When we moved here, my mom waged a well-fought campaign against it. Selfishly, of course, she wanted us to move to San Diego, to be close to her and the rest of my family.
But her tactics were quite brilliant - she didn't bring up the family angle, but instead chose to focus on the fact that if we moved to the Pacific Northwest, we would never, ever see sunlight again. Not only that, but there would be a very high chance that we would - while suffering a serious Vitamin D defficiency - jump off Seattle's famed suicide bridge.
Ironically, I think the only reason I'm surviving these endless days of gray is to prove my mom wrong. Hey, whatever works, right? But today, a particularly gray and endless sort of day, I was pondering why exactly Seattle is determined to be so rainy and cold ALL THE TIME. Couldn't it take a break already?
Then I came upon this article, which points out that the poor people living in Mobile, Ala. (where I have been and where I can safely say I will never live) actually have it worse than we do. The people of Seattle are apparently just better at handling it and they do it with a very strange sense of pride/stupidness that I still can't figure out.
Take this guy in this article for example. First of all, he's actually written in entire book on the fact that it rains all the time here. That's pretty amazing, considering I was even debating whether it would be worth it to devote an entire blog posting to the subject.
Here's what this guy says: "No true Seattleite owns an umbrella. It's a local badge of pride." He's not making this up. On days that the entire sky seems to be falling on us, I will push through crowds holding my giant, canopy umbrella only to get dozens of angry glares from the "true Seattlites" who are shivering and dripping under the onslaught. But they are proud under their thin black hoodies, dammit!
My problem with the weather, though, isn't so much the rain because it actually doesn't rain that much. It's more that I feel like Seattle weather has a commitment issue. Should it be sunny? No, I don't think so. Should it be rainy? Well, sometimes, I guess. Should it snow? Um, maybe occasionally.
But instead of choosing one option, it's just gray all the time, leaving all of us to wonder why the heck it can't make up its mind.
1 comment:
The umbrella bit is so true. But I look at it like this... People with umbrellas are usually busy forcing other people to move aside so they can cart that huge tarp around and don't often apologize for dripping on you or whacking you with it. Given the "rain" here is more like a drizzle than a true rain, I'd rather get a bit wet than deal with "bumper umbrellas" walking down the sidewalk.
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