Should we talk about the weather? (Hi, hi)

All "Pop Song 89" aside, as I was writing a letter to my brother this morning lamenting the return of winter to my fair city (ZERO DEGREES! SNOW! This wouldn't be so irritating had it not been 35+ and all the snow melted for the past two weeks), I noticed how often I always, always open a conversation, an email, or a letter with a comment about the weather.

Either I am an awkward conversation starter (likely), I was born with this inclination buried deep in part of my ancestral roots, or I think the weather is fascinating. I tend to think I am fascinated by the weather. I can go on for ten minutes at a time recounting the recent shift in weather or, if it's been particularly static, I haul out old El Nino/La Nina stats to contrast it with. WHY?! What is the relevance? Does anyone else care?

Back when I used to watch the evening news with my parents (ah, evening news, how you have been replaced by msnbc.com), my favorite part was when they would do the weather and show the record-holding lows and highs. I always got sad when we got CLOSE to the 1886 record because I didn't want us to break it, but when there was a low of, say, 28 degrees set in 1976, and the local temp was at 29, I would get so MAD that we couldn't get there. LIKE IT WAS A CONTEST OR SOMETHING, OR LIKE THE RECORDS OF THE 1800S DESERVED RESPECT.

The forecast for today: far below freezing, sunny skies that have changed into cloud cover, no new snow fall, and leftover snow drift from the GALE FORCE WINDS of last night that, God Bless America, swept the sidewalks for me. And I'll be reading all the weather-related tales of COLD and SNOW on msnbc.com and preparing my dinner conversation with Vee.