09 January 2011

Weather

A friend recently wrote to me and commented on a pattern she has seen in my life:  she postulated the theory that winters are harder on me than she had realized and I tend to withdraw almost to hermitdom in my efforts to retreat from the dreary world around me.  Perspicacious woman that she is, she is correct. 

Winters in the Willamette Valley are sheer torture to me.  According to the Western Regional Climate Center, we get 296.6 cloudy and partly cloudy days a year.  And only 68.4 "clear" days (0/10 to 3/10 average sky cover) per year.  So yes, this part of the world is hard on me.

(I should move in with my sister in Arizona, where they get 222 clear days per year.  This is the sister who sent me a message earlier this week which read "Your weather sucks.  Yuck."  And she is right.  It does.)

Anyway, I am not a mushroom, and I need sunlight.  That is why my cubicle with a window is so precious to me.  The view ain't much, but it's a window to the outside, and when there is any sunlight, I can enjoy it.

Strange as it may sound, cloudy weather on the coast doesn't bother me quite so much.  Maybe it's the constant movement of the water.  Maybe it's the wind.  Maybe I just like the coast.  But I do know that I can go to the coast for a weekend and get rained on and love every minute of it and return to Portland feeling refreshed as if I had spent the same amount of time in Eastern Oregon where it would have been sunny and cold.

But back to my oh-so-wise friend and her observation.  I think she is right.  I didn't used to do the hermit thing every winter, not even the first winters I lived out here.  So maybe it's a combination of the weather and peri-menopause.  Or maybe it's the weight of successive winter dreariness.  Or maybe it's some other yet-to-be-discovered factor.

But I do know that my impending visit to the doc will help.  As will my lovely window view.  And my efforts to get outside more on sunny days.

But I am still going to try to get Scott to move to the desert.


La Crosse Technology WS-7014CH-IT Wireless Weather Station; Oregon Scientific BAR388HGA Wireless Weather Station with Atomic Clock, Black
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2 comments:

  1. Laura Runs a LatteJanuary 9, 2011 at 8:08 PM

    I think you should move here to PA and then we can run together ;) By the way, thanks for your comment on my blog. I think you're right. As long as I can pay the bills and have a little "me money" I should stop stressing out over school/work, blah blah blah. And you know, I think you really hit the nail with the "what I want to be when I grow up..." I may just have to blog on that one ;)

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  2. JeannieJanuary 10, 2011 at 6:38 AM

    Everything is better when you are at the beach! :)

    VA would welcome you with open arms although I wouldn't recommend visiting today. We are prepping for a big ice storm. Ick. Arizona sounds nice, but awfully hot. Personally, I'd like to find somewhere that has noticeable changes of seasons & the temperatures stay in the 60 - 73 range.

    Hugs!

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