Ring Out The Old And Ring In The New

Happy 2008 everybody!!

The celebrations up here are a little subdued for me, feeling my age I guess. Generally I stayed in, cranked up the motorola and listened to the latest Bessie Smith 78 - Give me a pig foot, and a bottle of beer . . . I should have been so lucky.

Last night I managed to make it to the front steps of the community centre for the stroke of midnight. As in other years, our small town turns into a battle zone as rifles of all calibers are shot off into the sky. And at minus 35 Celsius, the sound cascading off buildings and the hills has an extra sharpness and crispness. Needless to say, all the dogs in town hide beneath the houses fearing a canine version of Armageddon.

This year someone seemed to have a near inexhaustible supply of roman candles, bright red hand-launched roman candles. And the were letting them off right in front of the community centre with a growing mass of midnight revelers. Now again this is probably a function of the extreme cold, and also a result of discharging the fireworks at a medium trajectory rather than straight up into the air, but none of the pyrotechnics had consumed itself before striking the ground. Indeed, some continued to burn bright crimson against the white snow for a good five seconds.

I saw a whole battery of them land on roofs of nearby building and I started to yell "incoming" if any trajectories seemed to be heading our way. The kids started chasing them until one was nearly hit, ending up arse over tea kettle in a cloud of bloody red smoke, a scene worthy of any Hollywood war movie. All the while the northern lights looked down, disapproving of our folly.

All ended peacefully, and the casualties were nil.

But as I look out over the town this morning - with nothing moving save the occasional dog doing border patrol on its patch of real estate - I assume there are many suffering the effects of last night.

Curse them!! All I had was a snifter of cheap madeira, but as a consequence I am able to make these observations without the slightest tremor or heave of nausea. Every dark cloud, I guess.