Weather Habit

My wife occasionally demonstrates some bizarre habits. One of them is her ability to determine weather simply by sticking her hand an inch outside the bedroom window first thing in the morning. She watches the weather forecasts on TV and I have turned her on to the delights of the animated maps on the BBC but still she insists on the physical feel of temperature on her hand. This momentary snapshot can control wardrobe for all of the children, a hint of dampness and the wellies and raincoats are on before you can say "Paddington Bear". A chill in the air and you can see she is just itching to get at the gas heating controls.

I've tried explaining that we face west and the sun rises in the East, pointed out the changes in wind direction that can result in her hand being sheltered from the North East gale, but to no avail, she is still there every morning with upturned cupped palm, "checking the weather".

Occasionally when I'm up and about first she will ask me to check the weather. I just know that she expects me to put my hand out of the window. Sometimes despite having been out and come back in, she will ask, then still stick her hand out of the window, somehow having greater belief in her weather detecting fingers than my judgement on the conditions.

I'm not complaining about this, after all it is our idiosyncrasies that often endear us to others and I am no exception to this. When the kids read this in thirty years I just want them to know how long she's been doing it.