Flu Is for the Birds, Snow Is for Kids

Despite my desire to make 2011 a year full of goals and personal pursuits, I think I'm being told to slow down. A day after ringing in the New Year, I began feeling under the weather. I don't get sick often, but it's easy for me to tell when illness is trying to invade my Superman-like immune system. Last Sunday, I started feeling a little weak, and by Monday I was confined to the bed. Flu symptoms ended up sidelining me most of last week. I didn't actually feel like I was back to being 100 percent until yesterday. What a way to start the year.

So what I wasn't able to get out and about to do last week, I was planning to hit the ground running with today. The snowstorm had other plans, shutting down Charlotte almost completely. Even though I didn't leave the house, it's not like I got a snow day. I spent the entire day getting caught up on freelance work that last week's illness made it difficult to do with a head full of meds. So that part was an accomplishment, and I'll attempt my errands again tomorrow (or maybe Wednesday with the way the roads are looking).

As a kid, I remember being excited to see snow. That could've been partly because growing up in South Carolina, we wouldn't even get one day of snow a year. There were plenty of years when one day would bring light flurries that would melt before we could even get outside. Building a snowman? Forget about it. But there was the rare occasion when we would get two to three inches of snow, which would close down the schools and cause power outages (I can hear the Yankees mocking us as I type this).

It snows more in Charlotte--we've gotten at least a couple days of "substantial" snow each year since I've lived here. And it has snowed more across the South in general this winter, so it's actually a little worrisome considering we usually don't get snow until late January or early February, but it's already snowed on Christmas Day and the second week of January this season.

So instead of a year where I'm going to be on my grizzy, as the kids say, I think I'm going to slow it down some. I'm going to take time to appreciate good health. And to count the snowflakes. (As you can see in the photos below--one's from my front yard and the other is from the back--the snow in my yard doesn't get touched because there are no kids living here. Kids know how to enjoy themselves.)