Sun-atics

April 21, 2009 at 7:56 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

It’s been sunny here in Seattle, which means no one here is working, if they can at all avoid it. And those who can’t get out of work entirely are all scheming how to leave an hour or two early. Up at the hospital, there will be at least one team having an afternoon running-of-the-list out in the courtyard. Probably one of the surgical services, since all the medicine teams will probably have gotten the hell out of the hospital already.

Seriously, this town goes sun-crazy every spring. Everything comes second, on a sunny day here, to spending time outdoors. In the south, sunny days are also usually intolerably hot and humid, and people start wearing coats as soon as the temperature falls below 70. Sunlight is everywhere all year, and in summer, relief from the heat is the priority. So when I first moved here, in May of the year before I started med school, it seemed both bizarre and hilarious how frantically people would try to get their work done on a sunny day, just so they could leave an hour earlier. People would be talking about how hot it was outside, while I was still shivering in long sleeves.

A year later, it was a different story entirely. Over 45 degrees, I don’t need a coat. When it hit 55 degrees, I broke out the short sleeves. 65-75 was perfect, and at 85 I was uncomfortably hot.

Then I went to New Orleans, Houston’s batty but endearing old great-aunt with exactly the same weather genes. Back to the heat and humidity. Which wasn’t nearly the shock that its culture was, since I’d lived in Houston most of my life. Because of the humidity, the heat feels hotter, and the cold feels colder. August, September and October are unbearable, as are February and the first half of March. The rain comes in afternoon torrents, so heavy you can’t see the tail lights of a car more than a car-length or two ahead of you, and then is gone. Even so, New Orleans weather is actually more extreme than Houston’s.

So it was actually nice to move back to Seattle, where the rain is monotonous but not dangerous, and the city is well-maintained and the environment aesthetically pleasing. The snow this year was a bonus, not to mention that it was very entertaining–as long as you didn’t have to drive in it with all the Seattle snow n00bs (myself included).

Well, it’s a sunny day today, so I’ll have to wrap this up now and get outside while there are still some rays to worship.