The sleet has finished falling and the sunny areas are beginning to thaw. We do, however, have the good fortune to have a north facing house. Yes! That means the front sidewalk is still frozen solid for about 10-12 feet in front of our house.

I would not let the kids go out to play as they wanted to this morning in the 16 degree weather. But this afternoon has warmed up to 29 and that seemed reasonable for frolicy kids.

They decided to venture out to get the mail. I gave them plenty of cautions about ice and slipperiness and a low coefficient of static friction. (Not in those terms but you get the idea.)

Caroline boldly steps out and whoosh! down she goes sliding on the ice. A terrified scream follows with disbelief on her face and I hustle her back into the house. After some calming and insistent proclamations of "I will never go outside again! Ever!" Parker decided he was man enough to give it a try. He put his gloves on backwards so the pattern would give him some traction and promptly assumed the crab-walk position. He skidded about and it looked like so much fun the Caroline decided to try again. They stayed low to the ground and slip-slided around for quite a while.

I did finally get the mail, a bit soggy and not nearly as exciting as the activity on my sidewalk.

I don't get what "mew" is???

Dear Clueless,

I was simply writing a casual phonetic spelling of the coefficient of static friction. It is represented by an "m"-like symbol that was not available in my fonts. :)

Your Somewhat Geeky Sister who happens to like physics

now I'm even more confused

and how did you know it was me who didn't get it?!?! : )