A question regarding socket.io

gistfile1.js

//I need to be handling an occasional data influx whether or not a client is connected,
//but if one is connected, I'd like them to be notified of it.
//The problem is I don't know how to do that with socket.io
//A simple example of how I wish I could write it would be:
//
occasionallyGetData(function(dataGot){
	socket.emit('newData', dataGot)
	regularlyHandle(dataGot)
})

io.sockets.on('connection', function (socket) {
	
});

//Could I assign the socket to a global object?  I suspect that would only support one connection:
var globalSocket

occasionallyGetData(function(dataGot){
	if(globalSocket)
		globalSocket('newData', dataGot)
	regularlyHandle(dataGot)
})

io.sockets.on('connection', function (socket) {
	globalSocket = socket
});

//What's a way?

I updated the example to clarify my situation.