But the snow promised
for out little valley did not materialize, and instead we carried out our plan
to meet some friends at a “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” celebration at a local
hotel.
We were surprised to
discover on arrival that the party was not in the historic old bar with it’s Viga
beamed ceilings and adobe décor, but in the hotel’s “conference center” a sterile
ballroom that dwarfed the 100 or so brave souls who made it out to “ring out” a
year that some would say was a tad underwhelming. But we’ve always been able to
find the fun in the odd. The music was good, the company charming, the drinks
more than adequate, and Mistress and a few of the other guests had their long
shapely legs encased in sexy tights…..All it took was a little imagination to get
into the scene and enjoy the spectacle of a 50 something crowd boot scooting
across the dance floor while the band played “Brick House”.
“This is like a wedding
Mistress, and we’re the wedding crashers.”
“It reminds me of the “Poseidon
Adventure”, Mistress responded. Well Slave never really saw that old disaster
movie. All I remembered was that some big danged boat flipped over and
melodrama ensues, with the ritual screaming and well earned demise of the more
annoying members of the (fading) star studded cast. Seen one disaster movie,
seen them all! The cause of this mayhem is faded in cinema history: was it a Tsunami? Volcanic eruption? Meteor strike? Who knows. But a little checking this morning proved once again that
Mistress is always right.
Sure enough, there are
old war horses like Shelly Winters, Ernest Borgnine and Gene Hackman all
celebrating New Year’s Eve in a kitchscy New Year’s Eve ballroom, before that
big danged liner does it’s flip! (BTW, is that Carol Burnet?)
Then Mayhem ensues as suddenly that big Christmas Tree is on the ceiling!
Of course, the good part about celebrating New Year's Eve on Mountain Time is that you can "celebrate" the arrival of the new year when the ball drops on Times Square. So as 10 pm approached we charged our glasses one more time, toasted the new year, and boot scooted out into the night, seeking the shelter of our warm adobe house as the snow finally began to fall.
"I hoped you didn't mind leaving early, Mistress. But we might have ended up sharing a life boat with Shelly Winters if we had waited until midnight!"
(Look here tomorrow for an update from our Western Correspondent, who is not looking forward to 2017!)