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I made an informed decision to bike into campus yesterday. There was a 20% chance of thunderstorms in the evening, but only after 7 pm. My work shift ended at 5, meaning that I'd probably end up leaving sometime before 5:30 -- I'd be golden. (Plus, I'd get home a whole 1.5 hours earlier than I would've if I'd opted to take the bus and go to the gym after work instead.)
At the end of my last conference, I heard a student outside say something about it raining. After my shift ended, I asked the receptionist what the deal with the weather was.
"I don't know!" she replied. "Somebody said that it wasn't supposed to start raining until later, but then M. came by and said something about how there was a storm brewing."
"It's really looking like it's going to rain," clarified a waiting student, "but it hasn't started yet. I don't think."
"Okay!" I declared, and slowly walked down the hall by a glass-walled conference room, squinting across the audience listening to a visiting scholar and trying to see if I could detect the nature of the wall of gray waiting on the other side of the windows. I then went up to my office to study the radar, briefly conferring with an officemate to see if she had any better information.
And then I laughed, because I work in a department and in a building that is so concrete, so windowless, and so isolated, that there is actually time for rumors to circulate and develop about the weather outside.
9:57 AM
We aren't that isolated here. However, only a few higher ups have windows so when rumors start about weather outside, everyone rushes to the conference table to look outside. Once, we were in such a rush to see the snow, we didn't even notice someone conferring with a client at the other end until we were all back there pressed against the window!
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