The folks who were doing the 10K were supposed to go down to Southside park and around it, while the ones doing the 6K were supposed to go west to 10th Street. So we walked back to the starting point, and since we were now "late" we took our first shortcut of the night, and walked directly up 6th St. to the mall, instead of going to 10th Street and walking about 8 blocks. We did need to pace ourselves, after all. From there the route went through the K Street tunnel and into Old Sac, which was decorated and filled with people and lights. There were the ubiquitous vendors selling various light sticks, which I, of course, had to buy.
Of course we weren't exactly the poster children for this walk. 
Some people did six miles, some did three. We did slightly less than two, including a stop at Macy's, where I checked out exciting underwear and Zoe bought a flannel nightgown. How hot are we? After Zoe and I finished our "walk" I came back home to the fantastic new year's eve which is like every night of the year here, where we just sit and watch television. Of course, there is a difference on New Year's Eve. We have a glass of wine and midnight. The nightlife doesn't get more exciting than that.
Actually, there was one sort of different thing. Not different enough. That was that at about 10:30 the guy who's been cleaning our gutters showed up and wanted to borrow money. Since the first time he cleaned the gutters about two months ago, this is the third time he's shown up. The other two times, he was going to do work for us the next day and John gave him an advance. This time, that wasn't true. John told him not to come back again, but then he gave him $5 anyway. He's very aggressive when he comes to the door, and I think this is a problem. I know he just shows up because he's off to buy some meth.
And of course, at the end, they drag out poor old Dick Clark, who used to be the youngest looking old guy on tv, and then he had a stroke, and this year looks like maybe he had a relapse. This is hard work for someone who really has difficulty handling his mouth, and it
seemed really obvious this year. I think they keep trucking him out because the people who watch New Year's eve on TV are all old farts like us who actually remember him from the 50's.
