Happy Washington Thoughts

I never thought I'd be writing a post called "Happy Washington Thoughts" but alas...I am.

Yesterday I realized that I have successfully survived my second Washington winter! Ok...granted winter isn't technically over yet, and the temperatures up here right now are far from being typical winter weather, but as I learned last winter, it has nothing to do with the temperature. Its the light, or I should probably say, the lack of light. I'm still a little bit amazed when I look at a map and I see just how far north Washington state is. The one thing I never expected when I moved out here was the lack of sunlight in the winter time. I had always heard about Alaska having all day sunlight in the summer and all day darkness in the winter, but I never heard anyone say that Washington was lacking sunlight in winter too. If anything, I just thought that the lack of sunlight was due to the constant rain and fog and gray skies. Boy was I mistaken about that! 18 hours of light in the summer, followed by 6 hours of dark was wonderful! Of course, that reverses in the winter time and last winter was miserable. By 3:30pm, it felt like 8pm. The sun never actually rose to the center of the sky. Instead it just sort of hovered around on the horizon and then disappeared early in the day. I started thinking that the people who jump off the Deception Pass Bridge really aren't all that crazy. Last winter was depressing and I was thankful that Mr. V would be deploying during the summer so I wouldn't have to spend my second winter here alone and depressed. However, every person that I ran into last winter assured me over and over, that for everyone, the first winter was the hardest and if you can make it through the first, then the following winters would never be as bad. Honestly? I thought that was a load of crap! I was dreading my second winter here like you wouldn't believe.

Yesterday I went to help out a friend and watch her little boy for about an hour. As I was leaving her house and driving back towards mine I was looking at the sunset. My first thought was that the sky had cleared up and it was a pretty sunset. Then I looked at the clock in my car and saw that it was 5:02 pm. I guess that's when it hit me. It was after 5pm and it was still light outside! I know that we already passed by the shortest day of the year, so logically I know that means that the days will start getting longer again, but I didn't really notice that until last night. I guess it hit me then that I made it through my second winter, and people were right (and I really hate admitting that!), I DID make it through the second winter with no problems, which means that I can now vouch for it and tell people new to this area that the first winter really is the hardest.

This probably all sounds like something minor but if anyone remembers me last winter, I was miserable, absolutely miserable, and I wanted to shoot every single person who cheerfully said to me "Don't worry. The first winter is always the hardest!"

Now does this mean that I have learned to love Washington as much as Mr. V does? Nope. But it does mean that this summer, when I wake up at 4am because there is sunlight streaming in through my windows, I won't complain about it! I may have dealt with the darkness better this year, but that doesn't mean I want it like that forever. Last summer I hated the early morning sunlight. This year I think I'll finally invest in blackout curtains and enjoy the long days while they last. It also means that if all goes as planned I should only live through one more winter up here, at least until the Navy decides to move us back here again. I guess I have to admit that while this is still not my favorite place to be, I adapted to life up here much better than I ever expected to :-).