I really did used to live in WV

But you would never know it these days because it's 32 degrees outside and I want to cry.

My mom and sister who work for public school systems in Raleigh County and Greenbrier County, respectively, were both off work today because of snow, ice, and actual cold weather. I just checked Weather.com and the temp for where my mom lives is 13 degrees. Now that is cold.

I'm becoming a southern wuss. Last week when we were in WV we went to my sister's house to eat dinner and it was snowing and the roads were getting bad when we left. I came over with my dad instead of driving because it started snowing in the afternoon and I don't drive in the white stuff anymore. My father taught me to drive on slick roads when I was 17, but 20 years makes the details a bit fuzzy.

These days I don't like to drive in the rain. When my son and I were headed back to Georgia on Saturday, we stopped to spend the night in Tennessee because it was raining and getting dark. What a soft life I lead!

Driving back from my sister's house last week was my son's first experience of being in the car (well, a four wheel drive truck, actually) on roads covered with snow and ice. My dad did fishtail at one point, but other than that we were fine.

I guess it's all relative. When my family comes to Georgia in the summer, they talk about how hard it is to breathe with the humidity. The first time my niece came to visit years ago, she was shocked because we don't get the cool down from the mountain breezes at night here. We walked outside to go to the grocery store at around 9 p.m. and she said "It's still hot."

The heat, the humidity, I'm used to that now. I can even sit in the bleachers in 98 degree weather in the sticky heat and blazing sun of a July afternoon and watch my son play baseball, without a great deal of complaining.

What I can't do is drive in the snow or walk through my parents' drafty house on top of that big ol' hill in Midway in the dead of winter without saying brrrrrr.

Bundle up West Virginians! The high tomorrow for my hometown is a chilly 13 degrees. Down here our high will be about 20 degrees warmer, but you can bet I'll have my heat cranked up and will be thinking of you!