Speak (un)Easy

Craig Allen Reporting
Chief Meteorologist

callen@cbs.com

New York -- It's been quite a while since I added to this blog. You know, life has a funny little way of getting in between you and the keyboard. There's talking about the weather from 5-10 am and 4-8 pm on a weekly basis right here on WCBS-AM/880 and lets add in a couple hours of prep time, especially on stormy days. For those of you with Cablevision, you know I do more talking about the weather on News12 Long Island and you've probably noticed I talk about the weather a few more times over the weekend on Fox5. Schools ask me to talk to their students about weather; so does the Temple Brotherhood, the bank teller, the mailman, my doctors. I'm not complaining (hmmmm). It was my decision to take on all these tasks so I could talk and talk and talk about the weather to all of you. It is extremely rewarding (until the questions turn to "how come it didn't snow" or "you said it was going to be a beach day" start to fly at you) . In schools, the look on kids and teachers faces, especially the elementary schools is proof-positive that I've made the right decision.

Who doesn't talk about the weather?

Uh....me. At least not this week. I have no choice; all that talking left me 'speechless', literally. Our wonderful winter friend, Mr. I. Bug (first name Flu, short for Influenza) paid a visit and decided to take up residence in my head, nose and throat. In fact, I believe he brought his whole family on this trip and they too have found my pharynx, larynx and vocal chords to be an inviting place. My feverish attempts (literally) to evict them have been slow. As far as I'm concerned, they've worn out their welcome!

We had to find quick coverage for 880. I was supposed to fill in for Bill Korbel at News12 this week while he suns himself on a tropical cruise. I highly doubt Fox5 would want me to whisper my way through a forecast. So that's it....no talking about the weather. We just had a week of weather extremes; record-breaking warmth in the 60's and rare January thunderstorms. That's just our area. The rest of the country had tornadoes, 5-10 feet of snow out west, floods and earthquakes. I heard about it all; I couldn't sleep from the pain and discomfort so I figured I'd listen to others talking about it on radio and TV. (By the way, nice job guys and gals for filling in for me)

But I couldn't talk about it :(
However, it has given me a chance to update this blog !!!!

I know, there will be plenty more weather to talk about in the coming days, weeks and months and I'm hoping it won't be long before my vocal chords begin to vibrate again with what we call sound and a voice. ;) In fact, the pattern may be switching again and bringing us back to more wintry type conditions over the next week.

Wanna talk about it?