The Passing of 2006

It was—really cold. And even though it had recently rained, a fire ban was still in effect. So we couldn't have a campfire.

Now, what else do you do with a group in the dark in the cold when you're camping? You sit around a fire, but we couldn't. And we certainly weren't going to sit and stare at the lifeless, moonlight-lit fire pit as bitter got colder.

So even though it was New Year's Eve, by 8:00pm (four hours before the traditional revelry would begin), Trudy and I had walked back to our campsite and were bundled in flannels and buried beneath layers of bedding. We shivered whenever we poked our heads out of our sleeping bags.

An hour later, the boys came walking up the hill from just around the bend. They whistled to see if we were awake. The dog heard them coming and barked. You could almost hear their teeth chattering from the cold. They told us they were leaving.

Leaving? We were silently stunned. But we were camping!

They explained that the dark, the cold, no-campfires and no-fireworks had conspired to dampen their enthusiasm for this particular mode of celebration. They had convinced Stuart's mom (who as the temperatures plummeted had worried that she didn't bring warm enough stuff) to pack up the truck and leave.

What could we say? I thought of telling Ben he could stay in our tent, but that was clearly the wrong solution to the wrong problem. In fact, it was only a 45 minute drive back, and they had a plan for the rest of the evening, so we let them go.

Fifteen minutes after that, we heard truck doors slam, an engine start and the receding sound of tires crunching on a gravel road. Soon the silence had returned.

The air was still. Not a thing outside our tent moved. We were surrounded by absolute silence and bitter cold. The tent was bathed in the light of a nearly full moon. It took us only moments to fall asleep.

Hours later, we heard fireworks in the distance.

Happy New Year, Trudy said in a voice that sounded far away.

Happy New Year, I said in a voice that must have sounded the same.

Neither of us turned. Neither of us even moved. The silence returned. And the moonlight. And the cold. Again we fell fast asleep.

So passed 2006.

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