ARCTIC FRONT
November 2, 2002
I know this is the space in which I should write about the wonderful attributes I have and the terrific accolades I... Oops. Wrong letter. I actually mailed that one to two TV stations last week that will probably get a hearty laugh out of the letter and then throw my tape away.
But maybe they won't so you pays your money and takes your shot.
Truth told, I don't think my whopping four months of news reporting has generated much résumé worthy material. My best received stories have been ones where I took something mundane and made something interesting out of it. "Making chicken salad out of chicken scratch," is the phrase, yes. I'm a master chef of chicken salad, if I do say so my humble self, but on a resume tape you should serve chicken cordon bleu. None appears on my menu yet.
Weather.com tells me you're not having the cheeriest weather this weekend. But I didn't notice two words that we've had in our forecasts recently: Arctic front.
Our friendly neighborhood weather geeks recited the phrase often this week. Unfortunately, the popular opinion about their accuracy is not always true. They got this one right and Daylight Freezing Time started sometime last night.
Don't worry; I remembered to reset my clocks.
Cold nights make for friendly cats. Sometime over night, mine crawled under the covers looking not for company or cuddling -- no! -- for warmth. In the cat's world I serve as a heating pad when I'm not serving the food. She will make use of me one way or another.
That's OK, though. When she snuggles next to me and starts purring, it makes me feel needed. Even better, it puts me right to sleep.
Overnight lows in the 20s. Ouch. At least I'm not on that morning shift where I had to stand outside doing live shots in the darkest before the dawn. Note: It's also coldest before the dawn.
It’s usually much warmer outside at 6:05 p.m. than it is at 6:05 a.m. and I enjoyed the difference. Not that it was sun bathing weather even in advance of the Arctic front. For Halloween I dressed up as a guy trying not to freeze his Arctic rear off as he introduced his package (his TV story, that is) in a live shot. I liked the costume so much I wore it to work. Colleagues raved. The boss let me wear it on the air.
Another benefit of working a regular day schedule is that when the boss springs for doughnuts, I’m there to take advantage of the situation. Too much, I’m afraid. I ate four of them (two chocolate iced cake and two glazed -- at least I balanced the meal, right?) and for hours after I wondered, “What’s that in my belly? Is it my stomach or Lake Erie?”
At least I didn’t get seasick.
Overcome by doughnut guilt, I’m going to venture out into the cold to go work out.
John
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©2002 John McQuiston