New Year's Eve!

Today is New Years's Eve, and despite the Covid-19 pandemic, people will be out celebrating in droves tonight. In past years, I have gone down to Denver's 16th Street Mall to watch the fireworks (there are two shows - one at nine, and one at midnight), but the last time I went, it was so crowded on the mall you couldn't move, and it was near impossible to even see the fireworks. All this while freezing to death on a cold Colorado night. Afterwards, going home on the light rail train was a nightmare, everyone having to wait in long lines, in the cold, to board. I very much preferred, when it was still possible, to spend New Year's Eve up in Fort Collins with my sister Susan, late brother-in-law George, and mother Mary, who used to come up from Stuart, Florida for the holidays when she was alive. I am glad Susan and I still have the memories and the photos from those happy times. In the photograph above, taken in 1994, are my sister and mother after a night out at The Catacombs, a local Fort Collins hot spot, before the owner - Niko - retired. As you can see, my mother was pretty anxious to get to bed. Living for so long in Florida, she was always cold up here, and couldn't wait to get under the covers. These days, I feel the same way. And yes, that is indeed a cat Susan is holding. Could it be Mighty Aphrodite? Maybe yes, maybe no. I am just not a cat person. So sue me.