The white stuff

I love it when the white stuff falls during the holiday season. By white stuff, I don’t mean snow; I mean salt. Whenever our weather apps send out even the hint of a whiff of a chance of snow, people afraid of attracting personal liability scatter bag loads of rock salt onto the sidewalks while city plows scatter it everywhere else. Never mind that it corrodes everything from cars to concrete. And never mind that saline runoff damages the local watershed. Still, after it’s done its work melting the snow, it leaves behind fascinating patterns etched into the underlying surfaces.