Happy New Year!

The New Years holiday is the one holiday that never made much sense to me. The others have a reason. Some have historical/patriotic backgrounds such as Presidents, Memorial, Independence & Labor day, and Thanksgiving. Others have religious history like Good Friday and Christmas.

But a day celebrating hanging a new calendar on the wall? Why? Why not celebrate the Vernal Equinox, or Dow 10000? These make about as much sense.

Whatever... it may be the most universal celebration worldwide and that in itself is a reason to celebrate!

We stay very local to the SandCastle on New Year's eve. A few years back a local TV station ran Blazing Saddles uncut with no commercials every New Year's Eve. Gotta love that flick in it's glorious un PC-ness. Now we all meet around a firepit in a neighbor's driveway to ring in the new year. A block over someone apparently had some mortar launched fireworks (we could hear the "poomph") and someone else had some ground based pyro in the park.

We also did not hear any gunshots this year and police reported half as many "gunshots fired" over last year. Responsible gunnies understand shooting a gun into the air violates rule #4 (be sure of your target and what is beyond). For the benefit of irresponsible gun owners, Arizona has punctuated rule #4 with Shannon's Law which makes it a felony to fire a gun into the air (Shannon was hit and killed by a falling bullet while talking on the phone in her backyard). Despite what the Mythbusters may suggest, a shot in the air can be lethal. The random chance of a hit are very low but non-zero. Don't do it. But I digress...

New Year's Day was absolutely gorgeous here in the desert. Temps in the high 60's/low 70's and practically no wind. The SCSon and I flew up to Payson (KPAN) for lunch. Here's a couple pictures taken along the way. There is a bit of snow left on the north side of the peaks from last week's storms.





The second shot shows a snow draped Mogollon rim, an earth rise running two hundred miles or so across the state. The restaurant subtitles itself as "The Restaurant with a Million Dollar View".
(Click on the pics to zoomify)