HispanicBusiness

Now that the holidays are over, we can all get back to our routines. No more cookie platters from the neighbors. No more road trips through snowstorms. No more endless hours on Facebook looking at photos of strangers' Christmas trifle and reindeer headgear.

And snow. People seem to like to post photos of snow. And for some odd reason, they think these photos of snow are funny.

I know this because many of the comments under the look-at-all-the-snow-in-my-backyard photos end with LOL. (I'd like to call for a moratorium on the use of LOL, but that's a crusade I can't take on right now.)

For years, I thought LOL meant "little old lady." So for years, it mystified me why someone would write something he thought was somewhat funny, then end the sentence with "Little old lady!"

I was sure it was some kind of secret code to which I was not privy.

I then discovered LOL means "laugh out loud." I will confess I still miss the "little old lady," since most of the comments are not "laugh out loud" funny. Very few, in fact. "Little old lady" almost makes a more amusing rejoinder.

One comment left on my Facebook page over the holidays, however, did make me laugh out loud, and the guy posting it wisely did not end it with LOL. It stood very nicely on its own.

"First-World Problem: Heated car seats get too hot!"

The poster had just returned from a post-Christmas ride through the snowstorm that hit much of the country. He said he didn't want to complain in a world where many people have no heat at all, but He was perfectly aware that it was like complaining that your Tiffany diamond is too small. Still, his car seat gets too hot.

I could relate all too well. I hate our heated car seats and spend most of my time twirling that dial to turn them off. It just seems an unnatural act to me, like sitting on a hot pad for hours on end.

I have been able to heat my own seat for more than six decades now, thank you. I don't need any help. LOL.