Sweet Home...oh, you know

So apparently everyone else in Chicago knows but I just found out that Tom Skilling is AWESOME! For those not in Chicago and therefore those who don't know, Tom Skilling is the weatherman for the local TV news. Or the news on TV. He's the weatherman you watch on TV!

Anyway!

Point is, the dude's awesome. Here's the thing, I don't watch the news. I hate it. I tried again a couple of months back and the lead story was that a pair of legs had been found by the side of the road. Excellent. As weather forecasts universally begin about 20 minutes into the broadcast, I never get that far. Well, I happened upon him last night after Tracy assigned me to find out what was going on. We had encountered a number of emergency vehicles on the ride to her apartment and we could still hear the sirens.

Never found out what it was, but what I did find out was that the trails planes make in the sky attract or create ice crystals. And that the clouds that accumulated above them yesterday were formed of ice crystals and all these ice crystals forming indicated that a cold front was coming in. Or something like this. And that Valparaiso, IN received it's largest snowfall this early in the season since 2002.

Are you getting this? I learned during the Tom Skilling's report. He's not just some guy who looks at computer models and relays them to us. He analyzes it and probably comes up with his own models. Little ones he makes at home. Like model trains. A little tornado tearing up a little trailer park. Or scattered showers over the Chicagoland area.

Speaking of Chicagoland, let me clear something up. I was listening to an ESPN podcast. The hosts read and e-mail from a listener who said he was from Chicagoland. The hosts, having not heard of this before, thought it was something Chicago likes to call itself. Like we think we're an amusement park. Chicagoland does not refer to Chicago, specifically. Chicagoland, according to Wikipedia, is Chicago and its suburbs. I always thought it was more those suburbs (I'm talking to you, Evanston) that think they're part of Chicago. Kind of like Puerto Rico thinks it's part of the U.S.

Another thing I learned about Chicago: the Bulls and Blackhawks both have to leave their homefield, the United Center, every year because the circus comes to town. This is known as the Circus Trip. I just learned this. It began yesterday.