It’s only a self diagnosis, but anyone who knows me would agree, I suffer from a sort of sunshine induced modified attention deficit disorder. When the sun shines all inside activities are reduced to minor importance. If it can be done outside then it will get done, bonus if it means working in the garden or visiting a nursery. If it requires being indoors then it’s on hold until a cloudy, or rainy day, or at least until the late night hours.
I think it must be the result of spending all of my years in the Pacific Northwest, where the sun shining is not a guarantee. I have spent as long as two weeks at a time in the sunny Southwest, and waking up to blue skies day after day I still felt the pull to get out there and soak up every minute of it. There is some nagging feeling deep inside me that if I don’t get out there and enjoy it I will regret it later. How long would it take before the sun became blasé? Before I could vacuum and do the laundry on a sunny day and not hate every minute of being indoors? A month? Two? A year?
What about you? Do you suffer a similar affliction? Maybe the reverse? Please tell me I’m not alone…oh and Happy Summer! Today's the beginning of the best season of all...
Oh yes, I've got it bad! Especially this week, when the sun peeks through around 4 pm - dinner's on hold until further notice. But I'm an enabler, so don't look to me for any remedies. Happy Summer, Loree!
ReplyDeleteBetter 4pm than never right? It certainly makes the after dog dinner walk more enjoyable...
DeleteYep, I'm the same way......Its probably a good thing that I'm here in the Northwest. If it was nice all the time my home would up on Hoarders, I would never be inside getting anything done.
ReplyDeleteGlad to know I'm not alone!
DeleteI agree with you all, but it's worse than that for me. I work in a cube farm so anytime I can get outside, I do. I don't mind the gray days or even a little drizzle. I just need to smell the fresh air, listen to the birds, and not look at my computer monitor.
ReplyDeleteHeck, I've even been known to rake leaves in the dark - just as long as it wasn't raining. :-)
I'm sorry! I know in my office job days I couldn't wait to get outside, even for a few minutes. At least I had windows though. Then there are the years when the sun seems to shine only M-F so the weekend shows up and RAIN. Luckily this spring was pretty decent that way.
DeleteThe reverse is the case here in south Texas. We have been waking up to cloudy mornings a lot this year and I know I need to get going on the garden before the clouds burn off.
ReplyDeleteJust came in from working in the rain and it was wonderful. The first rainy summer day in three years is something to celebrate.
Yay for your rainy first day of summer! I hope the trend continues for you all.
DeleteHow many 95F+ humid, sunny days can you take? I just spent 5 minutes refilling hummingbird feeders, and I'm glad to get back indoors! I can understand the pull -- at certain times of the year, like during winter, I'm out there as soon as the sun shines. But in summer (too early this year!) I appreciate the overcast days and a reliable AC unit.
ReplyDelete(That doesn't mean I'm doing more housework though. Dust bunnies are kinda cute once they reach a certain size, don't you think?)
Humidity is not something I do well with, nothing zaps my ability to be productive quite like it. But overcast is just so oppressive! Glad you've got a reliable A/C unit to help you through.
Delete(you're scaring me with that dust bunny comment)
The sun will never be blase...Abq might be the cloudiest place I can take, though you never know. Though all the blinds are up on the sunny E side right now...hiding from the laser beam until evening! I am in need to do more outside and inside...
ReplyDeleteWe do close the blinds when the afternoon sun hits the back of the house. I hate it and can't wait to open them asap!
DeleteDoes Abq tend towards cloudiness?
I think I suffer from a severe form of what you described. To the point that I feel like my heart is racing and I get short of breath if I'm not outside for every moment of a sunny day. If by chance I have to be inside doing something I feel incredibly sad and frustrated. I actually think I was born with a solar panel attached to the top of my head. It powers my every move. Without the sun I hibernate and eat... pasta. I lived in sarasota Fl for a year and I can say that there was no degree of heat or humidity that could keep me inside on a nice sunny day. It was the same thing for me down there. The middle of summer in 100F and high humidity I would bake myself on Siesta Beach every spare moment! I feel like I could write a sun lovers manifesto!!!!!
ReplyDeleteFunny your picture doesn't show a solar panel...maybe you've got a great hairstylist who knows how to conceal. Hope you've got a sunny summer coming your way!
DeleteThe reverse here! I LOVE cloudy, rainy days and definitely don't get enough of them when I'm down here in Az...
ReplyDeleteWe met a guy in Fillmore, CA who wants so bad to move to Portland. He craves grey rainy days...I hope he gets his wish.
DeleteThe same behaviour here in Hamburg. With summer temperatures from 60 to 65 degrees right now, you have to soak up every sunray you can get.
ReplyDeleteSpending the time outside, that´s why we love gardening...greetings fom Hamburg, Torsten
Thanks for stopping by Torsten, and yes 60-65 hardly sounds ideal!
DeleteOh yeah, my home is certainly not the cleanest in the gardening months! But in this heat, I do have to come inside to refresh every so often. Or take a dip in the pool.
ReplyDeleteI love how you said that and I'm going to start saying something along the lines of "Please pardon the mess, it's garden season you know" whenever we have people over!
DeleteI grew up in Seattle. When I moved to San Francisco in my late twenties, it took a full year before I stopped feeling like I had to live every sunny day as if it were my last. So I hear ya, bb.
ReplyDeleteThis surprises me because I had adjusted my notion of San Francisco based on comments from friends who said it was rarely sunny there.
DeleteYou summed up that feeling very well "like I had to live every sunny day as if it were my last"...exactly.
I sort of prefer clouds to sun, myself. During summer, I sort of retreat inside during the daytime...emerging early in the morning and again in the afternoon :-) I'm happy for the plants (my warm-season grasses especially) , but not a sun-lover myself.
ReplyDeleteHow did you ever make it in Nebraska? Isn't summer just brutal sunny day after brutal sunny day? Or maybe my husband has been embellishing...
DeleteToo hot to go outside.
ReplyDelete"but it's a dry heat..."
DeleteSorry, we were just talking about that last night. Not so much anymore right?
I'm totally convinced that Shady characters like myself would turn to dust [ash] if we were exposed to the sun's rays. Give me cloudy days with a gentle rain falling like mist and I am one happy gardener!
ReplyDeleteOkay just don't ever vacation in the desert SW, I would hate to hear you'd turned to ash *poof* as soon as you stepped off the plane.
DeleteBecause we have summer fog except when a high-pressure system keeps it out, every morning that dawns sunny gets me excitedly out of bed early just to admire things before leaving the house.
ReplyDeleteAnd coming home and still having sunlight is like having a whole extra day.
Plus the hibachi gets used A LOT. Also SPF 50.
I hoped nobody would think I was talking about skin cancer when they saw the title of this post...I should have included a picture of sunscreen.
DeleteHi, i am new here, just came in via Mark and Gaz site. I smiled at your post because we here in the hot tropics have the reverse of your affliction. When we are abroad to any temperate country, we smiled also when the sun shows and everybody gets out of the buildings and frolic in parks and wherever there is sunlight. We only have dry and wet season, you know! And our dry season for us is torture! Maybe we should trade in some extremes to moderate the effects.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by! I would love to be able to share some of our clouds and cool rain with you...if only!
DeleteThe first sunny day in the spring here in Portland is an amazing site. EVERYONE is outside. It might as well be declared a holiday.
In London, on one of those spring days when driving rain and hail alternates with warm sunshine, I was working in London with a Portuguese woman. She told me that she now knew why English people go sun crazy in Portugal, wandering about without shirts on, getting sunburned to a crisp. She definitely hit on something there.
ReplyDeleteI sympathise with Torsten above about the temperature. June has been rubbish here.
Hopefully July won't be a complete switch. It's the worst when you go from cool to super hot with no transition. It seems to be the way though...
DeleteSame here, I must make a conscious reminder to take care of the houseplants too which tends to suffer during the summer months as my plant focus tends to be almost solely on outdoor ones.
ReplyDeleteOh gosh yes...so true. In fact thank you for the reminder!
DeleteLove this post!!!! It's too hot in the summer here but when spring hit this year....it was long and marvelous and absolutely nothing got done indoors!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm learning that while it might not be summer for everyone at least everyone has "that season"...the one that pulls them outside.
DeleteOh, I absolutely have to be out when the sun shines here! I also haunt the weather websites every day, sometimes several times a day, checking to see if sun is in the forecast. Yesterday was just heaven here, sunny and warm, but not too warm. Clouds and showers are back today, but all the plants I planted yesterday are needing it.
ReplyDeleteWell, that question certainly got everyone going. A native Portlander, I lived for a while in LA and then San Diego. The monotony of sunny day after sunny day drove me crazy. I like summer here, but like you say, it's a cause for celebration because it is not the norm.
ReplyDelete