The Weather Rock

On my way out to fill the bird feeders, I stopped at the door to check the temperature on my fitbit. It occurred to me that the better way to do it would be to open the door and step outside to experience it myself. How easy it is to slip into an internet haze. Reminds me of the time years ago, not long after 9/11, that we decided to put away our TV, so our 5-year-old twins could be weaned away from it. That was a wonderful 4-year experiment, we did a lot more reading and listening to music of all sorts. And talking. (The WWW was only a vague thing to us back then). The experiment ended when our son had major surgery that resulted in a body cast, and we wanted him to have access to videos and PBS. The one lasting effect was that none of us like commercial TV much anymore.

But, back to the point of this entry, when I told my mother, by phone, about our idea, she said, "but how will you know what the weather is?" I said we'd still have radio, or that maybe I would just step out onto our balcony. "Oh, yeah," she said, "That would work." And it worked.

And it works for rain, too. We have a large gray boulder in our front yard, that I talked the utility people into dropping off when they were installing underground cables and pulled it out. Anyway,I call it the "weather rock" because I can look out the window and, if the rock is gray, know it's dry out. If it's dappled gray and white, it's raining lightly. If it's black, it's been raining for a while and fairly seriously. Then, if I look out later and it's dappled again, or faded to light gray, I know the rain has stopped.

Useful, as long as one is living in the moment. Which is all any of us is guaranteed.

This morning when I opened the door I found my flannel shirt, T-shirt, and blue jeans were adequate for the five-minute adventure at the feeders. I hadn't checked the weather rock, but the patio looked dry so I took a chance. All is good, though the gray sky and slight breeze suggest some rain may be in our immediate future.

I'll check my fitbit for a longer range forecast, on the off-chance that I have a long-range future. One never knows.