Bring On Spring In the spirit of full disclosure, I will tell you I grew up in Hawaii, and didn't see snow for the first time until I was 16. I was sitting in a social studies class in my junior year of high school in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, when one of my classmates yelled "It's snowing!"
It sure was, and the teacher even let me go outside to see it.
I can say that since that moment, the magic was pretty much over for me and snow.
So, it won't come as a surprise for you to learn that I'm not a big fan of winter.
Just like when I was 16, I enjoy the first snowfall of the season. Then, bring back the warm weather.
This has been a long winter for anyone like me. I keep trying to find the positives in all of this ice, snow and slush. It's been hard.
Sure, there was the morning when I took my son sledding on the hill of a neighbor's yard. That was a memory. It was fun, even as I worried about him crashing into something or hurting himself.
The dog seems to enjoy chasing snowflakes. That makes me laugh.
But it seems to bring out the worst in drivers. And then there's the whole issue of school snow days, and whether or not to call them.
Boots, hats, gloves, coats, road salt on the floors of the house, shoveling the walk and the driveway.
The only positive thing I can say on this topic: It's all given me a much greater appreciation for spring, summer and fall.
¶ 12:23 PM 0 comments

Take Care What a sad few days it has been. The shootings at Kirkwood City Hall touch all of us, whether we were friends with one of those who died, or are trying to comprehend how something of this terrible magnitude could happen right where we live.
Even those of us who write for a living have found it difficult to put feelings into words over the past few days.
One of the most poignant interviews I did the night of the shootings was with Alanna Kellogg. She's the food writer for the Webster-Kirkwood Times, and I met her as she was walking her dog on the plaza in front of City Hall about two and a half hours after the shootings.
Like so many that night, she said she felt drawn to the area after hearing the news. As she walked to the heart of Kirkwood, she also said she struggled to find words to describe her feelings about what had happened. What would she say, if she had to write about what had happened? How would we explain the events to our children?
People like Alanna helped verbalize the confusion and grief so many of us were thinking that night. I'm grateful to each and every person who stopped to share their thoughts that night, and in the days since then.
These are truly dark days of February in more ways than one. From the tragic events in Kirkwood, to the bad weather, to the flu bug currently raging through our area.
One of the things that keeps coming to mind for me now is the need for all of us to be kind to ourselves. It may be a long time before we make sense of these troubling times, or find the words to describe our feelings about what has happened. Let's be sure we give ourselves the time to find them. ¶ 3:41 PM 0 comments