What do you do like to do when you are at home in the middle of a snowstorm?


Turn on the TV and waste hours in front of it's hypnotic glow?


Or perhaps rub the fingerprints off your fingers playing Halo 3?


I like to curl up in my bed and read.


I can never have a larger pleasure than curling up with a good book.


Outside, as I read, the snow mounts high.


Ice forms on the roads and sidewalks.


Icicles form on the power lines.


Engrossed in things that never happened or never will.


I don't notice a thing.


As the world outside is turned into a single statue of pure-white crystal.


Wood, asphalt, concrete and metal, they all give way to the crystal.


As I read, the sky goes from light to dark.


As I read, clouds move in and out of sight.


As I read, even time itself stands completely and noiselessly still.


Here I am, wrapped in a warm blanket with a cat curled up on my chest, and a good book in my arms.


I notice nothing around me.


Then I turn the page, and the silence continues.