The Muse Takes A Snow Day

My morning routine always starts with the Nike. I have never subscribed to the philosophy that the dog should have to wait until the pack alpha (me) eats and is ready to feed and care for the lower pack members. Here the pack comes first. Unfortunately, that also means that the pack has to suffer through my half-awake, pre-coffee bumbling in order to get fed. Nike is lucky he’s never gotten orange juice in his Corn Flakes. He doesn’t eat cereal, really, but you can see my point. After “hungries” comes “outsides”. I usually just jam my feet into flip flops or slippers, since Nike is the ultimate wuss when the ground is cold or wet, and is usually done with his “business” in under ten seconds.

This morning I stepped out into three inches of snow.

We don’t really get snow here. It isn’t normal. A few inches shuts down the world as we know it. Schools close. Nick has a snow day from high school. He’ll probably have a great time playing Xbox and catching up on his homework. Well, playing Xbox anyway.

For me, however, it’s a great alarm clock. I develop instant footsicles. Not the Nike – for all his fussiness about wet and cold, he loves snow. I stand on the back porch with freezing feet while he zooms happily about the best he can at the end of his flexi-lead.

I love the audible silence of snow, particularly in the early morning hours. I’m not so crazy about the deafening hush from my writing muse.

It’s not for lack of something to say. I’m rarely speechless. It’s more about getting the ideas to form a complete pattern. For me to have something worth writing about, the thoughts have to form a snowflake. No two are ever the same, but they have to come together to make a unique and yet logical design. That’s the hard part.

At any rate, my muse has been having a snow day. Actually, it’s been more of a snow week. I have lots of pieces, and nothing coming together. Too much rain, not enough snow.

For fun I looked up “muse” on Wikipedia this morning. Oddly enough, (or not) the word “amuse” has the same etymology as “muse”. To amuse is why I write, mostly for myself, but I do hope to entertain others as well. There are nine muses in Greek mythology. I find I can most identify with Thalia, the muse of comedy. Nike isn’t the name of muse, but it is the name of the Greek goddess of victory. Hmmm. I think Thalia would be a great name for a whippet.

It is snowing again. That’s got to be a good thing for my writing inspiration. I’m going to go find Thalia and drag her butt off the Xbox.

Another slideshow at the bottom!