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It was that glint in his eye that gave it away. "Hi, Bert."
"Hi, Doc. Say, isn't this a beautiful day? It's 32 out there."
"Doesn't seem that cold," said Steve, our resident cowboy, who
tends to look at everything from between a horse's ears.
"Oh, not 32 degrees, dear friend."
Dear friend? We're in for it.
"...but 32 inches of mercury in the barometer. Winds are calm.
Sun is shining. No chance of snow."
"You have a barometer?"
"Oh, yeah. You can't always depend on the TV weather guy, you
know. You see, it's not just where the barometer is that tells you
what the weather's like, but it's where it is now in relation to
where it was before. That's what they call the trend."
"Heard that word before," said Doc.
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column] |
"It's scientific. Got a book about it the other day. Maizie
picked it up at the library. You see, to the layman, the world
outside looks kinda nice, doesn't it? Sunshine, no wind. Looks like
a beautiful day. But to the expert -- to the meteorologist -- that's
just the start. Oh, yes. He'll look outside at the beautiful
weather, but he realizes it's simply a precursor to the weather
we'll have tomorrow. He'll know, you see, from how the mercury is
responding in the glass -- we call the barometer a glass -- what
kind of weather to expect tomorrow. That's what sets us apart from
other people."
"Because you read a book?"
"And I have my weather station, yes."
"So what kinda weather is coming tomorrow, Bert?"
"Oh, 'bout like today."
"So the barometer told you that?"
Bert looked a little sheepish. "I didn't have time to figure it
out. Heard it on the news."
[Slim Randles]
Brought to you by
"Sun Dog Days"
at www.unmpress.com.
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