Red Dawn and the Broncos

The sunrise this morning can only be described as screaming scarlet.  Being a Navy brat, and having 350 years of waterman's blood in my veins, my first thought was, "Uh-oh.  Red sky at morning, sailors take warning."  Of course, the forecast is for rain and snow this afternoon, evening, tonight, and tomorrow morning - but it's odd how the old familiar phrases just roll into your mind...  And, as I was coming into the apartment, I had a single large drop of precipitation land on my thumb - and half of the drop was ice.  Cloudiness levels have risen and fallen since dawn, but at the moment, I can't see a single spot of blue anywhere.
  I was amazed that the Broncos - Coach Gary Kubiak, Manager John Elway, the whole schmear - allowed Peyton Manning to play at all yesterday.  Especially since it seemed that they played him only to break a record.  Manning was injured and in pain well before the game - both foot and ribs - and he was played until he surpassed Bret Favre's record, and then was benched for the rest of the game.  That was totally stupid.  If the player is injured, you don't play him, period.  To play him only long enough to break a record, and then bench him, is extremely crass and tasteless.  My regards for the Broncos, as a team, have dropped to an all-time low.  Why not wait until Peyton could play a whole game, and play well?  Why send him out just to break a record and then bench him because he was injured to start with?  It makes absolutely no sense to me....
  Since we started feeding the squirrels and birds a couple of weeks ago, we have one plump little fellow (a squirrel) that I really enjoy.  He's a dark grey/brown, but the edges of his tail are almost orange in color.  Every morning after eating his fill of nuts, berries and seeds, he climbs to the top of a wood utility pole, and spends several hours basking in the sun.  He only stayed up there for about 30 minutes this morning, and has moved over to the nut pile again.  I'm sure he can sense the change in weather that's coming.