Sheep May Safely Graze

Here, finally, is a photo of the finished painting (with photo taken under more even lighting and with a higher quality camera), along with a detail. Because I have desert bighorn sheep in the image, I did go ahead and titled it after Bach's Sheep May Safely Graze. The piece is available here.

By now, it's almost old news that Natasha Richardson died a few days ago. Also, one of my two brothers went to the ER on Thursday complaining of chest pain. It turns out he'll be getting a triple bypass operation Monday morning, and afterwards he'll need attention for an additional three weeks. We're not sure how we're going to do that, since he lives by himself, doesn't have close friends who could help him (he's a confirmed hermit-type), his home is a 90-minute drive away (and we have a vehicle with 359,000 miles on it), and I'm not retired. He could move in with us, but we'd have to see if the follow-up nurse who needs to check him every day would come out here, or if we'd be able to get a local nurse to do it under his insurance plan.

But all of this reminds me of what I wrote the last time re: live but be careful. I guess I need to revise that a little. Give life your best shot. Don't be stupid about stuff (i.e., eat right), but we really don't know how much time we have or what time bombs exist in our own bodies. If you want to do something, do it NOW. You may not have tomorrow, and if you think you want to do it but you're not sure, it means you really WANT to do it; therefore, you should.

One of my favorite quotes (thanks to M. Downs, a features writer for a local newspaper), repeated: "Sail forth - steer for the deep waters only, Reckless O soul, exploring, I with thee and thou with me, For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go, And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all." - Walt Whitman