Don’t you hate it when someone is right? Especially if it’s bad news? Especially.

Two days ago I was in the bicycle shop buying this really great used bicycle. It’s finally warm enough to get outside and play. The great shop owner/seller, Slade, says, “Yeah, I’ve been doing all the outside fix-up I need to do now, because in two days… the bugs will be out.”

It’s two days later. You can’t see them in the photo, but, yes: the mosquitoes have hatched. They are here. Until it gets much further into the summer, the outdoors is buggy. Bad news. Darn, he was right.

I have nothing more to say. My life is ruined. Don’t you agree?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Some bad news is not so so so bad. Kind of innocent. Kind of bearable. Just bugs.

I compare it to the unwanted “mistakes” that happen when I’m making my art. Ahead of time, I have an idea of what I might want. Then, as I’m creating it -oops! – this happens, and then -oops! – that. As it goes along, some oops! need to be remedied. But other oops! turn out to be part of the piece: the contrast that somehow works as elements of the piece. In the right proportion, they can even enhance it.

No one wants the damn bugs.

No one expects to want any oops!

But they can (hopefully) prove how great the good stuff is, by contrast.

(And still and all. Why did Slade have to be right? Grrrrrrr.)