Red sky at morning, sailor take warning.

In the spirit of yesterday’s meteorological metaphor, I was reminded of this old nautical saying this morning when I got up at sunrise to let Nutmeg out. There were heavy clouds moving northward from the borderlands up over the mountains and the Gila forest. To the south, as the clouds skidded along, the sky was clearing and the sun was beginning to rise. The early rays set the bottoms of the clouds on fire. Beautiful in one respect, but again…red sky at morning… The clouds piled up, crimson reflections gone, on the ridges of the mountains and there they sit still. If I look carefully, I can see some little cells of rain. Deeper into the forest and at higher elevations, there is the threat of lightning which in turn creates the threat of wildfire. We’re already under a severe wind and fire warning because of the lack of moisture and 30+ mph winds.


Coffee in hand, I came in (not yet 7 am but well past the midnight deadline) to check the Washington Post online. What’s the status of the hurricane called Furlough? Where is he now? Well, somehow, Furlough veered offshore at the last minute and the government is sort of funded for the nonce. I can’t tell from what I’ve read whether we’re funded for a week or for the rest of the fiscal year. But we are not shuttering the government’s windows for now.

Thinking of the sunrise and the storm clouds still up there waiting, here’s the rest of the metaphor. Hurricane Furlough has only retreated – he has not gone away. He may come back in a slightly different form but he’ll be back, either in mid-May when the debt ceiling has to be raised or the country will run afoul of a very different cloud of troubles. Or when Congress starts debating budgets for FY 2012 including one of the Republican proposals.

Do you remember the movie, The Perfect Storm? At the end when the ship is sideways at the cusp of the monumental wave and George Clooney is staring down at the almost-bottomless abyss?

I usually have a more polly-annish outlook on life and it’s served me well for all these years. But just for this moment, until I see which way the storm’s gonna blow…red sky at morning…