May 2, 2022 3 min read

Welcome to May. I’ve never been happier to flip the calendar over and usher in the new month. I am assuming that summer is coming.

Some days, it feels like heat is already here. Unfortunately, there are other days when I feel like I’ve been time warped back into February or teleported to Antarctica. Pittsburgh is consistently inconsistent when it comes to weather. There was a day early in April where there was snow, lightning and a late-day heat wave. It was like Mother Nature was on a bender.

Side note: To be a meteorologist in Southwestern Pennsylvania is easy; all you need to do is tell people to wear a jacket and carry and umbrella and you’re done. That’s all we really want from our TV weather-people – suggestions on how to dress when we leave the house. The No. 1 reason people get angry at WTAE’s Jeff Verszyla (and not just the people who have to spell his name), is when he promises sun and we get snow. Only skiers and snowboarders complain when it’s the other way around.

But I digress, like I do. I am no longer patiently awaiting the season. I am screaming at the sun, “Come out, come out, wherever you are!”

People always say to me, “Maybe you shouldn’t live in Pittsburgh if you can’t handle the weather.” I think it’s unfair. I love everything about this place but the weather. It’s one thing. It’s a big thing, but it’s only a factor.

There are pluses and minuses to every geographic location on the planet.

I remember my first earthquake in Los Angeles. I was on a job interview on the third floor of a five-story building. There was a tremendous boom and a little shake. I assumed that someone on the floor above me dropped something heavy. Something very heavy, like the Hulk was juggling Subarus up there and dropped one. The woman who was interviewing me said, “First one?” I nodded vigorously, too afraid to speak the word “earthquake” for fear it might trigger another. She laughed and said, “You get used to it.”

I remember thinking, “I will never get used to that,” but years later, I did. It sounds odd, but the earth shifting under my feet became no big deal. It was a trade-off for almost limitless sunshine.

I even laughed when people made rookie mistakes. One guy, who moved to L.A. from New York, built a bookshelf over his bed. Once, in the middle of the night, he was pelted with Shakespeare, Tolstoy and Tolkien when a tremor pushed the weighty tomes off the shelf and onto his head. He should have placed magazines up there. People and US Weekly don’t pack the same wallop.

I didn’t leave Los Angeles because of a couple of Tectonic plates enjoyed rubbing up against each other, and I won’t leave Pittsburgh because it gets bone-chillingly cold – even in the spring.

I just want the option to complain about it.