String lights have come a long way from the indoor-outdoor Christmas-tree variety haphazardly strung outdoors to elongate our prematurely dark Seattle evenings. Today’s varieties range from popular Edison bulbs like mine to waterproof glass globes, metal cages, lanterns of faux rattan, miniature multicolor fairy lights and novelty bulbs that look like oversized water droplets. They can be filament or LED, plugged in, solar powered, battery operated, dimmable or smart lights that connect to your home’s automated system