So I lied...

Actually, I wasn't lying at the time, but the truth is I haven't been able to wean myself from the Humane Society Website, and I still believe there is a dog out there who is my soul mate/the perfect dog for our family/a friend for my buddy Night/the one my wife will smile at because she simply cannot help herself. He or she may just have to appear later in my life.

But my current obsession has more to do with cabin fever, than puppy lust.
We have just been through a couple of weeks of rough preschooler behavior prompted by double ear infections, a sinusitis and the common cold, a couple of weeks of my rough behavior due to the aforementioned preschooler and my absolutely rotten cold, and my wife's virtual absense due to work, back to school night programs and visiting her father in Seattle.

Calgon take me away.

Time is simply hard to find, and something always suffers. For example, a moment ago I jumped up to check on the small person, only to find him in the video cupboard with whiteboard pens in his hand, and the mini-trampoline precariously balanced on an ottoman and a corner of the couch. To create is to risk life and limb, sometimes mine, sometimes someone else's.

Actually, I'm due for some time off. Last year we inaugurated the idea that on the last weekend before school got out, and the first weekend of the school year, I'd go away for a writeathon. Writeathons are beloved getaways in which I check into a hotel, eat room service, bring a novel for down moments and write until I drop. Lots can get done that way, and it fuels creativity for months to come.

To be fair, it wasn't a good time for hotel getaways this fall, and I did a twelve hour stint at the easel instead one day, but I'm feeling a yearning for room service and no carpool.

However, I wouldn't trade my job for anything. Parenting three kids is a constant source of material I couldn't live without. There is humor, pathos, tragedy and low comedy every day of my life, if I can only keep sane enough to notice.

That is where the meds come in.

But really, I couldn't do it without them, even when they're whiny, come home early from Outdoor School and need twenty-four hour surveillance. I always have fresh material. As Martha used to say, "It's a good thing."

On the easel: Blue still, I hope to visit him Wednesday night.
On the nightstand: The Old Fox Deceived by Martha Grimes
On tape: Look to the Lady
On my desk: eHow.com humor articles in process (see "How to Not Get Sicker at the Pediatrician's Office")
On my art table: Pictures of animals for a mural proposal
On my mind: Getting my daughter from school, my father-in-law in Seattle, the possibility that my cold is becoming pneumonia, looking forward to the hours tomorrow when the wee one will be happily in preschool and I will park in the van to work on my laptop.