Mystery Solved!
'Cause I Ain't Got Nothin' Better To Do Today
I've long wondered what the point was to the anemometers (that's translates as "wind speed gauge" to you non-geeks out there) that reside in the courtyards outside the front of my building.
We've got two glassed-in courtyards down in the basement level, both open to the sky, with plenty of tables and chairs underneath oak trees that provide decent shade for lunchtime napping, reading, eating, etc. There's a trio of bubbling fountains inside a small pool against the inside wall on either side. I sometimes read out there, but more often than not I just stare at the bubbling fountains for minutes on end. Large quantities of moving water are to me what tinfoil is to a crow. I can't take my eyes off it. I'm so used to the big, brown slow-moving rivers down here in Texas that the first time I saw a rushing, burbling river up north, I must have watched it for an hour.
Dammit, I'm digressing again. Y'all holler out when I do that!
So, I'm puzzling over these wind speed gauges, trying to figure out what ninny decided to measure wind speed down in a glassed-in canyon. Seems to me you'd want them up on street level, or on the roof. Each one's mounted on a length of electrical conduit topped with a junction box that juts out of the concrete near the inside wall.
The conduit was what clued me in. You usually don't get a lot of wind down there, being 15 feet below street level, but sometimes on a blustery day, you can get a surprising amount. I've seen the fallen leaves down there whipped up into mini-whirlwinds by the air ricocheting around the glass. When the wind gets really fast, the water off of the fountains can get sprayed around quite a bit, soaking everyone within a 10 yard radius. I was sure that if the wind got too high, the water might become a huge problem, especially since the exit door was right next to the fountain.
So, to test my theory, I walked over to one of the anemometers, and gave it a really hard spin. Sure enough, the fountain pumps shut off. Pretty damned clever!
Now I just need to figure out how to hook up one to the news feeds, so the endless yammering of the hurricane-addled TV weathermen shuts off when we get a light breezy rain out in the Gulf.
I've long wondered what the point was to the anemometers (that's translates as "wind speed gauge" to you non-geeks out there) that reside in the courtyards outside the front of my building.
We've got two glassed-in courtyards down in the basement level, both open to the sky, with plenty of tables and chairs underneath oak trees that provide decent shade for lunchtime napping, reading, eating, etc. There's a trio of bubbling fountains inside a small pool against the inside wall on either side. I sometimes read out there, but more often than not I just stare at the bubbling fountains for minutes on end. Large quantities of moving water are to me what tinfoil is to a crow. I can't take my eyes off it. I'm so used to the big, brown slow-moving rivers down here in Texas that the first time I saw a rushing, burbling river up north, I must have watched it for an hour.
Dammit, I'm digressing again. Y'all holler out when I do that!
So, I'm puzzling over these wind speed gauges, trying to figure out what ninny decided to measure wind speed down in a glassed-in canyon. Seems to me you'd want them up on street level, or on the roof. Each one's mounted on a length of electrical conduit topped with a junction box that juts out of the concrete near the inside wall.
The conduit was what clued me in. You usually don't get a lot of wind down there, being 15 feet below street level, but sometimes on a blustery day, you can get a surprising amount. I've seen the fallen leaves down there whipped up into mini-whirlwinds by the air ricocheting around the glass. When the wind gets really fast, the water off of the fountains can get sprayed around quite a bit, soaking everyone within a 10 yard radius. I was sure that if the wind got too high, the water might become a huge problem, especially since the exit door was right next to the fountain.
So, to test my theory, I walked over to one of the anemometers, and gave it a really hard spin. Sure enough, the fountain pumps shut off. Pretty damned clever!
Now I just need to figure out how to hook up one to the news feeds, so the endless yammering of the hurricane-addled TV weathermen shuts off when we get a light breezy rain out in the Gulf.
posted by El Capitan | 3:08 PM
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