We welcomed 2017, as we have the last few years, by taking a walk out along the St. Charles Avenue streetcar tracks. There's a spot right around Felicity Street from where you can get a decent view of the fireworks coming up off the river. Afterwards the walk back is a great way to hear the surprising amount of supplemental ordinance being detonated in the surrounding neighborhoods. We bring a bottle of champagne with us to swig along the way. The weather was drizzly and overcast last night so the walk was muddier than usual. Although the higher fireworks tended to disappear into the haze, most of the display was quite visible. I can never photograph fireworks with my phone, but imagine them in the top right quadrant of this picture. It was nice.
This might seem absurd now but I remember feeling especially hopeful last year during that walk. I don't remember specifically what the reasons were but I was looking forward to 2016. I'm an old now so my memories are more feelings than they are details, I guess. Anyway, I remember feeling like a corner was being turned and we were on to bigger and better things.
Well, that didn't work out so well. As Don Lemon might tell you, 2016 was awful. And that's not just because of the election or because of the superficial meme built around celebrity deaths. This was a difficult year personally for several reasons I guess I shouldn't get into here. Besides, it wasn't a total disaster. Compared to a lot of people's problems, this was more like a long hard slog of annoyances and inconveniences. We made it through ok. That should count for something.
So what I think I'll remember most about last night is feeling grateful we're still here and we still get to do the things we enjoy. Maybe 2017 will go all to shit too. But it doesn't necessarily have to. And we can be here to find out. That counts for something.
Anyway, break out the black eyes. Here we go again.
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