Clouds in the Pacifical Northwest vs Clouds in the Middle West

This time a year it is cloudy in the Pacifical Northwest. In the winter it is cloudy in the Middle West. It gets dark early here and it gets dark early in the Upper Midwest. But there is still a difference.

I grew up in Iowa. Winter and the dreariness that comes with winter was all I knew. Then I moved farther north and the dreariness got worse as did the winter. Actually, until I moved to the South, I had never experienced living without winter. (What they have in Mississippi is not winter; it's autumn that slides into spring  that jumps into the hell of summer.) But it wasn't until I moved to central Wisconsin that I experienced any sort of mood swing due to the weather (cabin fever, yes, but nothing more). My first winter up north I went to work when it was dark, I left work when it was dark, and I worked in the part of the building without windows. They first time I saw the sun I almost did a dance.

And then I moved to where I had a big, huge window. So now I could see it get dark by 4:30 and that when there was a storm moving in it was dark by 3:30. My coworkers and I would sit there, stare out the window and simply sigh. Or maybe say something like, "How long until spring?" And the cabin fever? It was terrible. By March we pretty much wanted to beat the crap out of each other. We were all stuck together for 40+ hours a week. Trapped inside because the high temperature was -13 degrees Fahrenheit. The company I worked for hosted an annual Cabin Fever party. They'd rent out a local bowling alley, provide a lot of potato-and-gravy-based food, free beer, free bowling, and a wedding DJ. And free transportation. So, basically, the people that wanted to beat each other up were let loose to drink, eat, bowl, and dance themselves into a frenzy--and it was awesome. By that time of the year, we needed to just let loose and throw down. Of course, usually, at some point, someone did punch someone else. Unfortunately, I missed it ever year.

Despite all that, I don't remember falling into a true seasonal funk.

But here in the Pacifical Northwest, I don't feel a mild annoyance that the sun goes away, I feel a major mood shift. I drink a lot of coffee normally, but during the winter? I drink at least double. It seems to be the only way to get through dusk at 3:00 in the afternoon and cloud cover that is so low I feel like I could touch it. The temps normally don't get that cold. We aren't blanketed with snow. It drizzles non-stop. It's foggy. In some ways, it doesn't seem like it should be that different than the Midwest where it is freezing cold, you are stuck inside due to the freezing cold. It is sometimes foggy. And some days there just seems to be a haze of steam and flurries that hangs in the air.

So why do I get depressed in the Pacific Northwest and not the Midwest? In the Midwest the clouds are so far up in the sky they don't even register as clouds. The sky is a constant light gray. And when the sun is out, the reflection off the snow is blinding--so blinding you need sunglasses. There is a sense of lightness. In the Pacific Northwest, the cloud cover feels like it is three feet above my head. I live close enough to the water that when the fog rolls in I can't see across the street. I used to think it was romantic, but now I find it oppressive and almost suffocating.

I'm not saying one is better than the other. But there are some days I would gladly trade feeling like I am about to be asphyxiated by the cloud cover for wind chills of -30. And then I look out the window, and through a break in the clouds see the snow-covered Canadian Mountains and fall in love with this place all over again. And then that night a fog rolls in that makes the rest of the world disappear for two days.

At this point, I don't know which one I prefer.