, perhaps now is a good time for a little self reflection: could it be that, due to artistic differences, "talks have broken down" by this point in our ramblings? I'm known to devolve into a hair-trigger payload of impatience when Sergei stops - oh so frequently - to photograph. I'm also known to stalk off and leave him and his camera to make their way home alone. Here's another item to add to our growing list of New Year's Resolutions: Marge shalt not express her impatience with Sergei's artistic ramblings.)

Alas, I digress.
Today, anxious that the reindeer may not appear this year, I walked over to Burbank, Portola and Eight street near Washington Park to check.

 (Above: view of Burbank from Portola toward Central Ave.)

The red-nosed Rudolphs are back!
Indeed, I was so excited to find them that I photographed them!
They're more splendid than ever since, this time, I know how this reindeer tradition evolved.
I couldn't quite believe that the City was responsible for executing such imaginative goings-on but I wasn't sure. I figured it was more likely a neighbor or two doing the magic.
Turns out it is most of the neighborhood!
I learned this from a Burbank Avenue resident I collared as he departed his parked vehicle.
He, Andy, was very neighborly; instead of dashing inside and shutting the door on the crazy old stranger-lady calling out to him he stopped to chat.
He's has lived on Burbank since 1983 and, each year, he and most of his neighbors gather for this holiday tradition.
This year they gathered on Sunday, December 2 to choose the right fronds from the palms that line both sides of Burbank. The tradition began in this neighborhood although the group has been joined by those who live along Eighth between Central and Portola avenues where palm trees grace the Washington Park side of Eighth Street.

Each year residents volunteer to exploit the perfect curve of dropped palm fronds to create dozens of reindeer. They prep and dicky up the fronds, paint eyes, place the red ornament noses (last year's noses were red ping pong balls) then, using ladders and lots of careful attention, they attach the festive critters to the palm trees about 15 feet above street level and hold them there with yards of weather-proof red ribbon.

Andy told me "Cami and Sally" - Portola Ave residents - may have originated the annual showing of the reindeer so, a few days later, Sergei and I returned to find them. And we did.

Cami continues to evolve the design: this year he sawed and chopped and nailed and created whole and free-standing reindeer out of fronds.

Amazing how well-adapted is the palm frond to spending the winter as a ribbon bedecked reindeer with a red tree ornament for a nose.(Perhaps Sergei has something with his photographomania after all?)

 Welcome back, Rudolphs!