"So, you want to be a weatherman, eh?"
It's fun. It's challenging. It's rarely dull. It's often maddening, especially in the winter time when you have an incoming system on the long-range modeling radar. Welcome to the world of people like me who can't work a 'normal' job.
It can be thankless. Miss an 'event' and we hear all those original jokes. "You weather forecasters are the only people who can be wrong 50% of the time and still keep their job." Wow. Hee Hee. Never heard that one before. Wink, wink. What a knee-slapper. "Hey, I just called to let you know I'm shoveling 6" of your 'partly cloudy' out of my driveway." Oh, that's rich. Stop it, my sides are splitting. You must be the life of the party.
On the flip side, we are treated like heavenly royalty on occasion, as if we are in cahoots with the Big Doppler in the Sky..."Hey, thanks for the great weather today - keep up the good work." Yep, we know how to pull those strings when we need to. God and I are 'buds'. And such fame precedes us, as well..."My sister's step-niece is getting married 3 months from now on May 8th. Can you tell me what the weather will be?" Yep. I sure can. But I'd have to kill you if I did. Weatherman's Oath, and I ain't gonna be the one to break it.
It's fun. It's challenging. It's rarely dull. It's often maddening, especially in the winter time when you have an incoming system on the long-range modeling radar. Welcome to the world of people like me who can't work a 'normal' job.
It can be thankless. Miss an 'event' and we hear all those original jokes. "You weather forecasters are the only people who can be wrong 50% of the time and still keep their job." Wow. Hee Hee. Never heard that one before. Wink, wink. What a knee-slapper. "Hey, I just called to let you know I'm shoveling 6" of your 'partly cloudy' out of my driveway." Oh, that's rich. Stop it, my sides are splitting. You must be the life of the party.
On the flip side, we are treated like heavenly royalty on occasion, as if we are in cahoots with the Big Doppler in the Sky..."Hey, thanks for the great weather today - keep up the good work." Yep, we know how to pull those strings when we need to. God and I are 'buds'. And such fame precedes us, as well..."My sister's step-niece is getting married 3 months from now on May 8th. Can you tell me what the weather will be?" Yep. I sure can. But I'd have to kill you if I did. Weatherman's Oath, and I ain't gonna be the one to break it.
I say all that as we are all starting to blink into the darkness of early next week, roughly. Something is heading our way, but details are basically non-existent at this time. Since I like similes, here is how I think we should look at the meteorologic ruminations ahead...
...It's like we're camping in a tent, deep in the woods. Pitch black out. In the middle of the night, we hear a noise. We listen as best we can. Too dark to see anything. But we hear something loud and clear. The only other thing we soon realize is that it sounds a lot bigger than a racoon.
Is it a bear? Is it only a deer? Is it a cross-bred bear and deer known as a beer?
Stay tuned...the excitement will be almost too much too handle by late in the weekend as Monday night and Tuesday come more into focus...and who knows, maybe something more..and bigger...days behind that one...?
...It's like we're camping in a tent, deep in the woods. Pitch black out. In the middle of the night, we hear a noise. We listen as best we can. Too dark to see anything. But we hear something loud and clear. The only other thing we soon realize is that it sounds a lot bigger than a racoon.
Is it a bear? Is it only a deer? Is it a cross-bred bear and deer known as a beer?
Stay tuned...the excitement will be almost too much too handle by late in the weekend as Monday night and Tuesday come more into focus...and who knows, maybe something more..and bigger...days behind that one...?
9 comments:
Amen! You said it so well.
...And to see next week's MRF run makes a meteorologist want to cry...
--A Fellow Forecaster in Columbia, SC
I'll Amen! your Amen! about next week...the Monday night/Tuesday scenario is almost looking like a decoy for Bertha days behind it! Ah, the anticipated joys of being understaffed...
Haha!! :)
Amen to your amen to my amen.
Here's to skilled weather graphics producers our stations will never be able to afford!
Here's to a 24 hr shifts, family sacrifice and the raw love of meteorology that keeps us inspired to come back for more!
Here's so suprise snow and triple-point fropa next Tuesday. :) (Okay, minus the snow! But I can dream right?)
Dream away! And here's another AMEN! to working the long hard overtime shifts, and then have to work an extra shift or two the week or two later because you have to cover someone's shift who was called in on their day off to help you cover the breaking weather because you didn't have enough personnel to begin with ...all without any compensation or thank you's! Yep, ya gotta be dedicated and insane to smile and step to the plate! Batter up!!! "Insurance and benefits, insurance and benefits,..."!!!
Big fan of yours Bob. Remember you in VA. Great blog. One observation; you really whine a lot about work. Are you not happy? Move on?
Great blog my friend. Have a wonderful weekend and good luck to us all for the storms of next week! Looks like winter and spring will battle it out until March!! How exciting!
-Sorry about my anonymity adding to the mystery ... I'm in the middle of contract fun. With google finding every instance of one's name (when in quotes) I'm sure you understand the reasoning. :)
You remind me of a cashier when someone was checking out one day...the customer complaining about something...and she said "Did you want to get some cheese to go with that whine?"! HA! Alas, TV contracts are pretty locked; our team has been pressing management to add a much-needed position, which would alleviate our biggest issues. You call it whining, I call it reminding.
Dear Mr. Child,
Just so you know, I didn't call you a "whiner." That was someone else posted as "anonymous." I think you're great. Cheers mate!
-Columbia Weather Guy, under contract, sympathizing in every way.
Ha! You are Good Company, CAE Man!Could and should say more, but it's Friday and I've pulled my plug. Everyone has their own Journey...mine, at the moment, is to relish not getting up at 1am for a couple of days!
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