Why Don't Most Wisconsinites I Know Seem to Notice the Gray Skies? (garage, title)

[girlfromipanemo]

Originally Posted by MaseMan

This. The fact is we do get long stretches of gray during fall/winter but we also get some sunny days to break it up too.

I don't know. One sunny day a week isn't enough for me. I have horrible lighting in my house, and I will be purchasing one of those "sad" lights off of Amazon soon. I open windows, turn on every light there is, but it is still so gloomy. And if I go out into the grayness, that doesn't help at all. I know my vitamin D is low because I don't get any sun--there is none. My doctor gave me prescription vitamin D a while back. Oh well, let's see how the light from Amazon works out.

[Ragnar]

Our new house has multiple windows in nearly every room (we planned it that way) and it does help a lot, especially during the darker season! Still, I do always notice the darkness and never prefer it. Would be nice to have some sunshine more than once a week.

The daylight savings time transition in November is the hardest. Driving home from work last night at 5 PM in pitch black darkness with pouring rain was awful, and I didn't even need to take any highways. Over the past ten years, I would have preferred to leave WI on many occasions, but family and a great job have kept me here.

OP, if you are not seriously tied to WI and have trouble with the dark gloomy days, my advice to you would be to get out and move somewhere brighter at your first reasonable opportunity. Life is to short to get settled into an area that does not suit you. My wife and I are far enough into our family and careers that leaving WI would definitely be challenging right now! I will never prefer WI, but still always manage to find enough to like here, despite the crap weather.

[ranger17]

Originally Posted by Ragnar

Our new house has multiple windows in nearly every room (we planned it that way) and it does help a lot, especially during the darker season! Still, I do always notice the darkness and never prefer it. Would be nice to have some sunshine more than once a week.
.

the home we had built while still up in Deforest had southern exposure, so on sunny winter days it would help warm some rooms and make it brighter. Of course mother nature likes to play a game called "i tricked you".... you see that nice sun reflecting off the snow, and figure it cant be that bad. Then you open the door and step outside, hearing what could be her laughter in the wind lol.

[43north87west]

Originally Posted by 43north87west

At least the temperature is nice, though. I have the patio doors open, which is a big bonus for this time of year (I'll take what I can get). The outdoor thermometer says 58, but it feels like 70 because of the humidity.

In keeping with Wisconsin weather tradition, three hours after I posted that ^^^ it is no longer 58, but has now dropped to 41, and is still falling.

[NoJiveMan]

Originally Posted by girlfromipanemo

I gotta tell ya, these infinitely gray days, day after day really gets to me. I remember growing up in the South, we would get a rain storm, then it would pass and the sky would clear. But this endless gray, it's horrible. Why doesn't anyone else care to see the sun shine? Or do you?

Booze is the only answer.

[NoJiveMan]

I do know that cabin fever coupled with alcoholism is a big problem in the state of Alaska, and might imagine people live way up north in Wisconsin can probably suffer from same. Not sure, but Wisconsin lead the nation not too long ago for having the dubious dishonor of being the drunkest state in the lower 48.

Special Reports - JSOnline

If you are a male, back in the late 70's and early 80's, if you lived in Alaska and had a girlfriend or a wife, and wife/girlfriend became pregnant during the winter months there, your friends would ask you, "what happened, did your television break?" Cabin fever possibly attributed to pregnancies.

[LexusNexus]

When I lived in WI, I didn't notice the gray skies. This is primarily because the people that I was associating with on a daily basis were interesting, down-to-earth, engaging, stimulating, dynamic, and deep people to relate to.

Living here in CA, the weather is nice, but the sunny skies are desperately needed. With all the foreigners, newcomers, H1Bs, and transients, people simply exist and don't appear to have faces. Better to focus on the weather, and focus only on it as the reason for being here.

[Craziaskowboi]

Originally Posted by northnut

I don't mind the gray skies/rain. It plays to my natural laziness. Gloomy days on the weekend make me happy because then I don't feel guilty for being a total sloth & not leaving the house.

This is how I am too. For me, nothing beats a lazy Saturday or Sunday in November or December with gray skies and a steady, soaking rain all day. It helps me sleep in, and the lower light level when I wake up is easier on the eyes. Then I can spend all day watching football before dozing off.

When the weather is warm, I prefer it to be sunny, and it has to be sunny in order to be hot, but when it's cool or cold, I prefer it to be cloudy. Warm but cloudy is a waste to me, and sunny but cold is annoying. I also need a fair amount of cold weather in the winter in order to better tolerate the heat in the summer.

Unfortunately, the weather really has not cooperated in the last two years for me. The winter of 2010-2011 was excellent, with plenty of cold and snow, and the summer of 2011 was nice and hot. But the winter of 2011-2012 was canceled, and the summer of 2012 lasted from St. Patrick's Day to Halloween, which got old fast.

Last winter was postponed to between Valentine's Day and Easter, and we had a ****ing tornado threat on Christmas of all days! That was bull****! And this past summer was a washout, with June/July/August precipitation totals nearly double the normal amount, and Fourth of July fireworks canceled due to heavy rain.

So far this fall, the temperatures have cooled off reasonably, but I'd like a couple more days of clouds and rain to go with the cool weather, especially on football weekends.

[NoJiveMan]

Originally Posted by LexusNexus

When I lived in WI, I didn't notice the gray skies. This is primarily because the people that I was associating with on a daily basis were interesting, down-to-earth, engaging, stimulating, dynamic, and deep people to relate to.

Living here in CA, the weather is nice, but the sunny skies are desperately needed. With all the foreigners, newcomers, H1Bs, and transients, people simply exist and don't appear to have faces. Better to focus on the weather, and focus only on it as the reason for being here.

Gray days are good for hanging out in the garage tinkering, having a beer with a buddy, hunting is good, napping, snow mobiling, splitting wood, general chores, for women, gray days can be very boring, extended gray days for women can make them quite depressed. In Alaska, when I was married, my ex wife used to be just about stir crazy bored.

[timberline742]

I never noticed the grey days in Wisconsin. Too much to do! I really didn't. Did notice many super bright days with the sun reflecting off the snow and ice.