[NA]Backward "Nav" Lights

Why are the navigation lights on the houses on the wrong side?

  • They are actually Hanukkah lights

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  • They are actually Ramadan lights

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  • Total voters
    16

Sac Arrow

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Snorting his way across the USA
Now that the gyms are all shut down, walking is a big part of trying to burn some calories off. Some days are just too cold and wet to bike. But that is not what this is about. That is a segway to the issue at hand.

Porch lights are a thing. Normally, most houses come OEM with a single porch light. A trend lately I've noticed is dual garage front lights. A few weeks ago, one house in particular stood out. Mind you, this is at zero dark thirty in the morning. There was a red and a green porch light on the sides of the garage. How clever. But... something seemed off. I'm facing the house, and the green light is on my right side. Wait a minute. There is some Red Port wine Left. It seems to imply that I am looking at the rear of the house. I mean, the house isn't moving, so, it's fairly irrelevant which end of the house I'm looking at, save for that if I was actually looking at the rear of the house, that would mean I'm in the back yard, and I am probably imminently going to face a large, hungry Rottweiler. Again, the house isn't moving. It's... anchored. To the ground. So, properly, the anchor light should be on. Not the nav lights.

Fast forward a few weeks. Apparently someone called dyslexic old wannabe seahag on the lights, because they were switched, and now properly conveyed which end of the house I was facing. But here is the thing - within the last, oh, say two or three days, I've noticed at least two, no, three houses with nav lights on the garage. And they were ALL on the wrong side.

I mean, I get it, the general public at large is probably fairly ignorant on the purpose for and arrangement of navigation lights, but you would think if they were going to do enough Internet research that they are red and green, that they would bother to note which side is which. Or maybe they saw on the Disney channel that the pirate ship had a red and a green light (Arrrggh, matey) and thought it was cool, not realizing that the placement actually had a significance. Or, I dunno, are they making some sort of obscure statement?
 
"Red Right Returning" ... dock the ship alongside the garage, not it in.

but what the heck do I know - I was a brown shoe.
 
One question: Were you walking to sea or returning to port?

Technically both. Sea is to the west. I walk to the east, and on my return trip home to port, that is when I notice the backwards nav lights.
 
But why do we park on a driveway and drive on a parkway?
 
Who cares someone is still going to ask if there is any traffic in the pattern before pulling up the driveway and doing a teardrop entry to the house so just buy the Bo and be done with it.
 
We have a house near here that had a nun and can buoy on the driveway. Keep the nun to the right when coming home.

Amusingly, coming down Sycolin Road from the Leesburg Airport there was (probably still is) a front yard that has a train whistle marker. I always blow my horn in the sequence indicated (two longs two short) going by. Hopefully he appreciates it.
 
I was a ship's company Brown Shoe. Figure that one out! lol

you made arrested landings like this?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe.../1280px-Recover_Assist_Landing_of_SH-60B.JPEG

1280px-Recover_Assist_Landing_of_SH-60B.JPEG
 
All I can say is I deliberately changed out all our candle lights in all our front windows plus the pole light for holidays with red/green bulbs to mimic an aircraft coming at the street. When my wife discovered why I did it that way, I got a sigh, an eye roll, then a laugh.
 
Maybe the lights are aids to navigation, channel markers. Heading upstream, red is on the your starboard side.
https://www.uscgboating.org/images/486.PDF

That would actually make sense for case #1, where I am travelling towards the open water (Pacific Ocean) where the starboard light would be on my right. But that is before they were switched. The other three cases... I would have to go back and study them as I believe they faced north/south. Good call though.
 
I would think that entering the garage from the driveway would be considered upstream and the roadway would be considered open water.

I thought about that as well. That makes more sense in the context. In which case, the switched lights would then be correct.
 
I agree that the red should be on the right side of the house, facing it, for "red right return" harbor navigation.

Houses don't move, except in earthquakes and tornados.
 
I set the dual RGB LED garage sconce lights red and green for the holiday, and they were nav light correct, assuming the house flies garage side forward. Haha.

They’re blue right now.

Probably flip them back to “circadian” where they follow the color of the sun throughout the day and get a deep dim reddish orange at midnight.

Dunno. I mess with them. Different holidays or moods, different colors.
 
been a push in my town to change your porch/garage lights to blue in support of local law enforcement. Still getting used to coming around a turn and seeing a blue light, freaks me out a little. lol.
 
The only time I've had to worry about red and green lights was setting up the disconnect switch indicators on RF semi-anechoic chambers. The disconnect switches were to disable the RF amplifier so it wouldn't transmit when the door was unsealed. Red meant the door wasn't sealed, green meant it was. Where did I come up with that order? Hint, it wasn't accidental.
 
I like that you made that multiple choice.

They're messing with you. You should go give them a piece of your mind, unless you shouldn't.
 
No mention of strobes on the house? Rotating beacon?
 
No mention of strobes on the house? Rotating beacon?

I haven't seen it. But - there is this one older couple that goes walking in the morning, in the dark, and they are lit up like a Christmas tree. I know what dude got for Christmas, because instead of the steady flashing red light he wears, he now sports an alternating blue and red rapid flash vest light that looks like a code 3 police cruiser from a distance. The lady wears a headlight.

Oh by the way, the original wrong side nav light house is no more. The lights are both white. Maybe someone called them on the nav lights and shamed them in to donning anchor lights.
 
"Red Right Returning" ... dock the ship alongside the garage, not it in.

but what the heck do I know - I was a brown shoe.

Except in the Med - See, I knew that time as a Boat-O would come in handy! It just took 35 years.
 
No mention of strobes on the house? Rotating beacon?

Working on it. Problem is me and ladders shouldn’t be allowed to be playmates again yet. Ha.

(Okay it’s really just RGB strips all the way around but couldn’t do that yet, so just one lonely strip on the 2nd story deck railing so far. Ha.)
 
Oh by the way, the original wrong side nav light house is no more. The lights are both white.

Well now that sounds like they're coming in too high.

They need to get their shnit together.

If they start up with the backward nav lights again, just turn around and take a selfie with them. All will seem well.
 
I thought a red light next to a doorway meant something special in certain cities.

In Holland, a red light means straight while a green one means gay. Many houses have both.
 
heh - my neighborhood has a HOA that says that Christmas lights need to be taken down after a certain day. Yesterday on our FB page someone was trying to get a petition, or something, to change that. Apparently there's been someone that's said we should leave our lights on until Valentine's Day to remember those we've lost to Covid.

I was about to comment, "That just seems lazy", so I could start a fight but I decided to sit this one out.

My normal response is to say, "They aren't Christmas lights! Are you crazy, that was 6 months ago! They are "Party Lights"!"
 
Maybe the house is like a Mooney, with the tail is on backwards for no apparent reason?
 
heh - my neighborhood has a HOA that says that Christmas lights need to be taken down after a certain day. Yesterday on our FB page someone was trying to get a petition, or something, to change that. Apparently there's been someone that's said we should leave our lights on until Valentine's Day to remember those we've lost to Covid.

I was about to comment, "That just seems lazy", so I could start a fight but I decided to sit this one out.

My normal response is to say, "They aren't Christmas lights! Are you crazy, that was 6 months ago! They are "Party Lights"!"

The lights are mostly gone but there are some holdouts. To each their own I guess. One of the houses a couple blocks down even had Christmas music blaring outside for the week before Christmas.

At 4:30 a.m.
 
I never take my XMas lights down. I just shut them off. My wife is currently the president of the homeowner's association and I'm the treasurer, so I'm not worried.
 
I never take my XMas lights down. I just shut them off. My wife is currently the president of the homeowner's association and I'm the treasurer, so I'm not worried.

Yep. Me too. They've been in my windows for over 20 years and still working.
 
Lights go up Friday after xgivin, lights come down New Years day
 
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