Snow Days Then and Now

4114 Highgrove Road in Winter

As many of you know, I'm a Pittsburgh Girl at heart.  I was born in Pennsylvania, and I spent the first thirty-eight years of my life there.  During that time, winter often began with an early snowfall in October, and it ended as the last holdouts of blackened snow finally disappeared with the spring rains.

We shoveled.  We blew snow.  We salted.  We made snow balls, and snowmen, and snow forts.  We wore snow pants, and mittens, and stocking caps.  (In fact, and to our embarrassment, our Mother used to tie plastic bread bags over our socks, and we wore them inside of our boots, to keep our precious feet warm.)

When it snowed, almost without exception, we went to work, and school, and on with our daily lives.

An Angel Making An Angel

Here in North Carolina, winter is different, and I love it.  When the word "snow" is whispered here by weather forecasters, we all run to the grocery store for bread and milk.  (Why bread and milk?  I'm not sure; but my native husband swears that it's for milk sandwiches.)

And when the snow actually arrives, schools, businesses, and other activities are canceled.  (Whatever your position on this, and folks debate it at great length, we just don't have the infrastructure to effectively remove snow and ice from our roadways.)

During times of wintry weather, my hero husband and his fellow first-responders go off to protect us, while we hunker down at home and enjoy the unexpected break in the action.  Days pass.  The snow melts.  And life goes on as if it had never happened.

I happily embraced this routine without too much deep thought, and then I opened ARTworks Vass.  The challenge of deciding when and if we should close or remain open during these times is one that has been thrust upon me, and my position is this.

Could she possibly
be any cuter?

Safety first.  In all things, the safety of my artists, employees, customers, and friends means more to me than business-as-usual or the possibility of a random sale.  (I promise.  If you have a true art-emergency, call, text, or email; and I'll snowshoe my way to the gallery to meet you!)

Our public schools will be closed today.  I've made the decision to follow their lead to close too, even though the temperature is predicted to soar to almost fifty degrees.  Why?  Because our secondary and tertiary roads are still iffy; our parking lot is covered in inches of snow and ice; and our sweet shady sidewalk just doesn't look safe to me.

Is this a good solid business practice when January is historically one of the slowest months for retail sales?  That's debatable.

Is it one that I can live with when I safely lay my head on my pillow at night and you do too?  Absolutely.

Be safe.  Stay warm.  And I'll see you on the other side.

My Backyard Today