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eftychia at 05:00pm on 2008-02-19Ouch. Everywhere.
Last night the wind got fierce -- it sounded like it had to be much stronger than the 7 MPH wunderground.com was reporting. (I don't suppose any of y'all just happen to have a wind-tunnl-scale model of Baltimore ... and access to a wind tunnel? I've been wondering why the winds on my roof are so high.) Sometime after a phone call woke me (the phone's battery died mid-ring, before the phone had stored the CID and timestamp, so I don't know who called -- but Perrine was glad that I woke up enough to feed her, as her dinner was already a few hours late) I heard one of the weights go rolling down the roof, so I know the plastic is not in position for tomorrow's predicted precipitation, but I cannot go up on the roof today. I can barely get out of bed today. (Fortunately I have a large bladder.) I did eventually make it downstairs a little while ago, and damn, ascending or dscendng stairs is painful.
I did have an idea for a technique that might hold the expensive tarp in place ifwhen I have the strength to try dealing with the roof again and calm enough air to wrangle what will want to become a hundred and forty square meters (1500 square feet) of sail if I slip. I figure I can tie a rope to one of the tarp's eyelet's at the front of the house, run the rope through the house front to back (through the tops of the windows, assuming the upper sash isn't stuck on any of the four windows in question), and tie it off to an eyelet at the back of the house. Repeat for three more pairs of eyelets, running through two pairs of windows. That oughtn't go anywhere, right? Of course, I'll need to wedge the windows shut again afterwards, as the rope will want to pry them open.
Anyhow, I didn't make it to rehearsal last night -- I fell asleep while trying to decide whether I'd be able to lift the bass -- and today I'm not good for much except browsing LJ and (yes yes I get the message oh furry one) petting the cat. Maybe a bit of television, if I can manage the attention span through the pain. I probably shouldn't have tried to work on the roof yesterday; I pushed too hard and I'm paying for it.
F'ing ouch.
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Coming back to myself after last night..LJ is helping, esp. following what's going on in your life. Reminds me that at least I don't have to get up on the roof with my arthritic and sprained self. ;_)
*meows the Perrine*
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might be more obvious after I've slept, but ...
Another source says to add 0.5 m/s for every 100m of elevation above "average elevation for that square of the [200m IIRC] grid". That way I get an expected 7.5 MPH on the roof, which seems awfully low for what I felt up there.
I wonder how easily I can build a cheap-but-accurate-enough anemometer. It would be interesting to mount one at ground level in front of the house, one behind the house, and one on the roof, to compare readings.[*]
Of course, if I wait long enough, another building will catch fire on a windy day at a useful distance upwind for me to watch the pattern of the smoke flowing around my house, making a 1:1 scale wind tunnel test, and that might provide useful clues as well. Unless the smoke is too thick to make out such details, as it was the last time. Hmm.
[*] I have a bunch of experiments I'd like to do Someday that involve putting sensors in various places and having a computer automatically sample them on a schedule. Comparing temperatures in different rooms to see patterns in how the house heats and cools in response to weather; comparing outdoor temperatures on the north and south sides of the house at different heights; comparing temperature plots in a car's glove compartment, trunk. footwells, and at head level while it's parked for 24 hours on a summer day; the aforementioned wind speed comparison (even better if I can also discreetly install anemometers at other locations around the neighbourhood and gather the data by radio); a webcam + object-tracking software to see what percentage of cars going through the intersection here notice that the marked lanes shift to the left, versus how many accidentally change lanes by going perfectly straight; accelerometers in various cars to compare different people's driving styles ... I've got a buttload of ideas that I'll either never get around to or never have the resources for.
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