Last night we walked around downtown Austin to see some of the New Year festivities. Someone-or-other built a giant beautiful wooden clockwork to count down the last few days of the year. Lots of people crowded around it to write resolutions or generally contribute personal graffiti.
After we paced around in the dust for a long time, the action started to pick up. There was a performance from ArcAttack, guys who really know how to do things the hard way.
And there was also a psychadelic-type dance tent which was frequented primarily by small children.
Finally, around 8:30 (they adjusted the time to make sure midnight arrived at a child-friendly hour), the main event.
The fire was very hot, and very close. Several times little vortices sucked up clouds of cinders and rained them down on the crowd… the thought crossed my mind that we were lucky to be in the front rows in order to be among the tramplers rather than the trampled. Ultimately, though, the whole event went off without a hitch, and Aidan was delighted, despite the burn holes that we later discovered in his clothing.
