Make mine a double

I wish I could just hop in the van and pull up to the writers' inspiration joint drive-thru.

"I'll take an inspiration value meal, heavy on the humor, please."

"Anything to drink?"

"No, but I'll take a side of resonance and I'll need extra napkins, please. This could get messy."

***
I often joke that I can write about anything, once I have a topic. Music, kids, heirloom-quality furniture, books, rare diseases, Christmas-tree recycling, real estate, basement waterproofing, you name it, I can write about it. There are lots of topics I haven't tried, of course, but if I understand something, I can write about it so that others can, too.

And yet, sometimes, when faced with a column deadline about the one topic I know better than anyone else -- my family -- sometimes I come up empty. I have a deadline on Friday, and as my sister would say, I got nothin'.

It's not that nothing has been going on; it's just that I'm having a hard time picking any one thing and expanding it to 500 words. Lots of little things: Abby is home sick from school today; I've started practicing again with all three kids; the kids are so excited about their new baby cousin; Timmy had a bit of a toilet-training relapse a couple of weeks ago; we had a mouse in the house last week (eek!); Abby told me that we have chicken for dinner too much. But while a potpourri approach can work for a blog post, I can't see it in a column.

I suppose the thing to do is just to pick something and try. And if that doesn't work, try something else.

Either that, or maybe I could call the fire department again.