Ohhh, the irony. On our year anniversary of taking the plunge and moving South, Chicago got its first winter storm of 2012, we contemplated heading to the beach for the long weekend and Hatchling #1 got upset because she misses Chicago. We were watching the local weather, me tensely hoping they didn’t mention the Chicago snow too much so as to avoid the disappointment from the two older Hatchlings. Thankfully, the eager and excited weather guy was too caught up in what our weather is doing down here (Cold snap! Freezing temps! Wind chill! Tune in at 11 for the latest!) to mention Chicago so I was in the clear. Until, right in the middle of the forecast for Saturday night, he uttered the S-word. And he was talking about here. He couched it with the usual layers of disclaimers I remember vividly from my own youth — might, could, perhaps, if, maybe, possible, slight chance, not sure, who knows, etc. — and said if anything comes through it will be an extremely small and fast-moving clipper system that might have the smallest chance of maybe producing some possible flurries, but don’t get too excited because it probably won’t happen but it could so hang in there and we’ll see. But most likely not. But it could. You never know.

I want his job.

So, thanks, local weather dude. My daughter was in tears tonight because she’s not sure if she would rather go to the beach this weekend or stay here to see the snow that you “promised” Saturday night. And, oh yeah, that reminded her that she “misses everything about Chicago,” which made the waterworks oh so much harder for this Momma Hen to bear. Let’s stick to probabilities and realities in the future, m’kay? To shed some light on what I’m talking about, feel free to check out the complete body of work that is the genius of Tom Skilling. Once you know the snow’s coming, THEN you can get excited. Otherwise it’s just your job. Thanks a bunch.