Weather

It has been so cold in Chicago...-15 one night. I have been fortunate enough to be out of town during this time period, but the reaction in other cities is interesting. In South Carolina there was the reaction, "Oh, how can you live there?" Well, first of all, it is a record cold and certainly doesn't occur every year (though it does in some areas, such as Minnesota). However, secondly, did they remember Hugo?

Then I am in SF now. It all brought back memories as to why I left when I was in grad school at UCSF. I had job offers in Chicago and in SF, and I chose the Chicago one. You'd have thought I was going to Tristan De Cunha (the most remote place on earth). "What?!!!", they said, "You're going to that cow town?!" Things haven't changed much. On TV today they showed the depths of cold in Chicago, and then the announcer said something like, "Here's to Chicago: 'LOL'."

My daughter had it right. Her SF friend called her and said, "Oh, it must be so awful there. But it's just gorgeous here." My daughter said, "No, it's not bad at all." That's a Chicagooan for you. Nothing really gets us down. We laugh through it and look forward to better times. On the day it was below zero, my husband said he walked to Panera for breakfast and "it wasn't bad at all."

One can't generalize, I know, and I don't want to do that. I am sure these comments are isolated. They just annoy me.