VOOM.

When I was little, I was very influenced by the pictures in children's books. As far as winter goes, some of the most influential were in The Cat in the Hat Comes Back. You may remember this as the one in which the Cat "helps" children remove a pink stain by doing all sorts of nightmarish things to the house, ending up with transferring the stain to the outside snow. The problem is solved with the cat's secret weapon "VOOM". It's because of this that whenever I shovel snow, "VOOM" has become my gold standard. It's obsessive-compulsive, I know, but it just makes my day if I can get my shovelling to look like "VOOM" has been at work.

Meg thought I was nuts...after all the time I took reading her that story and trying to train her up in VOOM. Kids are impossible.

Purdue is closed again today...I don't think it's ever been closed two days running. Mail made it this AM, paper didn't. This would be a pretty decent snowfall for Syracuse; it's almost unheard of here. And if you are east of me, it's coming to a town near you!