storm watch. 2010. day 4

so today . . . i didn't see much rain. that doesn't mean it wasn't raining--i just missed it.

i had opportunities, my timing was just off. it was dry on my way to work--well, when i say dry, i mean it wasn't currently raining. although, the streets were wet. i think it must have rained in the night, but once i am asleep it takes a LOT to wake me up. rollie can wake up and turn on talk radio--i am oblivious. diandra can come home late and set the house alarm--i don't hear it. milo can walk across my chest to get to rollie--ok, i am kind of aware of his 16 pound body pretending like i am the ground beneath his feet, but i don't really wake up. so rain at night? doesn't faze me.

about 11:00 i started thinking about lunch. and i thought i might like a soda with my lunch today. and i thought i might like to go get it without risking drowning, so timing was going to be important. the only problem was, i had just two times from which to choose--my 15 minute break at 11:45 or my lunch half hour at 1:00. and since the rain has not been following the schedule i have laid out for it the last couple of days, i wasn't sure which would be the better choice.

and then i remembered--accuweather!

accuweather is an app that rollie showed me early this week. i had downloaded it to my phone, but hadn't used it yet. so i tapped my fingers on the screen of my cool new phone, and a radar picture popped up. cerritos was marked on the map with an X, which was very helpful as i could see where the rain was. but it kept moving! at first the worst of it was headed toward san diego, and i thought a soda might be in my future . . . but then when i looked half an hour later, it had moved back up into our area.

clearly i needed more information. and guess what? accuweather has LOTS of information. in addition to the real time radar map, it also shows the current temperature, what direction the wind is blowing and how hard, and also the humidity. then it takes those factors into consideration to give a "real feel" temperature. it has a daily forecast for the next two weeks, AND it also lists the weather conditions for each hour of the day.

that is the feature that i consulted in making my decision about a soda run. according to accuweather, it was going to be raining in the 11:00 and 12:00 hours. but at 1:00, it just showed a cloud with lightning! i decided that was my best bet. i was so excited about this information, that i texted rollie about my decision. his reply? "i can see how you would rather die from a lightning strike than drown--quicker. :) btw, i think that symbol means lightning storms, i.e. harder rain."

shoot! i hadn't thought of that. but he was probably right, as lightning is usually accompanied by rain in the winter time. so i decided to stay in where it was warm and just drink tea at lunch. who knew accuweather could also assist in encouraging healthy eating?

i noticed there was one button i hadn't yet pushed. it was on the lower right hand corner of the screen and was marked with three stars. i had ignored it for quite a while, because i just figured it was some kind of rating scale. but as i continued to play with the app, my curiosity got the better of me, and i pushed it.

and started laughing.

onto my screen popped a fairly extensive list of activities that were rated according to the weather conditions. for instance, today the rating for barbequing, beach going, biking, golf, hiking, kite flying, lawn mowing, outdoor concerts, stargazing, tennis, and travel was poor. it's a good thing i had an app to tell me that. otherwise i might just have decided to get out my kite after school . . . it was also poor for the flu and arthritis. however, it was fair for asthma, colds, and sinus. good to know, considering my doctor thinks i suffer from two out of three of those conditions. could the weather today be rated excellent for anything, you ask? oh yes it could--grass growing, migraines, mosquitoes (i am assuming that means excellent because there aren't any!) and uv exposure! no sunscreen needed today!!

i am in love with this app. i showed it to ms. martha, and she immediately downloaded it onto her iphone. i know that it is entertaining today because we are actually having some weather. when this storm system passes and we go back to living in the land of eternal sunshine, it isn't going to be nearly as interesting.

and yet, i am glad to know that i can always look to accuweather to see if i should get out the mosquito repellant . . .

***note to mom--download this app if you do not already have it. i think you will love it too :)

is there no end to facebook apps?

so today . . . i spent my lunch time in the school secretary's office.

no, i wasn't in trouble. no, i wasn't working. i was harvesting, planting, and baking.

yes, baking. i've recently started playing a couple of new facebook games, and one requires baking.

you may remember my farmtown addiction, the index finger exhaustion, and the heart-stopping horror of accidentally virtually buying a house. and then i added pet society, which finally resulted in my spending of real money for virtual stuff.

i like facebook games. there are hundreds of them, so i obviously can't play them all. but there is something satisfying about "inhabiting" a place over which you have almost total control. every day you can see progress. other people can't mess up your world. i find it very soothing . . . usually.

i recently tried fish world, which i didn't even bother to blog about because i was so terrible at it. my fish kept dying. i would just delete the game and be done with it, but my friends who play can get points for reviving my fish. so while i have to deal with conflicting emotions about purposefully letting my fish die, i figure that i am helping out my friends by ignoring my fish.

i tried owning a zoo, but quickly became disillusioned when i realized that i had no control over where anything was--it was all about accumulating points and buying stuff, but there was no creativity or interaction involved. just a lot of mindless mouse clicking . . .

my mother got me started on island paradise. it is pretty much like farmtown, except you are on an island instead of a farm. i really like this idea. there are coconut trees. i bought a lawn chair--just one, because did i mention that i am all alone on this island? sometimes jewels or pearls wash up on shore, and how can you not love that!!?! there is planting and harvesting to be done, but it is a small island, so it isn't very much work. and if i turn the sound on my computer, i hear ocean sounds. it is all very relaxing. it is my virtual "happy place."

and then, there is yoville. i "swore" (you see the quotation marks, because i would never swear--it is just a figure of speech) that i would never, ever play this game. first of all, the name annoys me. it is just too "trying to be cool." and the people's heads are too big for their tiny bodies. you can buy clothes (of course) for the tiny bodies, but you can barely see them. you can also buy hair styles for their big heads, which pretty much eliminates ever having a bad hair day--unless you buy bad hair. as you level up, you are awarded with dance moves and emotions. really. i have earned several now, but i have no idea what to do with them. and the way you earn money in this game is by baking. i think it is a nice change from growing things, and it does make me feel productive. but still, once you start the process, it is a commitment.

so, you may ask, then why do you play?

it's like this. i have a friend who asked me to play. at first, i just politely said no, and she said she admired my ability to resist. this friend is very, very nice. i think she must play dozens of these games, because i don't think she ever says no--she is too nice, and she wants to help everyone out. besides, you never know when a new game will be even more fun than the ones you already play. but i didn't think i had time for more games. so i said no. and i held firm. for a while.

which brings me to my time in the secretary's office. last night i foolishly baked 12 hour desserts. they needed to be taken out of the oven by my break time this morning, but i had no internet in my classroom today, so it required a trek down the hallway. i did not want to lose these desserts. yesterday i forgot about them, and they all burned up. it was kind of embarrassing--i can't even virtually cook?!? so there i sat, computer in my lap, clicking away . . .

i'm sure there are better things to do with my time, but sometimes when all you have is 15 minutes, it is nice to escape into a world where everything goes your way . . .

. . . especially when you spend your day surrounded by tiny people whose main goal seems to be to thwart you at every turn.