A Great Day to Work at Home -- Unless You're a Dog

HUDSON, Ohio (Dec. 13) -- It's not fit for man or beast in much of the Midwest today.

Especially the beasts.

Tyrone the Beagle refused to go out this morning. He took one look at the snow and just walked away. I guess I couldn't blame him. It's already over his head. Conducting beagle business is a bit tricky in this kind of weather -- a blinding snow that shows no sign of slowing down as it piles up on my deck. There's maybe 18 inches already, including what was still there from last week.

My wife tried to make the 35-mile drive to her office at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland this morning. She got halfway there and turned around. "I couldn't see 40 feet in front of me," she said.

Former Plain Dealer colleague Jean Dubail, now a regional editor for AOL's Patch.com, also noted what I've known for a long time: "Watching the snow blow sideways confirms me in my belief I did the right thing by switching jobs so I can work at home,"
he wrote on Facebook this morning.

Right, it's a great commute on a day like today. It takes me 30 seconds to get from my kitchen to my desk at AOL's virtual news room. I just walk down the basement stairs. (Normally it doesn't take me that long, but I've been slowed lately by knee surgery.) Then I turn the computer on, and I am in touch with reporters in Seattle, Haiti, New York, Washington and various other points around the world.

But while life goes on for me in my man cave, everything else around me seems to have come to a halt.

The lighted holiday figures in my front yard are almost completely submerged in snow.

Parking has been banned on the streets of the small town where I live, Hudson, Ohio.

Kent State University, which is about 10 miles from my house, canceled classes today -- when kids were scheduled to take their finals. Some of them now will get another week to study for their exams.

The city of Akron, just south of me, has all 51 of its snow plows out. And as soon as they get a road cleared, more snow blows over it.

I had an appointment for therapy on my knee in Akron this afternoon, but I decided to cancel it. I'd probably slip in the snow and hurt my knee again trying to get to the doctor's office.

Overall, more than 600 schools, day-care facilities, businesses, etc., have been closed in the seven-county area, according to WKYC-TV in Cleveland.

At least the dome over Cleveland Stadium hasn't collapsed under the weight of the snow. That's because we don't have a dome. We like to shiver when we watch our Browns lose.

And it doesn't seem to be quite as bad as elsewhere in the Midwest, where nearly 2 feet of snow has already fallen. Six deaths have been attributed to the weather, according to The Associated Press.

But here, we're getting by.

I'm enjoying a bowl of hot soup as I write this.

As for Tyrone, he finally got relief from the weather.

I dug a trench for him so he can go out and create some yellow snow.