And though the rain had muddied everything and shrunk a tiny crowd in half again, Spider John Koerner was squawking away and pumping that skinny right leg, that ended in a miner's boot, up and down with an unapologetic beat. And the people who had stayed, who'd suffered through that dreadful day, were grinning. And it took me to the brink of tears to think of the things people get through. You can hear it in the songs, the lost love and missed chances and busted deals and cosmic comeuppances, and all that secret history that's so heartbreaking and abominable. But we survive.
Optimism is infectious, like that crazy pumping foot, joy outracing gloom to the punch.
And this jaded technocrat vowed to do it again. One more year, folks, for SpiderJohn.