Friday, February 22, 2008

A 'northern and western suburbs' kind of day

My winter is now complete. I just saw a TV news person stick a ruler in the snow.
Yes, it took longer than normal, but winter has arrived this morning. There is measurable snow. Enough to stick a ruler into.

You can almost hear the glee in the voices of the folks on TV and radio.

It’s going to be a “northern and western suburbs” kind of day. Wherever those imaginary places are. They’re calling for 1-3 inches of snow in the immediate suburbs. But 3-6 inches in the “northern and wester suburbs.” One forrecast this morning went so far as to couch it as the “far northern and western suburbs.” What? Like the Catskills?

In short, it’s going to be a mess out there. In other words, winter.
On days like this, I leave the house extra early. I’d rather have the roads to myself than deal with the deadly combination of nasty weather, rush-hour traffic and clueless drivers.

I was safely ensconced in my warm office just before 6 a.m. It took a little longer than normal to drive in. Most of the roads were snow-covered. But they were eminently passable.

They say this is supposed to change over to sleet, rain and freezing later this morning and this afternoon. Then we can repeat the white-knuckle drive to get home and start the weekend.

Unless, of course, you’re a teacher or student. Then your weekend has already started. Most schools are closed today.

Newspapers don’t close. Worse, the snow is actually news, we have to cover it. So the challenge is first to get the staff into the office, then to cover the story.

We are already posting material on school closings and traffic conditions on our Web site. It’s one of the best things about the Internet. We now have the capability of posting news immediately and updating it constantly, as opposed to the single print edition we publish each day.

I’m tempted to have one of our photographers shoot video of me sticking a ruler in the snow here in beautiful downtown Primos. Somehow, I think I’ll pass.

I am not smiling as I type this. I get no joy out of winter. That thrill exited years ago. In short, I hate winter. And I don’t suffer easily those who take some kind of silly glee out of sticking a ruler in the snow.

Next thing I know you’re going to be telling me it’s sunny and 70 in Clearwater.

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