Literally one of the things I hated the most when I visited California and all I hear about California is the weather (I should say, "San Francisco", not CA, since obviously CA is a pretty big state). I can't imagine what living somewhere that is the same every day.
If you grew up on the east coast, where you have about 1 week of pleasant weather in between hellish hotness in the summer and ball-shriveling cold in the winter, you'd appreciate SF's boringly middling weather.
I did grow up on the east coast, and have, so far, lived my whole life here.
I would never describe the summers as "hellish" nor the winters as "ball-shriveling". I thoroughly enjoy the tremendous variety through all the seasons. I would say there isn't "1 week of pleasant weather", but rather, a year of tremendously varying, enjoyable weather.
But, of course, that's sort of the point - to each their own.
I think he meant NY or New England when he said East Coast. North Carolina doesn't fit that pattern of having consistent 0°F to 105°F range every year.
Except Vancouver IS also the same every day: dark, gloomy, overcast clouds with constant rain or drizzle.
I lived in Seattle for a year, and I got depressed from the weather. My doctor handed me a huge bottle of Vitamin D to take, saying most of her patients that lived there are deficient.
I couldn't handle it, so I moved back to sunny California, and immediately, my happiness levels returned back to normal again. Humans rely on the light to regulate their biorhythms, and Seattle/Vancouver are so far up north that in December, the sun rises at 10 AM, and it starts getting dark at around 3 PM.
For what it's worth, I grew up on the East Coast in Pittsburgh, PA with its notoriously bad weather, and I could cope with the variety of having four distinct seasons, including real winters with snowfall, much better than Seattle/Vancouver's monolithic climate (excluding the short summer that gives you two months of what SF weather is like every day).
> Seattle/Vancouver are so far up north that in December, the sun rises at 10 AM, and it starts getting dark at around 3 PM
That's a bit of an exaggeration. Even on the shortest day of the year in Vancouver, the sun rises at shortly after 8am and sets just after 4pm, which is a full 3 hours more of sunlight than you're giving it credit for.
Yes, if you want to be pedantic, and you define sunrise as the "bottom of the sun" touching the horizon -- as a meteorologist would -- instead of the much more practical definition of the sun is "sufficiently above the horizon for it to no longer be dark outside."
I came in to work at 10 AM every day, and that's when it would start getting light outside (9 AM, still dark out).
Then, I struck a deal with my boss to work later and run my daily 5 kilometers midday at 2:00-2:30 PM instead of after work because by 3 PM, it would be too dark outside to feel safe from cars while exercising.
100x this. I get a lot of energy and happiness walking in the sun in the morning. Something so simple, yet has a dramatic effect on my quality of life.
I do feel like an outlier in that I really enjoy living in distinct seasons. It feel like it helps me mark the time internally, and reminds me that I'm a pretty small part of nature overall.
> I do feel like an outlier in that I really enjoy living in distinct seasons.
You're not really an outlier, I learned that I feel the same way after living in SF for a while. It's just that it doesn't occur to many people because many people don't live in two such radically different climates.
