MicroClimate
We are into our second week with the new Forester, and I have found two things about it that I like very much.
The first thing is the interior roof. Its percussive qualities surpass any I have ever experienced in my long history as driver-percussionist. Resonance qualities are those of a bodhran-- a Celtic drum-- and its acoustic effects are particularly striking during Thistle and Shamrock while the wife is in the grocery store doing goodness-knows-what for those long hours. I know that the people in the parking lot were only staring during my performance because they were impressed with my nuance of interpretation and skill. They wanted to gather round, but for some reason, held back. Oh well.
The second thing I like about this car, and have coveted in the vehicles of others for years, is the outside temperature readout that sits there, blue shining down below the speedometer. What a wealth of information is to be had here-- more entertainment than the 6-CD changer by far. I like the way it gives the lie to the simplistic radio weatherperson who comes on and says "In Roanoke, it's 52 degree; Blacksburg is 47". Silly goose. There are as many subtleties of temperature as there are curves along 221 through Floyd County! Watch that blue liquid crystal number rise, hold, then fall in the dark shadow there where the rhododendrons grow thick on both sides of the road. That is why they grow thick there-- it is northy, harsh, hostile to other plants but they love just this cool pocket which they in turn shade, and cool-- first seeking out, then preserving a local climate that suits their cold roots and curled leaves that laugh at winter.
Up top along the fairly uniform uplifted land of the county at 2700 feet, the temperature that first day of Subaru thermometer gazing was 59 degrees give or take a degree. At the bottom of two miles of descent toward Goose Creek-- 51 degrees. As we rounded the bend to our valley and the southern sky, it climbed to 54 degrees. Watch the snows as they hold fast or melt away here in a few weeks. Snow is a great gauge of micro climate, and it tells me that the people who built this house in just this location a hundred and thirty years ago paid close attention to nuance of light and temperature. What the thermometer does not show is the brutal effects of the wind, but this we felt this morning as we stepped out the back door. "It's almost warm" Ann said. Fifteen minutes later, walking back toward the house, she ate her words as the wind made us want to turn around and walk backwards. The drying effects of wind are part of the details that differ strikingly from one location to another even in a square meter of pasture or forest.
In my more free-ranging rambles of mind, I've wished for something: I'd like to have the vision to see the world in shades of yellow grading to green grading to blue. You know, like the daily temperature maps you see of the country or your state. I'd like to walk outdoors with a helmet-visor that let me see temperature with great precision by color as it leaps or plunges from the tops of grasses to their roots; from the sunny exposed yellows of the pasture to the deep blues under the rock outcrops and the deeper blue under Rhododendron hells. Creek water would be at first colder than, then in January, February, warmer than the surrounding ground and air. There are so many fine tunings in our surroundings-- in heat and light, in wind, in pH, and so many other ways of which we are unaware, though they are all about us, each step, within and without. My new blue car thermometer brings me in touch with at least one of them.
And oh, Ann's favorite feature in the Forester is the front seat warmer.
Comments
yes, I like having the road temp sensor in my Volvo wagon. I feel secure from sliding on ice that way!
Posted by: Anita Rowland | December 1, 2003 9:56 AM
Hi Fred, I've always wanted an outdoor temp sensor too. And even more fun on top of that would be an altimeter for mountain trips! Plus how about a night-vision enhancer for the windshield? Maybe someday.
Posted by: Fran | December 1, 2003 5:08 PM