The View from a Drawbridge

The random musings of an autistic bridgetender with entirely too much time on her hands.

Balconies

Here’s a big secret: It doesn’t rain in Seattle nearly as much as its residents would have you believe. I have no idea if it’s a global climate change thing or we have all been the victims of a major misinformation campaign to prevent crowding, but if you’re not getting to know this amazing city…

Here’s a big secret: It doesn’t rain in Seattle nearly as much as its residents would have you believe. I have no idea if it’s a global climate change thing or we have all been the victims of a major misinformation campaign to prevent crowding, but if you’re not getting to know this amazing city because you’re afraid of getting wet, don’t worry about it.

In fact, I think the weather is much nicer here than it ever was when I lived in Florida. I spend a great deal of time outside enjoying it. Being outdoors here is a delight.

So here’s what I don’t get. People in this town pay a premium for balconies. Well, actually, all housing here costs an arm and a leg, but if you want a balcony, it will cost you an additional limb. So why don’t they ever use them?

I pass thousands of balconies every day on my way to work and while out and about running errands, and never, not even once, have I seen a single human being on one. There are chairs (wishful chairing?), but no signs of life. If it weren’t for the insane amounts of traffic, I’d half be able to convince myself that the rapture had come and gone and I was the only one left in the city. (That’s if I believed in the rapture.)

Where is everybody? Come on, Seattle! Sit on your balconies!

If the people in Pamplona, Spain can do it, so can we! [Image credit: goseewrite.com]
If the people in Pamplona, Spain can do it, so can we!
[Image credit: goseewrite.com]

5 responses to “Balconies”

  1. pouringmyartout Avatar
    pouringmyartout

    They talk about the rain to keep people from moving there… we do the same thing with earthquakes.

    Reply
    1. The View from a Drawbridge Avatar
      The View from a Drawbridge

      Someone told me just the other day that this has been an unusually dry year, but since it’s all I know so far, I still don’t know what the truth is.

      Reply
      1. pouringmyartout Avatar
        pouringmyartout

        that might also be it

  2. Seattle Park Lover Avatar
    Seattle Park Lover

    There are three things about the rain/weather at play. First of all, in terms of inches of annual rain, it’s true that Seattle doesn’t live up to its rainy reputation. We don’t have a lot of downpours outside of storms, most of our rain falls as light or misty rain. So it’s not the actual rain amount where the reputation comes from, it’s gray cloudy days that we have an abnormal amount of. If you look on a weather site that lists average number of sunny days for various cities you’ll see what I mean. The gray skies really get to some people.

    Second of all, yes you moved here during an unusually warm and sunny weather pattern. We have gone over a year of months having warmer than average temps. The last time we had a month that was at or below the Seattle average for that month was Feb. 2014, if I’m remembering right. While 2014 was warmer than normal it didn’t seem that much sunnier. This year, however, has been not only warmer, but MUCH sunnier, even in winter when it’s normal to have weeks of gray skies.

    Thirdly, the rainy rep doesn’t usually include summer. June can be gray quite often, but usually after July 4th things clear up and we have mostly sun into August and Sept. We have an almost Mediterranean climate, with wet winters and dry summers. It’s one of our best kept secrets.

    Lastly, yes, most of us are more than happy to play up our rainy rep to discourage being inundated with masses of people. Unfortunately that hasn’t been working the last few years. Heh. (That’s not directed at you, you seem like Seattle is the right place for you!)

    As to balconies, I’ve often wondered the same thing. I think part of it is the balconies are so small in modern construction they aren’t that great in actual use. Another thing I’ve considered is that people might like them in order to have the large sliding glass door. You can leave them open and bring the outside into your living room that way, without feeling like you’re on display on the deck.

    Reply
    1. The View from a Drawbridge Avatar
      The View from a Drawbridge

      And yet Global Warming doesn’t exist. (Sigh.) And I hadn’t thought about the sliding glass door aspect. Now I’ll be driving around looking at the doors on the balconies, rather than the balconies themselves. Perhaps the subject of a future blog entry. Thanks!

      Reply

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