Just after 7pm here. I have to stay up until midnight to keep the dogs company because they don't do fireworks or thunder well.
Forgive me if I've told or will tell this story more than once. I'm getting to that age.
Back in '78 I spent New Years in Hobart. That was back when everyone in Oz smoked and no one lit off fireworks at midnight. Everyone gave everyone else kisses at midnight. Our friends flashed the light switch off and on to make us feel more like home. So weird, no fireworks, no kaBooms.
And Christmas in the summer with crackers and the Queen's message, also weird.
Somewhere between '78 and 2000, things changed in Oz. Not sure when it happened.
Just before the Millennium, when the New Year was such a big deal across the whole planet, a very observant custom's official uncovered a bomb in the trunk of a man crossing on the Victoria, BC to Port Angeles, WA ferry. Not to discount the importance of that discovery, and even though it turned out he was headed for LAX (Los Angeles airport), our governor in an abundance of caution cancelled Seattle's Millennium fireworks and celebration.
I watched the fireworks (on TV) and celebrations every hour around the world which included the fireworks display from the Sydney Harbor Bridge well ahead of Seattle. Australia had come of age.
(Just kidding.) Then when it came time for Seattle, we had silence. San francisco and LA had fireworks that rated international TV coverage, but not us. So odd and just a tad ironic.
Wishing you all well in the year to come and long after.