"Solar Power"

Every Cascadian, when emerging from his or her home today, peeked up to the sky then danced gleefully in the street. The sun is out again, making it two days in a row of blue sky. Moreover… sun is forecast for the entire next week. Hallelujah. We haven’t had a week of sun for months. Literally.

Left: Early morning blue sky over Bellevue and the Cascade Mts.

In terms of light, this is a tough time in the Pacific Northwest. The sun rises late and sets early. Thick cloud cover is the sky-du-jour just about every “jour” of the winter season. Magnifying the deprivation is that most folks arrive to their offices before sunrise and leave them after sun set. We end up a city of moles, squinting into the glare of the occasional sunny day, sunglasses long misplaced in the weeks of dreary grey. It’s a bit of a shock to the system, albeit a welcome one.

Many folks up here feel the effects of this. SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) sets in with a mild case of the blues, lethargy and a general desire to hibernate. Many of us take a sun trip sometime between January and early March to off set this. It doesn’t have to be warm (although that is the ultimate winter escape). A ski trip to Idaho or Utah can off set the withdrawal. All those sun rays reflecting off all that snow. Some of us get full spectrum light boxes or sunrise alarm clocks Some of us just tough it out.

In the glory days of July and August, when the days are long, warm and lushly green it’s easy to forget this time of year and to remember why we stay. Last week we dared not dream of the sun, it seemed so remote. Today we revel in it.