A friend recently told me we get roughly 63 sunny days per year in northwestern Pennsylvania. According to currentresults.com we actually average 59 clear days, (with a maximum of 30 percent cloud cover) annually. Las Vegas has 210. In other words, we have 306 partly to mostly cloudy days in the Atlantic community every year.
Lately we’ve had a few sunny days, but it’s been mostly overcast since mid-October. I’ll be honest: I don’t know how much more steely sky I can take. Thank God for my daily light treatment, supplied by a UV filtered white light box, or I’d be even worse off.
If I determined where to live based on sunshine, Las Vegas sounds like the place to be. Let’s put the whole “Sin City” thing aside for now. You and I both know I’d never want to live in a city infamous for gambling and vice. But I’m telling you, that much sunshine sounds pretty darn good to me on a frigid, cloudy March afternoon.
So if Vegas has almost four times the number of sunny days per year than Atlantic, what does Atlantic have that Vegas doesn’t?
I can think of a few things right off the bat: peace and quiet, good neighbors, and privacy.
I can sleep with my windows open on cool summer nights and hear nothing but crickets and rustling leaves. I’d never feel safe leaving my windows open in Las Vegas. And it’d be so hot most nights that I couldn’t stand letting the oppressive air inside anyway.
Over the past 15 years, neighbors have often voluntarily plowed my driveway for free. I know it rarely snows in Las Vegas, but I can’t imagine neighbors being so generous and helpful with no expectation of repayment. At least I never had those kinds of neighbors when I lived in the Akron, Ohio, area.
No one has ever complained to me about my babies crying or my grass getting too high. My neighbors couldn’t hear my kids crying because acres separate our houses, and they were nice enough to keep their peace about my less-than-stellar yard maintenance when my kids were younger. Mercifully, we’ve improved dramatically. My kids don’t cry much these days. And my son, daughter, and I work together to keep the grass under control. But I never had a neighbor knock on the door and suggest we get on our lawn mower. There were times when we had foot-high Queen Anne’s Lace in our yard. I wish I were exaggerating. I’m not.
I love my home and property. I like my neighbors. I love peace and quiet. If I have to give up sunshine for this, I guess I’ll pay that price. If I lived in Sin City, I guarantee I’d gladly exchange 210 days of sunshine for crickets and rustling leaves on summer nights, generous neighbors, and a house on a wooded lot. I hope you would, too.
Have a wonderful week. Blessings!