Mememememeeeeeme
A meme from 
sovay, in which I asked for and received three things to talk about "that I may or may not know or care about." I was given:
1. Sunglasses
... are becoming increasingly necessary as I get older, but are also a bit of a pain because I wear glasses with a very strong prescription, SIGH. I've never gotten myself a pair of prescription sunglasses because for years my prescription changed so fast that it wasn't worth paying for. Normally I just wear the over-the-top kind. At this point my prescription has settled down so I probably could, but the last time I changed my glasses I decided to try that coating where it darkens automatically in sunlight.
So far, I hate it. I hate it most of all because it's responsive to UV light, and since UV light is blocked by glass, therefore the time when I need sunglasses most of all -- when I'm driving -- it's completely useless. The rest of the time, it makes bright sunny days look mildly overcast, and since I'm sensitive to daylight levels in a seasonal-affective-disorder kind of way ... yeah. Well, it was something I felt I should try once in my life. I think maybe automatic sunglasses you can't take off would work better in a place where the sunlight is brighter and less attenuated than it is this far north. The only time when it actually feels useful is in the very middle of the day on extremely bright sunny days, especially when I'm somewhere with a lot of pavement or rocks where the light is very bright. And we just don't get a whole lot of that here.
2. Midsummer
A very big deal at 65 degrees of latitude! It's not an official holiday because Alaska is culturally attached to a nation where it isn't a big deal, but we have a solstice festival in town (basically a street fair) and a number of associated activities -- there's a 10K race at midnight (the Midnight Sun Run), a midnight baseball game, and stuff like that. Basically, it's light all night, so why not? It stops getting dark in early May and doesn't start again 'til late July. We aren't quite far enough north for the sun to actually stay up all night (you need to be at the Arctic Circle for that, and we're not quite there - 66.33 vs. 64.8), but at this point it's definitely light enough to read a book outside at midnight*, and instead of darkness we get a few hours of pink sunset/sunrise sky. Our official sunset/sunrise times right now are 12:30 a.m. and 3 a.m., although the sun actually sets a bit earlier at my house because we're north of town in a valley.
*If you don't mind losing a pint or two of blood; the mosquitoes are terrible this year.
3. Pecans
My parents are from Oklahoma, and my grandmother had a pecan tree in the yard. Every year at Christmas they would send us a large bag of pecans from their tree. I'm not sure if this is why, but I absolutely love pecans to this day, and pecan pie is one of my favorite desserts. One of my regrets now that she's gone is that I'm not sure if we ever properly thanked her for them, especially now that I'm aware of the work that must have gone into collecting and shelling them.
(Either that or they always bought pecans at the store and claimed they were from their personal pecan tree. I guess I'll never know now.)
If you would also like three random things to talk about, just let me know!
This entry is also posted at https://sholio.dreamwidth.org/1244163.html with
comments.
sovay, in which I asked for and received three things to talk about "that I may or may not know or care about." I was given:
1. Sunglasses
... are becoming increasingly necessary as I get older, but are also a bit of a pain because I wear glasses with a very strong prescription, SIGH. I've never gotten myself a pair of prescription sunglasses because for years my prescription changed so fast that it wasn't worth paying for. Normally I just wear the over-the-top kind. At this point my prescription has settled down so I probably could, but the last time I changed my glasses I decided to try that coating where it darkens automatically in sunlight.
So far, I hate it. I hate it most of all because it's responsive to UV light, and since UV light is blocked by glass, therefore the time when I need sunglasses most of all -- when I'm driving -- it's completely useless. The rest of the time, it makes bright sunny days look mildly overcast, and since I'm sensitive to daylight levels in a seasonal-affective-disorder kind of way ... yeah. Well, it was something I felt I should try once in my life. I think maybe automatic sunglasses you can't take off would work better in a place where the sunlight is brighter and less attenuated than it is this far north. The only time when it actually feels useful is in the very middle of the day on extremely bright sunny days, especially when I'm somewhere with a lot of pavement or rocks where the light is very bright. And we just don't get a whole lot of that here.
2. Midsummer
A very big deal at 65 degrees of latitude! It's not an official holiday because Alaska is culturally attached to a nation where it isn't a big deal, but we have a solstice festival in town (basically a street fair) and a number of associated activities -- there's a 10K race at midnight (the Midnight Sun Run), a midnight baseball game, and stuff like that. Basically, it's light all night, so why not? It stops getting dark in early May and doesn't start again 'til late July. We aren't quite far enough north for the sun to actually stay up all night (you need to be at the Arctic Circle for that, and we're not quite there - 66.33 vs. 64.8), but at this point it's definitely light enough to read a book outside at midnight*, and instead of darkness we get a few hours of pink sunset/sunrise sky. Our official sunset/sunrise times right now are 12:30 a.m. and 3 a.m., although the sun actually sets a bit earlier at my house because we're north of town in a valley.
*If you don't mind losing a pint or two of blood; the mosquitoes are terrible this year.
3. Pecans
My parents are from Oklahoma, and my grandmother had a pecan tree in the yard. Every year at Christmas they would send us a large bag of pecans from their tree. I'm not sure if this is why, but I absolutely love pecans to this day, and pecan pie is one of my favorite desserts. One of my regrets now that she's gone is that I'm not sure if we ever properly thanked her for them, especially now that I'm aware of the work that must have gone into collecting and shelling them.
(Either that or they always bought pecans at the store and claimed they were from their personal pecan tree. I guess I'll never know now.)
If you would also like three random things to talk about, just let me know!
This entry is also posted at https://sholio.dreamwidth.org/1244163.html with
comments.