Rhode Island will ALWAYS be home. I will always miss it passionately.

Well.......maybe not so much these past few days!

I have been relentless with family and friends back home as they shovel their way out of the worst storms since the blizzard of '78 as I sit here in 70 degree weather. I watch the TV coverage of the snow plows, closed schools and people bundled up like the Michelin Man as I sit with the air conditioning blowing on me in my shorts and t-shirt.

It has gotten cold a few days down here. Although if I hear one of these local weathermen call anything below 45 degrees "bitter cold" I swear I'll scream! Let them change a flat tire in an ice storm and tell me what "bitter cold" is. These idiots put on parkas to report from the station parking lot on the "freezing" conditions. Yes, it has been cold; but I wouldn't add that "bitter" moniker until there are single digits on the thermometer.

I have some very vivid snow memories. Making snow forts directly across the street from the neighbors and having snowball battles. Bringing snow in to melt into water on the radiator in the kitchen. "Hooking" on the rear bumper of cars and then when I was a driver letting kids do the same but then fishtailing to swing them directly into a snowbank.

I remember the Blizzard of '78 and walking about a 12 mile round trip with my friend Michael. The roads had not been cleared, there was no traffic and we were able to walk directly down the middle of the busiest street in the city. It was like a ghost town and we were on a great adventure. While I could retrace our route in my mind I don't remember our destination. But I don't think that mattered. We walked for hours and hours and it's one of my most favorite memories of him.

When I think of snow I immediately get one image of my mother and I going to my cousin Kenny's for Christmas Eve. I don't know what year it was and it was only a moment of time frozen in my memory. A snow covered holiday. The crisp night air grabbed my breath and hung it suspended in front of me for the longest time. The sky was crystal clear and the stars sparkled in competition with the snow on the ground. We both walked gingerly carrying food and gifts into waiting family. It was just a moment; not an earth shattering one or a long episode, but I can remember it as if it happened moments ago.

I also think of the last winter I spent in Rhode Island. We lived at the top of a hill and our backyard sloped away steeply. Johnny was just a toddler and was cocooned in his snowsuit making his already stilted walk even funnier to watch. He got into a cadence and gravity took over as he hobbled further and further down the hill away from the house seemingly out of control of his own steps. The Ex yelled for me to catch him before he got too far but he seemed to be in the midst of such joy I didn't have the heart to stop him.

Well, that and there was a fence at the edge of the property that would have eventually stopped him dead on!

All the harassment I give those "back home" may actually be a little bit of jealousy showing through.