It is said that art imitates life, and a Peanuts cartoon this week surely reflected the life that many of us have experienced recently. Snoopy has been lying on the roof of his dog house, and he rises from a deep pile of snow to proclaim, “Rats! No matter how hard I try, I can’t hibernate!”

Unfortunately, neither can the rest of us. Much as we might like to avoid what winter has brought us so far by crawling into our beds and sleeping until spring, we can’t.

Our area has already had one of its deepest snowfalls for some time, and it was quickly followed by a Christmas ice storm that kept many inside for at least a couple of days.

We’ve probably become spoiled by the relatively warm and snowless winters in recent years, and it’s likely that this winter is not much worse than some of the winters a lot of our older residents remember.

Much as we might be tempted to think otherwise, ours is a fairly temperate climate compared to some in this country.

Other regions have had to dig out from blizzard after blizzard, thousands went for prolonged periods without electricity, there is widespread flooding in the south and midwest, and winter weather has been blamed for more than 20 deaths in the last week.

Winter has come early this year, and more of it is on the way. However, so is spring ... and as 2010 begins, let’s hope it also comes early.

Happy New Year, to you and yours. May it be prosperous and healthy.