Perfect Writing Weather...Almost

It hasn't been above freezing in Ohio since two weeks before Christmas. Our whole, whopping high for the period has been 18F. And today's the first time we've gotten above single digits since Christmas Day. (It's 10F as I write this.) In fact, when I took my car in for its oil change on Wednesday, the guys didn't wash my car like they normally do because it was only 1F.

In our old house in Texas, cold weather would prompt me to light a fire in the family room fireplace, curl up on the couch with my laptop and a cup of Irish Breakfast tea, and write to my little heart's content. Or I'd be in the kitchen baking and writing while the timer counts down on the oven for bread or cookies or pie.

But right now, we're stuck in an apartment. Genius Kid has had a two-hour delay every morning since school started back up. (Frostbite is a very real danger for the kids waiting at bus stops or who walk to school.) Darling Husband is constantly on the phone because this is his super busy time of the year. There's only so much my iPod and earbuds can block out. Nor can I simply move to another room for a change of scenery like I used to do.

What I have done here in Ohio is go to a coffee shop to get some writing in, which I tried Wednesday morning after the oil change. Unfortunately, my favorite place was louder and busier than usual. Apparently, quite a few people were still in town visiting family or they were taking the first week of the year off.

And I've been reluctant to go out any more. The flu is sweeping through my father-in-law's assisted living apartment complex and though the high school. I'm paranoid about germs because if I'm infected, I'll be down four-to-six weeks. And that's assuming I don't get a secondary infection on top of the original, which is usually what happens.

I didn't realize how much I'd gotten my hopes up when we placed an offer on a house last Sunday. It would have been perfect for us. The rooms DH and I would use for our offices were on the west and east sides while our bedroom and GK's would have been on the south and north sides. Reasonable quiet and privacy all the way around. Unfortunately, another buyer also loved that house and made a better offer we couldn't match.

So, back to the drawing board.

In the meantime, I need to find a way to cope with the distractions in our apartment without expanding my waistline. If anybody has a brilliant idea, I'm all ears!