"How often can you see all of the Cascades and Mount Rainier like this?" I asked the girl at the desk.
"Whenever it's clear," she replied. Behind her was a large bay window; we were on the 37th floor where one could see most of Seattle and all of it's surrounding beauty, but only when it was clear. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. But for some reason, this isn't abnormal for me.
"See, the last time I was here, it was like this, and we could see Rainier and all the other mountains." I am in training this week, the last time I was at this same technical center the weather had been blue skies all week. But the frequency of beautiful weather in Seattle for me goes much further than these two occurrences.
"Well, you should come here more often," she giggled in response. Upon a seeming conversational inquiry to what the weather had been like I was informed that it had been overcast and drizzling as usual, but had clear up the day before...the day I came into town.
The night before when I checked into my hotel I also asked the girl what the weather had been like. "Unsettlingly pleasant, you know what I mean?" was her response. I did. It has been a very mild winter for everyone. Seattle has had no snow. The mountains have seen very little. But it's not normally like this.
To most talking about he weather is mundane conversation but for me it only reinforces a belief of mine. I am cursed. I have a sun blight. Let me clarify this. I was born in the middle of the rainiest area of the United States, the Olympic Peninsula, where it rains over 120 inches a year. The rainiest area in North American is just to the North, on Vancouver Island. Rain was a part of my everyday life. If I never had gone out to play when it was raining I would have never gone out at all.
When I was 12 we moved to the middle of the state, into a large wasteland, a dry desert and rain seized to be a part of my life. Don't get me wrong, in the last seven years that I have noticed this hex, I have had some rain fall on my head but it seems as if I must surprise Mother Nature by taking an unexpected trip. And the weather usually will clear up in a day or a day in a half at the most leaving me with blue skies.
Now I know what you're thinking; What's the big deal? I wish I could have your luck with the weather. But for me it's not that great of a thing and why I call it a curse. There is something that comforts me when I feel the rain on my head, hear the drops striking the ground, and smell the dust kicked up by the change in humidity, it is some thing of a homecoming.
Could this whole hex be part of my imagination? This is something I've asked myself many times. As I said, I've noticed it over seven years ago in the summer of 1995. I spent 10 days in Seattle and all of them were beautiful. While I was coming in it was overcast and sprinkling and when I left the clouds returned. Since then, without fail, I come to this city I get the same results. One thought that did cross my mind was that Seattle's rain is merely a propaganda ploy to keep Californians from moving here but that's just the crazy conspiracy theorist in me talking. Seattle has to have rain sometimes, else, it wouldn't be the Emerald City, the trees would all die and people would need sprinklers for their lawns. Not to mention, Seattle's suicide rate, one of the highest in the nation, wouldn't be attributed to the gloomy weather.
My wife always criticizes me when I don't bother to take an umbrella with me to Seattle. I tell her I'm pretty sure it's not going to rain. She thinks talking about it will have the opposite effect. If I claim it's not going to rain, it will just to spite my claim. Don't I wish. In fact, I believe it doesn't rain to spite me. Maybe this writeup will have a more dramatic effect than just talking about it...but I really don't think it will. So Seattleites, you're welcome for the lovely weather this week!