By the time this column goes to publication, hopefully most, if not all, of what is left from this past week’s winter storm will be behind us. My philosophy on that is it’s better to be safe than sorry because, unlike up north, even though storm prep down south has much improved over the years, it’s still not on the level of New York or Maine. This winter storm was a classic example of that, where we saw more sleet and freezing rain (bad for roads, power lines and trees) and a lot less of the white fluffy stuff. Still, storm prep among the citizenry down here can be fun, with people running to the stores well ahead of an anticipated winter event in hopes of beating the crowds. As of this writing, the storm is just getting started here in Charlotte, and we’ve done all the storm prep we can.