Today is a this-and-that post because I am juggling so many things with at least one hand tied behind my back. And because this morning, (as you can see in my sunrise photo) the sky is red. You don’t believe in signs and portents, you say? Well, neither do I. Still, the old saying is, “red sky in morning, sailors take warning.” Are there rough times directly ahead? Rough seas? Hard sailing? I wonder.
My favorite sports teams, the St. Louis Baseball Cardinals and the Arizona Football Cardinals have both been the best in the business in the really-recent past. The baseball team has won 100 games and goes into the World Series playoffs expected by many to win it all. Yet, they ended the season on a three-game losing streak with two of their best pitchers taking losses. The football team, along with my all-time favorite football player, Larry Fitzgerald, had been cruising along undefeated at a totally dominating pace. Yesterday they lost by two point to the St. Louis Rams. Both teams are still sitting pretty in enviable positions in their respective sports. Yet there are portents of doom.
My home continues to crumble and my own personal health is up and down and super-iffy. The city gave us notice of a program to help with repairs and maintenance, but we make too much money to qualify. And we still don’t have any money in the bank thanks to health-related expenses. My body aches and my head spins frequently, but I am going to have to get back up on the ladder and finish painting the house.
So, what shall I do about it all? Grim omens scare me and slow me down, but I grit my teeth and pitch in. I have repainted the four shutters for the back of the house and re-hung two of them yesterday. I can still paint and do work on the house. Amazing things can be accomplished a little bit at a time. After all, I put up new siding on the back of the house last year at this time working with only my sons and my daughter to help. I managed to do it all before the city’s deadline and threatened thousand-dollar fine (because it only makes sense to fine people that much when they have no money to fix the outside of the house.) I will beat whatever new deadlines they give me too. But it is a good sign that they want to help and haven’t hit me with any new deadlines yet.
And I will double down on writing work. I sent Snow Babies back to the editor Saturday, and I am closing in on getting that book in print. I am getting back to work on the prequel, When the Captain Came Calling, and I even started a new character illustration, depicting Mary Philips and the invisible sea captain. Here is the pen and ink drawing;
And here is the first of the color I have completed;
So maybe portents are not always bad things. Maybe the sky is red because it is the color of cardinals, and things are looking up for the boys wearing red. Cardinals are the little red birds that sing sweetly and never fly away when the winter comes. We cardinals take on all comers and maybe we will win it all for the 12th time… or the 1st time since the 1950’s… or the first time ever. After all, the sky is red.
Catch a Falling Star 