It is one of the pitfalls of the job.
I spend an inordinate amount of time every day staring at a computer screen, with my trusty radio (my mom's old reliable Sony tabletop in the office, my Soundesign portable at home) in one ear, and the TV in the other.
Yes, I know I now have the ability to actually listen to radio through my laptop or my phone. Hey, call me a throwback. Actually, I just like the idea of thinking of mom every time I turn that radio on in the office. It's usually the first thing I do when I get into the office, and the last thing I do, turning that old dial to shut it off, before I leave.
That dial setting never changes. It sits on KYW-1060 in perpetuity. It's kind of the soundtrack of my life. I've spent more than four decades in the newspaper racket, and 90 percent of my morning start the exact same way.
KYW, and coffee. In that order.
But I also have a rather large TV that looms over my other shoulder in the office.
The cacophony drives some people insane. They wonder what's wrong with me and can't understand how I ever get anything done - let alone write anything - with all that racket going on in the background.
Clearly they have never been in a newsroom during the industry's heyday, when the sound of reporters banging out copy on typewriters (yes, I can tell you I started in this biz working on a manual typewriter. Ask your parents, kids) and the teletype clattering out the latest updates from around the world. KYW, God bless 'em, still uses that teletype as their background audio. It's an acquired comfort.
But all this noise does have its pitfalls. One in particular.
Snow days.
I am pretty much on the record as not being a big fan of TV weather. I would be fine with 30 seconds - here's the current temperature, today's high, sunny, cloudy or rainy, and tonight's low. Anything outside of that is more than I need.
Let alone should there be that most magical word in the local TV news biz. That, of course, would be snow.
That is why I spent so much time yesterday screaming profanities at the TV and radio.
It's snowing out. I can see that. I don't need a bunch of smiling people telling me that.
I don't enjoy snow. Or cold. I'm a summer guy. So I grit my teeth and battle through. But the TV talk drives me insane.
Early yesterday morning, I saw one TV reporter after another standing glumly on what clearly appeared to be simply wet roads trying to get me to believe that there was some slush on the road and some slippery spots.
So we got hit with another Nor'easter. The snow eventually did show up. Looks like most places around Delco got anywhere from 6-8 inches. Most schools were closed. A lot of people lost power again.
You can get all the details here.
This morning many school districts are again operating on a two-hour delay.
I did, however, learn one valuable bit of information.
For years, I have been wondering exactly where those nebulous 'northern and western' suburbs are. They're always the ones the TV folks tell us will be getting more snow than anywhere else.
Now I think I know where that is.
Richboro, Bucks County.
Somehow those folks managed to get socked with 16 inches of snow.
So there you have it.
And don't forget, the forecasters are tracking still one more Nor'easter that is looming for Sunday night into Monday.
No doubt our TV friends will be on early to bring us expanded coverage.
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