Missive from a Snowbound Writer

I live in the DC metro area. We are under a blizzard warning until Sunday at 6 am. Our government officials have essentially told us they’ve given up on performing their jobs and we’re pretty much house-bound, needing to “shelter-in-place” because the snow on the ground will make it impossible to go out.

As I sit here, house-bound watching the snow accumulate, I thought I’d offer a few observations.

1. Children were not meant to be cooped up in the winter. This is perhaps obvious to anyone who has ever known a child, but one is reminded of this important warning when one is, in fact, cooped up with a child. They want to go outside and play in that crappy cold stuff. Even though it’s cold outside, and it makes their mittens wet and they step in ways that the snow sloshes over the top of their boots so their socks are wet, too. And they don’t care. And they come in and touch you with those cold, cold hands, saying the beyond obvious, “You won’t believe how cold it is out there.” I will believe it. It’s why I didn’t go out there. Please stop touching me.
2. There is such a thing as too much cocoa. Sitting down in your chair, and curling up with a warm cup of cocoa on a winter’s day is a wonderful daydream. It’s even wonderful in reality, the first time. But, when you’re a little chilly and trying to keep warm with that fifth cup of cocoa…. well, it gets old. There is such a thing as too much. Switch to an adult beverage at some point.
3. Unless you live alone, you can’t actually get much writing done. Little people are full of energy and hunger. They want you to feed them things. They want you to play with them. They want you to watch TV with them. And very little gets done. Big people can be this way, too. It all depends on your big person. It seems very little is done until the wee hours, when all the distracting people are finally asleep. So, the blizzard ends up being like any other day. Only, you probably find less time to write.
4. Snow is pretty. Until you have to shovel it, or clean it off your car, snow is nice to look at. There’s a certain serenity to watching it fall, and watching the landscape change as it accumulates.
5. The first day is the best. There’s still a pretty good attitude on day one of being cooped up. Everyone’s still pretty appeased by seeing the pretty white stuff, and the knowledge that eventually it’ll be over, and they’ll go back to normal life. For the moment, it’s nice to have a little change of pace. But, the longer the blizzard lasts, the less cheery it becomes, and the more your housemates start to annoy you.

Alright, that’s where my head is at the moment. The children are all asleep. The hubby’s asleep, and I plan to try to write for a bit before heading to bed myself.