Saturday 8 November 2008

Rain, rain, go away...

...I have been told, by several - no, make that many - unrelated people, that it is going to rain here every day between now and Spring 2009. It seems that the Fella doesn't call it 'the rainforest' for nothing.

XL805282
The furniture storage units have arrived and DIY is almost on track!

People look at me incredulously when I tell them that I am here for another 5 months, "What? You came to Vancouver in October? For 6 months? Don't you know that it is going to rain every single day between now and March?!"

XL805334 01
Enroute to Port Moody to track down the Black Sheep Yarns store (no, we didn't find it)

I have been doing my best to ignore the glum tone in their voices. I have been doing my best to remain cheerful and celebrate each and every low sun setting autumn day.

However, as it turns out, they were not joking and they were not exaggerating - I am hard put to remember the last day that it did not rain recently. Actually, there is a heavy rainfall warning in effect at present.

XL805379
Downtown Vancouver, enroute home from BC Creative Expo

The last time that I felt like this? I was living on the West Coast of Scotland. Actually, the Fella just laughed when I read him the first bit of this post and quipped that Vancouver makes Scotland look like a desert.

Generally, it seems that the sky is an unremitting, steely grey here. It's only October and some days it only ever seems to half lift itself out of a UK 3-4pm deep winter gloom. On other days, just to add interest to the grey - any remainly light is obscured by fogginess. Nice.

XL805388
Enroute to a Christmas rag quilt class

In the past? I didn't think that gloomy days affected me at all. It turns out that I was wrong - they are more life and energy sapping than you can imagine.

So I am stalking websites like this with a feeling of dreadful longing - does anyone have any experience of these things and how well they do (or do not) work?!

Notes: craft update, relating to the above is coming very soon, just once I've thrown the Fella off the scent - o-k-a-y I have not been doing quite as much DIY as I am supposed to have done by today's date but amazingly, we are still on track. See?

House Project 1

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

My sympathies. I found it reeeeeeally hard adjusting to the long, dark, grey UK winters - okay so Vancouver is obviously worse - but the adjustment is probably similar. I haven't ever tried those lamps but I've heard very good things about them indeed; I would definitely recommend giving it a try. (I didn't buy one when I first came over because I was way broke. By the time I could afford one, I had gotten used to the weather and didn't feel such a need any more.)

Justine said...

OK - I asked Steve, who's been designing lights for over ten years, and he said a very qualified yes. He said what's important is the quality of the light, when you get it and for how long, and that you should be careful about paying too much money for a light that claims to help SAD disorder (and then he said something about light levels and household wattage that went a bit over my head). He said that there are some ongoing studies into whether night-shift workers are more likely to benefit from these lamps than people who use them during the daytime for SAD, and he also said that you can't underestimate the psychomatic benefit of having one of these lamps.

If you do want one, look for a SAD lamp that replicates the colour of the sun during the day: in the morning, the sun is a warm yellow, midday the sun is cool white, and afternoon/evening it goes back to a warm yellow colour.

Let me know if you'd like more information as Steve can point you towards some research.

Hope that helps!

Clumsy Knitter said...

I used to live in Minnesota where dark, dreary winters drag on. While I was there I worked for a graduate program in Psychology and happened to have occasion to read several studies on the benefits of those lamps. Yes, they do work and like the previous poster said, it does matter what the level of the light is, time of day, and length of exposure. Doctors can even "prescribe" lamp therapy and give you a specific regimen. I could never afford one of those lamps, but I did use a sunrise clock to help me get up in the mornings. :)

Dotty said...

Black Sheep Yarns is pretty easy to get to. Here are some directions: Head east on Hastings, it turns into Barnet Hwy, when Barnet ends, turn left onto St. Johns, turn left on Grant St (6 blocks from Barnet), and it's at the end of the block on the right hand side. There's a big awning - you can't miss it. Come visit next Sat - I'll be working there.

Anonymous said...

If it is any consolation at all the weather here has been totally shite since the end of the half term holiday. It was another rainy day in school today with no outside playtime and the kids are climbing the walls, literally and tomorrow isn't going to be any better and I have to do the corridor patrol.
You certainly seem to be managing to get around the area and check out what is going on locally. I only got out once on Sunday to stand for an hour and a half in the rain waiting by a bus stop for a coach to come back with a load of Brownies including Emilie from a day trip to Legoland. One of the parents was supposed to come and let us know they were delayed but they didn't bother. They stayed inside in the warm! I didn't have a brolley and I got very, very wet. The worst bit was being there all on my own thinking I was the only parent who hadn't recieved a message. At least a bit later some others turned up too!