Do Writer's Get Snow Days?

There is a raging snowstorm coming down and the only sounds I hear are the tapping on my keyboard and the wind hitting the skylight over my hall closet. It literally howls and if you stand against the wall outside the closet, it sounds as if infernal creatures (and very large ones) are rearranging furniture on our roof.

Every once in a while, a plow will go by (on the elevated highway or  about 100 feet away clearing one or the other avenue, both major thoroughfares).

We have these chic wooden blinds on the window, and even closed I see the whiteout conditions on the other side, there’s a curtain of snow falling almost horizontally because of the wind.

The few cars that were coming and going earlier are gone and traffic has trickled to nothing. Sometimes a squad car or some other emergency vehicle will go by, above on the highway or below it. If their lights are flashing, you may see the movement from our windows.

It is quiet and peaceful, and it is warm and cozy in our place.

People pay good money to experience these conditions!

I’ve heard and read of writers that dream of hiding out in a little cabin in the woods, in a snowy place, away from everything – just to write.

The snow, the cold, the wind, the warmth of the hearth, all these things are designed to invite the writer to write…

But there is something hypnotic about watching snow fall, listening to the wind howl, getting under a thick blanket and getting your feet warm or fantasize about the dream you had the other night that reintroduced a character to your waking hours.

I could write about the isolation, cabin fever, angels falling to blanket us with love. I could wait a little bit and write about the frolicking kids (it will happen). Instead, I choose to go somewhere between aprés-skiing and hibernating, with occasional breaks to work on a remote project, take videos documenting the snow accumulation for friends who rarely see the stuff, and writing about not writing. I'll cook, make some ice cream, maybe a cake, stay in as I always do.

I know I need to write something, but I want a snow day! Don’t writers get a snow days?