I woke first, too excited to sleep warm inside the white world of snow outside.  So before dawn I was on my front stoop in my light pink cotton pjs with my solid heavy broom.  I had on my cowgirl boots too.  And I swept five or six inches of snow off my front stoop and off the stairs.  Then again, out my kitchen door, I swept the snow.  Is it a fools errand, sweeping snow?  I imagine children's feet stupid with cold trying to navigate, their boots rounded with packed ice, their bodies so happily exhausted, just trying to get up the last stairs into the warm bright kitchen.  I know I will make cocoa next, right after I make the coffee.  They are all still asleep.