Flat Matthew makes the snow and the cat go away

Yesterday Flat Matthew went with Tom and our neighbor Rich to Madison to help deliver a car. They had planned to visit some things in Madison, which is the capital of Wisconsin, but they got too busy with other errands and did not have a chance to take pictures of an adventure to report.

Last night, however, we got a little snow. This morning while I worked on editing something I am writing for a friend, Tom and Flat Matthew shoveled the snow on the sidewalk. Here is Flat Matthew with his special snow shovel standing by the sidewalk by our garage. The snow shovel is very small and you may not be able to see the handle that Flat Matthew is holding, but the orange shovel itself is down by his foot. I think he looks like Charlie Brown in this picture. Maybe it's the little stocking cap he was wearing.

Afterward, Flat Matthew and Tom came into the house to warm up. Tom got a telephone call, and I gave Flat Matthew a cup of hot chocolate in my Cheshire Cat mug and an almond cookie that Tom got at an Asian market in Madison yesterday. So Flat Matthew did get a reward from his Madison trip after all.

Do you know who the Cheshire Cat is? He is a character in the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and he disappears into thin air, leaving only his smile behind. The cat on my Cheshire Cat mug disappears when the mug is hot, and all that is left to see is the smile. If you look at the close-up picture of the mug, you can see that cat is fading away, but the red smile is still there. That made Flat Matthew smile, too.

Michael