So I built a webpage that tracks the weather. Its simplicity makes it beautiful. It knows what the weather is for the week and highlights tomorrow’s forecast with precipitation, UV, and temperature details for when the kids are dropped off and picked up from school. At the bottom of the page it recommends to our kids what they should wear so there’s no confusion or delays getting ready. It even has an API so other apps like our new Discord chat replacement¹ can connect to it. That way, our kids don’t need to ask us every night. They can find out themselves by asking our chat bot or simply visiting the weather page.

My son was easy to solve for, as our clothes are based on function rather than form. It’s trivial for him to choose between a Mario or a Minecraft shirt. However, my daughter has a “too complicated wardrobe” and cannot be solved for - according to my wife. I feel that anything that has an objective solution, based on information as simple as weather, has a logical answer. Making messy things clean and efficient is what I do.

Let’s walk through the nightly process for her so you know what I’m talking about here: Daughter doesn’t know what to wear. She asks mom. Mom looks up weather details on Google or whatever. She says out loud what tomorrow’s magical weather number is, like “74”. She’ll then say “it’s nice, wear {clothes}”. This seems like the mom brain calculator can easily be replaced with a script, but maybe I’m missing some magic that cannot be replaced by JavaScript.

if (high >= 80)      { items.push({ label: 'Short-sleeve' }); }
else if (high >= 68) { items.push({ label: 'Thick short-sleeve' }); }
else if (high >= 55) { items.push({ label: 'Long-sleeve' }); }
else                 { items.push({ label: 'Thick long-sleeve' }); }

function getKarinaPants(high, isRainy, hasMiddlePants) {
  if (high >= 80) return { label: 'Shorts, capris, or thin leggings' };
  if (high >= 75) return { label: 'Capri pants', note: 'or thin leggings' };
  if (high >= 70) return { label: 'Thin leggings' };
  if (high >= 60) {
    if (hasMiddlePants) return { label: 'Middle pants' };
      return { label: 'Thin leggings', note: 'out of middle pants' };
    }
      return { label: 'Fleece pants' };
}

Perhaps if I inventory everything that is clean and folded, along with every color and style, and cross-reference with whatever fun theme they’re having at school that day…

That sounds exhausting. Maybe my wife’s right. I’ll just let the girls be girls. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯