About to pull a Clark Griswold here

Attempting to put up Christmas lights outside, and it's a total beating. No wonder most people either A. have husbands to do this or 2. hire a lawn guy to handle the whole thing. My across-the-street neighbors already have their lights up (they beat me to it! dammit!), and I think they are solar-powered. This got me excited at first, since I have no outlets in the front so have to link up a bunch of extension cords in the back and throw them over the roof (which I did on my own, thank you very much). But the solar-powered lights aren't all they are cracked up to be - they come on early and turn off early (like 10pm). That's no fun - Santa won't be able to see my house! So back to the drawing board. And back up the ladder.