A few days ago, the weather channels started to predict that we would have snow, sleet and extremely cold weather today and instantly people started getting whipped up into a frenzy.

First, we had a patient cancel an appointment for SATURDAY (tomorrow, when it’ll be above 50 degrees because of, you know… the weather). He called in on TUESDAY. Then, as the days marched on and it looked like it would/might/could actually happen, Austin started to come to a complete halt.

To the point where I decided to close the office — not because WE weren’t going to make it in, but everybody else had decided it would be too DANGEROUS to drive anywhere and they weren’t leaving the house.

The supermarkets got cleaned out as people stocked up. It’s all people talked about when they came in.

So imagine how disappointed everybody was when it never dropped below 38 and the snow was really a sneeze of baby powder and then it was gone.

You should have seen my sarcastic posts on Facebook. About braving blizzard conditions and those TREACHEROUS driving conditions.

I wasn’t surprised, of course. I had been saying all this time “Show Me The Money” since I’m NEVER going to believe the weather here unless I actually see it. The weather channels? They’re gossip-mongering, frenzy-inducing, and mania-inspiring, and if they cut their hysteria in half, we might have a chance at a reality check. My friend, Jan, who also thinks everybody gets too worked up about this sort of thing, had to eat crow, on the other hand, because apparently it actually DID snow in Houston. And so she posted this:

I should frame this.

(photo credit: Jan Mitchell Johnson)