It's the end of the world as we know it

I am not one of those flighty people who when they can't think of anything more intelligent to write comment on the weather, but I feel the sheer abnormality of the current atmospheric conditions in my home town warrants some debate. I have lived my entire life in Chicago, Illinois; a city which takes tremendous pride in both complaining about and surviving a winter which would kill most living creatures. I have stepped outside in windchills which were so vicious they make breathing impossible for the first thirty seconds. I have scrapped ice off my windshield in sub-zero temperatures at five in the morning with a library card. I have put burgers on the grill in the middle of a snow storm. And yet, it is less than a week before Thanksgiving and I am heading outdoors in a paper thin windbreaker. It is fifty-three degrees and sunny. I am not bemoaning these blessings of the weather gods, but I am starting to think there may be some validity to all this 2012 apocrypha. I will leave you all with this pleasant thought.