Super Duper Double-Dippler Doppler Radar.

My wife, Maura, is, among other things, a self-confessed weather nut.  I think the favorite gauge on her car is the outside thermometer.  The Weather Channel is of constant interest.  Her Ipod touch has links to weather in half a dozen cities. (She has lots of relatives in lots of places.)  Favorite TV?  Those guys who chase tornadoes on the Discovery channel. She grouses about the inaccuracies of Los Angeles centered weather forcasts on local TV.

So I got her a weather station.

We joke about it being her "super duper double dippler doppler radar" but in fact radar is about the only activity she can't monitor now from the comfort of her easy chair.

The station itself is on a ten-foot pole mounted to the side of the garage.  It looks for all the world like a high-tech weathervane with a plastic cat-food bowl on top.  The station runs on solar power with a battery backup, and sends data via a low-power radio transmitter to the receiver in the house.

The receiver constantly spits out barometric pressure readings, wind velocity and direction, inside and outside temperature and humidity, precipitation, and can graph the results over days, weeks, or months, all at the touch of a button. Or two. Or sixteen, to be exact. Now, she can create her own weather forcasts.  It's accurate enough that Maura can send reports to NOAA as a volunteer weather observer.

To which I say, "Up yours, Johnny Mountain."

As for me, I can turn the display's light on.  I feel so empowered.