Weekend Plans Post: The Barometer

Here’s a funny story from The New Yorker from 1938:

The New Yorker, November 12, 1938 P. 15
A man on L. I. satisfied a lifelong ambition by ordering an expensive barometer from Abercrombie & Fitch. It arrived in the morning of Sept. 21st. He unwrapped it and was disgusted to find the needle stuck at “Hurricane.” After shaking it in a vain attempt to start it working right, he sat down and wrote a sharp letter to A. & F. and went right out to mail it. When he returned, his house was gone, and the barometer with it.

Well, Maribou is the human version of that. Not quite the “stuck on Hurricane” as much as the fact that she can pretty reliably, if subconsciously, communicate how bad the coming storm is going to be by the number of “w”s when she says “owwwwww”.

Last week, for example, Colorado was experiencing a June heatwave. US Stormwatch called the weather pattern an example of a “Ring of Fire”:

A “Ring of Fire” weather pattern is dominating the West, bringing a historic #heatwave as well as thunderstorms and dangerous fire weather conditions. pic.twitter.com/xZkoFHP3M7

— US StormWatch (@US_Stormwatch) June 17, 2021

How this manifested in Colorado Springs was a string of days with temperatures in the 90’s. Check this out:

89 degrees was a *RELIEF*.

But the truly crazy thing happened the following Monday:

That was the day I had a dermatologist’s appointment. (Everything was fine. She complimented me on my skin and on my ability to stay out of the sun. “I’ve spent the last year in a basement!”, I told her.)

The doctor was done in record time and so I figured, “hey, the maintenance light just turned on in the car… I’ve got the rest of the day off anyway… I’ll get the oil changed and wander over to the Sonic and see if the picnic tables are available again.”

I set up with the guy at the maintenance place and got outside to walk over to the food place and, holy cow, it was cold. I checked my phone and it said 58 degrees! That’s a drop in practically 30 degrees from the day before and 40 degrees from a couple of days before that! So I got the food and came back to the maintenance place and ate in a secluded corner where it was not 58 degrees.

Unsurprisingly, Maribou’s declaration for the day was “ooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww”. (Still, she told me, she preferred the barometer headache to the weather being the human body temperature.)

Since then, everything has turned around and we seem to have slipped into thunderstorm season. Pleasant temperatures in the 60s and 70s, raindrops the size of a nickel, and an excuse to not go out in the afternoons.

As such, this weekend will be spent trying to time the usual chores and errands around the thunder. Last time I went to Whole Foods, the storm started in earnest about 2 minutes before I parked in the parking lot and ended about 3 minutes after I got back in the car and started to head home. I’m hoping to avoid that this time. Even so, it’s nice to go to Whole Foods again and look at the produce in person. To go inside the PetSmart and get the litter instead of having it delivered curbside. Heck, if the weather gives us a nice little window, we might even go someplace and eat at a real live restaurant. Just, you know, outside.

So… what’s on your docket?

(Featured image is “Barometer” by jcc_seveq and is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)