A Week's Beginning

This week began with one of my dogs needing to have surgery to remove a lump on his spine. It was a bit of a scary day for us while we waited to see how he came through and if it was a simple cyst, or small tumor. The nasty thing has been growing on our little Mac's back along the spine for about two months and our vet has been keeping an eye on our little guy.

We finally decided the bump had to come out and I had our youngest pup in to the vet's office for surgery early this morning and we had to wait until noon to find out that he was okay and that the rather large lump was a huge cyst and not a tumor.

Since we have three dogs in our home at present we have to keep them from getting at the four inch wound that is free of any fur at the moment, so Mac is running around in a small kid's t-shirt which is proving to be a bit much for him to deal with today. He looks so strange in it too!

The Mac also has been confined to the house and cannot be out in our dog's run for 14 whole days and for our Mr. Hyper-active that will probably prove to be the most difficult part of this whole surgery thing when he starts to feel better in a day or two. I must admit he already is just a bit frustrated because only an hour after we brought him home when the other two were outside howling at all things that moves he has been whining at the back door and and barking along with them each time he hears them. He is more than a bit cranky!

Charlie and I have come to the conclusions that we have fuzzy 3 year olds here since that's what they act like most of the time. (My kids may be grown, but we seem to have replaced them with my little fury friends!) It sure is fun to have kids again!

Solitude

Tonight, I imagine soft, quiet snow swirling

near the stoop of my back door.

falling softly and caught by a wisp of air

that dances 'round my window

where Jack Frost has left his mark

in child-like fingerprints that slide and dance

around the edges of the pane.

In my mind I envision who might dare to brave this frigid place

they might enter through a veil of icy lace that now robes

the edges of this world I see.

Oh, for those quiet, cold moments where the world isn't,
and I am.

Word Recognition Requirement

Many apologies to my regular readers but I have begun to receive way too many ads (Some in Hebrew!) so I have to do that word recognition thing.

My Muse

January is a season unto itself and I love the snow and cold swirls and moves with the winds that frequent our spot along the Lakeshore here in West Michigan. This year has proved not to be as cold or as snowy as many previous years which is good for many...but bad for me. My muse usually comes with the falling snow and the storms that continually buffet our part of the world and make it look and feel like another planet here in the depths of winter.

For me the most productive time of the year as a writer has been one that often kept me in seclusion and clothed the world in a deep quiet which was something unheard of on the street where I live. So I am writing and tossing almost everything these days. Nothing seems to make sense or come together very well at present. I will get through it since I am writing even though not much is getting beyond the first drafts but I am continuing the effort.

For those of us who no longer write for a newspaper and aren't in the throws of book, getting one piece of writing out every month or so is a pretty, "good thing," as Martha is wont to say. I hope to have a new article on my main site (Writing and Beyond) by the end of the week at least and that feels pretty darn good!