You can hear the long bell ring...the metal gates loudly banging as they open abruptly 90 degrees...the thunderous hooves echoing as thoroughbred muscle thrusts against well-groomed dirt...the necks stretched out, ears back, and manes flying as they accelerate toward their favored running position....
A horse is a horse, of course, of course....and your meteorology team here at News 14 Carolina is not...but November has been looming as the horse race of horse races for our department in that we knew we would reach our critically low staffing levels for various reasons for this month, in particular.
Double-shifts, extra-shifts, simultaneous shifts between 2 markets, we are called upon to do it all now several days each week. Each of us takes our forecasting responsibilities very seriously, and prepare for our regional market thoroughly...it stands to reason it takes a long time to adequately prepare to put your best foot forward, to check the myriad models, sources, reports, discussions before making your final call for the shift at hand. 'Nuff said. Understandable.
And yet, when you then take on a second preparation, you simply don't have the time and mental energy to focus and do it all over again the same way...kind of like rebooting a computer to clear the memory...the numbers all change, the timing all changes, the geography all changes and many other similar concerns that, quite frankly, after being up since 1 a.m. in my case I'm 100% brain-fried. The energy isn't as high as you'd like it, and you have to fight hard to put as much life as possible into the taped segments. Easier said than done when you combine this with computer crashes and hardware lock-up and other Wonkles and Snortches that pop up when you least need them to...
This is simply what we do, and we do love our work...in a perfect world we would be able to focus on doing the job we were hired to do instead of having to constantly splinter our energies and do the job of 2 people on a semi-regular basis...for no extra pay or time off, I might add. So the next time you have to shovel 6" of partly cloudy out of your driveway this winter, at least stop for a brief moment and decide if you really want to drop the guillotine on us...and if you decide to still do so, at least give us a heads up...or down...or off. (Guess you could say I stuck my neck out on that one...)
My next entry will involve one of those 'who woulda thunk it' things that popped up at an interstate rest area years ago...(??????)
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