Among my gifts yesterday was something I’ve long wanted: my own mini weather station. Not the old fashioned kind in a white wooden beehive affair, which is a bit of a shame as I’ve always liked those, but a much more practical wireless job with a little sensor that hangs outside and a unit in the house that tells you how F cold* it is without having to go outside, get in the car and drive around for a bit to get a proper temperature reading. Woo hoo! I bet you can’t wait to see the spreadsheets I’m going to do with this.
But first we had to find a place to place the sensor and the base unit out of both direct sunlight (not a huge problem) and rain (ah), where its wireless signal wouldn’t be interrupted by thick stone walls – in a cottage made almost entirely of 18-in thick walls. We’ve finally settled on the sensor dangling off the back of the other half’s shed under an eave (can you have just one eave? Or is it like a trouser?), and the base unit in the North wing, aka our summer quarters. Where, I note, it’s exactly the same temperature indoors as it is outside.
Would you take fashion advice from this man?
Apparently it has to do a 14 day learning mode and then it will be able to accurately forecast our weather for us, or at least as accurately as a single source of data can. There’s even a little man who shows what the suitable clothing for such weather might be – anything from shorts and a t-shirt to hat, scarf, gloves, coat and boots, although I don’t think there’s an icon indicating when it’s okay to take your fleece off indoors. And, this being an American product, there is a little caveat in the instructions. The weatherman might be saying ‘get the shorts out’ but the laywerman has added a footnote: ‘This is a recommendation only, please use your own judgement when choosing your daily wardrobe.’
Please tell me this is just a wry little joke on the part of the manufacturers, and that nobody ever sued because they wore a hoody to a job interview after their electronic weather station told them to…
*And it’s American so it only does F cold. I’m going to have to print out a little conversion chart to Celsius for the winter (for some reason when it’s hot, I like to think of it in Farenheit, but the cold only makes sense in Celsius. I think it was because I was the generation that grew up with metric at school and imperial at home and I’ve ended up with a bastard hybrid measurement system of my own.)
What are these strange units? °F? What is that about??
Actually I am looking forward to the spreadsheets and was hoping you’d got one of those that you can make go online so other people can see the weather.
What it needs is a remote sensor located at the ford to tell you how deep that is.
Kim – it turns out I can change it to °C after all
cha0tic – careful what you wish for
Dom – but then what would we do on our walks? Guessing the level of the ford before we get there is half the fun
No joke. Some of the funniest reading available is the disclaimer on products available for sale. “Don’t iron your clothes while wearing them” is one of my favorites.
you may laugh, but I’ve done that – well, I was a student at the time, going on a job interview. I didn’t burn myself but I don’t think I got the job … this may be why I let the rayburn do the ironing these days though
I love it & I want one:)
Happy Birthday!
My personal one is the ‘may cause drowsiness’ on a pack of Nytol sleeping tablets.
I’d suggest that if you start taking your wardrobe instructions from a small cartoon character, you peobably shouldn’t be allowed out without a grown-up.
Louise – yes, they’re fun aren’t they?
Andy – especially one who wears his sunglasses indoors
[...] Which is marvellous, of course, especially as they seem to have brought the weather with them (the Weatherman was wearing his sunglasses this morning and it’s now officially warmer outside the house than [...]
[...] it all the way through to ‘and finally, Scotland’. Maybe she’s in alliance with weather man although frankly, he’s not much use as a forecaster. Surely she’s too young to feel it [...]