Red Skies at Night

Okay, so the car-juggling and overtime have been eating into my efforts to write, draw, and generally do more with my life. And I'm feeling the financial fingers tightening as the need to purchase a new car grows greater and greater, in addition to being unable to locate secondary employment that wouldn't interfere with my existing job. And I didn't get a good walk in today because idiots were lurking all over, and as a general rule I avoid idiots whenever possible (part of why I dislike car shopping, but I digress.) And I haven't even let myself buy a book in months. And a million other little issues are gnawing at me like invisible badgers with one dam thing after another. (And I just got whacked with a dozen virtual 2 x 4's and stale donuts for that last sentence...)

It's not all bad, though.

There was, at least, the sunset.

Some sunsets start with a promise of beauty and fizzle out. Others begin with a whimper and spring a bang on you at the very end, when you've given up looking. Tonight's sunset was neither. A golden misty glow hung under the clouds, which separated and striated at the perfect altitudes to catch the light. The gold shifted ever so subtly to pink as the mist thinned. In the center, a shaft of light could be seen rising like a column from the setting sun to the heavens. After the sun was gone and the pink vanished, the clouds turned a deep steely blue with lingering golden-yellow in the background.

Mom and I, out on a (mostly disappointing) book run, couldn't stop staring at the sky as it burned and glowed overhead. It made me wish I'd brought my camera, even though I knew I couldn't capture it (and even if I could, I was never far enough from buildings or power lines to do the shot justice.)

And not one other person we talked to, in parking lots or at checkouts, even gave it so much as a glance.

Sometimes I wonder about people...