Out of the Ice Age

I spent the weekend iced in, with all my plans and activities cancelled. They even cancelled church services, since the parking lot was an ice rink. We got above freezing for a few hours yesterday, and it's just above freezing now, so there should be more clearing today. The danger is that it will re-freeze overnight while everything is still wet. All the schools around here are closed today, probably more because of the parking lots and sidewalks than because of roads. Three to four inches of solid ice is hard to clear, and there are problems with sheets of ice sliding off roofs (it makes an interesting sound when a patch of ice goes from my roof). Right now, my front walk and driveway seem to be clear, and the major roads are clear. I could get out if I wanted to, but I don't really need to. It's days like today when I'm really glad that I work at home. Most employers would expect people to come to work today, and it's nice to not have to. I did finally get out of the new plush pajamas today. They're in the wash right now. Next time I venture out, I'm heading back to TJ Maxx and buying every pair they have in my size, and then I will live in them all winter long. They're that soft and snuggly.

However, I will be working today because that holiday screenplay idea really started shaping up in my head over the weekend. That could be because I spent the weekend binging on made-for-TV Christmas movies, both some favorites and some really lame ones. Normally when I do something like that and say "It counts as work!" I'm semi joking, but this really did end up being helpful. My binge gave me a sense of what works and what doesn't, what the "rules" seem to be, and what I like and don't like. From there, I started getting images of scenes in my head, and then plot lines started working out, and I got a sense of some of the characters. Now I've got the opening three or four scenes playing out, with simultaneous mental narration in screenplay format. I may start writing a treatment today, or at least writing down the stuff I know and figuring out more of it.

The one potential problem with this story is that it's the kind of thing that might be hard to put into novel form if the screenplay thing doesn't go anywhere. It requires some visual cues, and I can't quite think of how to do it in prose form. I guess that's a sign that this is a good screenplay idea, if I can't figure out how to novelize it and I  find myself thinking in screenplay form instead of in narrative.

Other things I accomplished over the weekend include knitting most of a hat (after learning to knit in the round), getting my Christmas decorations up, and doing a fair amount of cooking. I still have ingredients for several cold-weather dishes that I ended up not making because I had so many leftovers from the dishes I did make.