Wednesday, December 30, 2009

The Blog Break Break





This is what my week started out looking like. For those of you in Canada, you may be laughing that something this benign would completely shut down a city, but for those of us in the south, 20 inches of snow is a lot of snow.

Just ask the 15 inch tall dog.



Had I any sort of foresight, I would have at least gone out a couple times during the storm to clear away a path in front of the house for the poor puppy to pee. You should have seen the look on his face when we opened the door in the morning and shoved him out to empty his bladder and he disappeared. When his head popped above the snow, he gave us those "you've got to be kidding me" eyes.

There were not enough plow trucks in all of Virginia to get rid of that snow fast enough to get everything moving again. And to make it worse, because they couldn't plow it fast enough, the snow near the bottom melted a tad, then refroze when the sun went down, leaving large, tectonic-like plates of two-inch ice.  Like so:




(and why is that photo not centered?? I have no idea. Blogger says it's centered, but clearly they are deluded. I'm convinced there are blogger gremlins... but I digress...)

That's a heck of an ice chunk my husband's holding, eh? We chipped off dozens of these from our driveway in order for our 14 guests for Christmas to not have to slip and slide their way up the 300 foot driveway.  We're so hospitable that way.

Here is Scout looking at us like, "You'll clear the driveway so someone can drive a car up it but not so your dearest pup can pee??"



Yeah. It took a while, but he learned to love it. Just in time for the 10 degree below freezing weather to settle in. So now I stand around seeing how big a cloud I can blow with my breath while he sniffs every flake and climbs every drift.

But life isn't all snow and dog during this blog break. There was Christmas. And lots of family. And some ice skating. And some breathless waiting as people read my book for the first time. I tell you, it's scary sending it out into the world. You have to know, as an author, not everyone will love your book. It's just the subjectiveness of the business. I know this. But when family and close friends with high hopes and expectations buy it, I can't help but really hope at least they like it. 

And so far, unless everyone is lying, the feedback has been amazing. And to top it off with a huge cherry, I've had a few fantastic 5-star reviews on Amazon - and not one of them is related to me!  :)

So while I've not been blogging, I have been cooking turkeys and ham, doing dishes endlessly, chipping ice plates and shoveling snow, housebreaking a puppy and keeping him from chewing everything in the house and digesting his weight worth of kleenexes, mailing out autographed books, calling tow-trucks to pull the truck from the mud, cleaning bathrooms and floors that are constantly being tracked through with snow, entertaining children, running the dryer 24 hours a day to keep everyone stocked in gloves, hats, scarves, snowpants and coats.

And today – reading. In front of a fire. In a quiet house. With the puppy asleep at my feet.

Bliss.

10 comments:

  1. I'm from Canada and I'm not laughing at that amount of snow. That's a ton.

    I'm looking forward to reading your book. I've ordered it off Amazon, couldn't figure out the paypal thing. Maybe you could send me a piece of paper with your autograph and I'll paste it in.
    LOL

    Have a Happy New Year.

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  2. Wow, that is a ton of snow!! Very beautiful pictures though!

    Congrats on the success this year and here's hoping 2010 will only bring you more!

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  3. Patti -= thank you for saying that!! Now I don't feel like such a wimp! :)

    Thanks for ordering the book, however you did it! I'm considering getting a bunch of bookmarks made with the cover and info about the book. If I get them, I'll sign one and send it to you. Trust me, though, my signature isn't that great! :)

    Kristi - much success to you this year, too! I think this will be an off year for me. I'm aiming to write another book and hunt for an agent, so I feel like I'm back at the beginning... but in a really good way. I'm excited about it!

    happy New Years to y'all too!

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  4. Sounds like you've been busy. Reading in front of a fire sounds amazing. Jealous. :)

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  5. I have read all the psot from you and Really very nice blog you have planned, I have to do something extra this time and have more fun over with all friends...


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  6. Heidi--It sounds like you had a nice but busy break. I was unplugged for six days...Now I feel like the whole world moved on and I have to catch up.

    Congratulations on the reviews! Happy New Year!

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  7. Oh my gosh that puppy keeps getting cuter and cuter! And I've never seen chunks of ice like that before! Insane!

    Congratulations on the fabulous reviews and welcome back to the blogosphere! We've missed you!

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  8. Honestly, to me that look absolutely amazing. I love the thought of a white Christmas, but it's something I'll never have here in Australia.

    Thank you for a wonderful post and even better photos. (Your pup is so cute!)

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  9. Sharon - I know exactly how you feel! I'll be playing catch up for a while, I think!

    karen - welcome to the blog! I love snow, so I wasn't complaining at all about it (even when we had to call a tow truck to dig out the truck, which I just thought was a little funny...).

    The ice was crazy though.

    And yeah - that pup is pretty darn cute. Which buys him a little leeway when he gets all "i gotta bite! I gotta bite!" on me. Maybe if I keep posting photos of him, I'll get more followers. :)

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