Kick it to the curb

We all know it's an arbitrary day on a calendar. Regardless, I think we're all happy to see 2020 in the rearview mirror. It's difficult to make sense of the numbers...the numbers of people who aren't celebrating the new year. Life is short and precious, and when our time's up, our time's up. Normally, I take some comfort in that. Not in 2020. One of the most difficult (the list is long) things about 2020 is that so many people weren't able to celebrate those lives. A cruel disease.

How did you spend the last day(s) of 2020? I hope you spoke to friends or family and had a warm meal in a cozy spot.

I went on a few walks the past few days, taking photos and shooting video here and there. On one of my walks I set my phone's timer for 5 minutes and tried to take a photo every time the alarm sounded until I made it back home. I wasn't tyrannical about it. I didn't limit myself to one photo, and I cheated +/- 20 seconds occasionally.

I also took photos on New Year's Eve...a very quiet New Year's Eve. I think I missed an impressive Space Needle display? There were some fireworks and firecrackers in the neighborhood, which I normally don't like. A year in Iraq ruins you for fireworks. Iraqis will read that and rightfully say, "Cry me a river." This year's firecrackers sounded obligatory, perfunctory...this is what we're supposed to do, right?

One of my walks took me up to 15th. I read that the Wandering Goose was closing, so I stopped to take a photo. I also wanted to include Rione XIII. I'd seen a family of four walking north parallel to me, and I was thinking about them as I was getting close to the restaurants. I haven't got kids. It's just me in an apartment. I'm amazed by the resilience of others who are looking out for family, parents, kids, and pets. There's no room for oh man this is so fucked.

I love responsible street photography, but I don't shoot it. I'd be lying if I said I didn't time my shot of the restaurants to try and catch that family of four. I caught the family's vanguard, and I liked the photo. This one is cropped about as far as I could go.

I wanted to tell that kid that it's going to get better. Then again, he'll be around long enough to see the horrors of climate change. Let's take the catastrophes one at a time, shall we?. It will get better.

Thanks for dropping by. I hope you're doing well. I eavesdropped on some people tonight talking about their traditional perspective that how you spend New Year's Day sets the tone for the rest of the year. You might be in the New Year's Day run a marathon camp. I'm in the run to the coffee pot camp. But I vote that we all try to do something (big or small) that pushes 2021 in a positive direction. And FFS, please do the universe a favor and eat some blackeyed peas.