I've been a grump most of my life regarding new year's because I'm autistic and I don't give into social conventions, like how is tomorrow going to be any different from today? Seriously? Then, there is my long background in law enforcement. On certain holidays, people just lose their minds and act beyond stupid. Usually, Christmas Eve and Christmas day people are well behaved, but come new year's, completely different story. Two stand out for me.
1) I was in military police and doing a ride along with the local PD. The cop I was with wasn't looking forward to the midnight gunfire and let me know that he had a pre planned "hiding space" (actually, it was the juncture of an L shaped strip mall).
At 11:45, we backed into the space and since we were at least two miles from the nearest subdivision, we figured everything would be good where we were at. Several minutes later dispatch called us and stated that an old lady said that a prowler was outside her house peeping in her windows (Really granny? Who would look at you?). Since dispatch mandated, we rolled on the call.
The cop I was with decided that we would make two loops around the block, shining spotlights to make a show. Actually, all this did was bring people out of their houses to see just what the hell was going on. On our second loop, it happened. A nutcase jumped out from behind a tree and emptied a 16 round .22 caliber round magazine into our car. We bailed and took shelter behind the car doors. Once his magazine was empty, the nutcase threw down his rifle, raised his hands and said "I give up. I surrender." We spent the rest of that night doing paperwork.
2) I was managing a high rise complex for a large oil company. On new year's eve, my boss called me and said that one of the security shift supervisors had called off and she needed me to run things that night.
The security guards were very surprised to see me, usually the night shift guards only saw me at the monthly safety meeting. Even though it was against regs, that night I was packing, I just had a feeling and sure enough....
I was transiting between two buildings and heard 'pop pop pop pop pop'. I looked over, across the street at the apartment complex. Some dang fool, standing next to a tree, about 200 yards away, was shooting at me. My second thought was that he was a lousy shot because the nearest bullet hit about five feet away and most were pinging off of the building 15-20 feet away. I went over my options and I decided to put the fear of God in this nutball. I put in serious range time, so I was confident in the outcome. I took out my .357 magnum, aimed just above this guy's head, and fired. The tree branch fell perfectly on his head, causing him to run off.
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I started writing this at 11:50 PM. It sounded like a full fledged battle was taking place south of my house, reaching pitch right at midnight. It is now 12:30 and there are only a few 'pops' in the distance. The neighbors that made me so miserable on Christmas Eve night fired off a few fireworks about 6:30 and then stopped. Oh well, more bowl games tomorrow and of course, my favorite band, Kyoto Tachibana, will be in the Tournament of Roses parade in the morning.