NYE

Our planet Earth has done it again – passed another orbital milestone. For approximately the 4.5 billionth time, it has completed a circle around its central star – our Sun. All over the world, people use this orbital completion as an excuse to party and celebrate. Sure and begorrah, I’ll drink to that. Par-tay!

The New Year has already arrived in some places. Its passage has been celebrated in Christmas Island and Samoa, in New Zealand and Australia, in China and Japan, in India and Sri Lanka, in Iran and Iraq, in Russia and western Europe. Now, it is hurtling west across the Atlantic at a thousand miles an hour. In a while it will touch Venezuela. It will hit the east coast of Canada and America. The New Year will finally arrive in my small burg. It will keep on going, headed west across mountains, prairies, and deserts. It will continue on to Mexico and California, past Alaska and Hawaii, past French Polynesia and Midway Atoll.

I went to bed at 12:30 AM this morning. I slept until 3 AM, at which point I got out of bed. I knew I wouldn’t sleep again. Two and a half hours of sleep – not a lot, but I’ll take what I can get.

Now it’s a half hour from midnight. I’ll still be up at midnight. Not because I have a reason to be up, but because – that’s just the way it is. I’ll be up to see the New Year arrive. I’m sure some locals with their primitive fireworks will make sure I hear the New Year arrive – they always do.

Through today’s near-miraculous electronics technology, it’s possible for me to watch the New Year’s Eve ball drop amongst revelers in Times Square from right here in my living room, should I choose to do that. I don’t know if I will, though. I’ll probably be watching an old episode of Perry Mason and forget about the ball dropping. Or maybe I’ll think about watching the ball drop, and then think, “Meh. This TV show is better.”

I mean, after all, it’s not something special. It’s just the New Year. It’s an arbitrary point in a planetary orbit about the Sun. It’s a jot on the calendar.

Thirty minutes to midnight. I’ll switch on the TV. That old Perry Mason is starting, and I don’t want to miss the beginning. When it ends, I’ll see if I can get another two and a half hours of sleep.

Happy New Year.