New Year's Day

The New Year always starts out with such optimism. Resolutions. . .new beginnings. . .plans for success. Even my own intentions were to get to the end of the Rose Parade route this morning in time to photograph Dodgers announcer Vin Scully as he rode by in a classic car as the Grand Marshal. But I arrived a couple of minutes too late, missed my shot and immediately felt disheartened by starting off 2014 with failure. A Charlie Brown moment. So, this image of a trampled and flattened New Year's tiara discarded along the edge of Colorado Blvd. represents the dreams that get smashed before they get out of the starting gate. Let's hope for a quick recovery.