Baby, it's bone-freezin' cold outside!

It is cold. This morning, it was 2 degrees F--possibly less. Now, after noon, it's warmed up to a nice toasty 8. I think the high is supposed to be 14, but I have my doubts about getting there. I picked up Emily from school, and the walk from the car to the school was enough to make my ears hurt it the arctic wind, and my fingers numb even inside the gloves. There are about 6 inches of snow on the ground, and not a bit of it is melting off the street, so driving is interesting. Did you know that cold, dry, squeaky snow is actually very slippery? It is. I've had to practice the rocking back and forth out of snow drifts a couple times now, and it is always interesting to wonder if this might actually be the time where you get good and stuck. Fortunately, that hasn't happened yet.
Also, can someone please invent a silence bubble that you can pop over a screaming toddler when you are in public places? It needs to be air-permeable, but not sound. Think you could do that? It would be so much easier to get grocery shopping done and various other errands without having to either a) drop everything and vacate the premises so they don't destroy the eardrums of everyone else in the store and to find a private place to wait it out or discipline them, or b)give in to the tantrum to shut them up but at the same time encourage these tantrums to continue because you give them what they want when they do it! Can you imagine how great it would be, once they started screaming because they want something they can't have, to just throw the bubble over them (oh, it needs to be compactible so I can store it in my purse) and continue shopping in blissful silence until they realize the tantrum is not getting them anywhere? Oh well, I can dream, can't I?