Winter-Lite for Me, Thanks

Winter has never been my favorite time of year. Early on there were times I enjoyed snow and cold weather. But my ability to even endure, much less enjoy cold weather has steadily declined with age.

The most fun I ever had in the snow was in grade school, sledding down the hill near our house. Our new neighborhood was skipped by salt trucks and plows a few times. As luck would have it, extremely hazardous roads make for great sledding. Turning on the fire hydrant at the top of the hill made for an even icier surface.

I prayed for snow days in junior high. Not only did a snow day mean staying home from school, it also allowed me to make money shoveling snow from sidewalks and driveways. An early start allowed me to finish a job or two before the sun put me out of business.

Getting a driver's license completely changed my view of snow days. Permission to drive the family car was hard enough to get on the best of days. Throw in snow and ice and the best I could hope for was a trip to an empty parking lot for an unwanted driving lesson from the most impatient man on the planet. Fun.

My dislike for cold weather intensified in college. Because the majority of students lived on campus, the University of Kentucky almost never closed. Driving in for class during and after snow storms was bad enough. After a while, the very idea of walking between classes in subzero weather with gale force winds was enough to keep me from leaving my comfy, warm bed.

Snow is a rare visitor to Athens. When it snows here everything closes. Most of the time it's gone by noon. Last year we got nearly a foot of snow and it stayed around for several days. The big snow this year was gone two days later.

I'm grateful for our southern snow. You know--the kind of snow that pops in just long enough to say hello before going away. I hope that's it for this year. Otherwise, I turn into...

The Crotchety Old Man