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Barometric Pressure
Barometric pressure is the measure of the weight of the atmosphere above us. Barometric pressure varies with altitude; a higher elevation will have less atmosphere above it which exerts less pressure. To keep readings standard across the world, barometric pressure is to be indicated at sea level.
The barometric pressure changes as the weather systems over us change. The pressure differences have a huge effect on the weather. If you know the current air pressure at your home, as well as the pressure trend, you are able to predict certain things about the weather. As a very loose rule, a high-pressure area will be clear, and a low-pressure area will be cloudy and rainy.
Many still opt to have barometers in their homes and monitor them with great regularity. There is no need to understand the complexities of all this since most barometers are marked Stormy, Rain, Change, Fair, and Very Dry but, essentially a falling barometer typically means clouds and rain and a rising barometer typically means clear and sunny.
Many have learned that a falling barometer, for whatever reason, means a shift in their mood. Yes, this could be due to weather, or perhaps, they are one in the same. But, let’s go at this another way. Maybe the weather has nothing to do with anything. Grey, cold, and rainy days can be just as susceptible to the warming influence of enthusiasm as are sunny days.
Even lousy days possess hidden wonder. Days that are expected to be wonderful before they begin turn out to be so much more frequently than days greeted with grumbling. Sometimes you just need an attitude adjustment to shift your perception of an entire afternoon and move forward into a pleasant evening
Dead of Winter? – Listing your Home
January – the month of new beginnings and cherished memories. It is a fresh start, a new chapter. A time for reflection and resolution.
The first month of our calendar year was named by the Romans after Janus, the god of change, transitions, and beginnings. Janus had two faces – one looking forward, the other backward. He had the ability to watch entrances and exits, but symbolically, it signaled the need to balance our hopes for tomorrow with a keen awareness of what happened yesterday. Think about it…
Many considering selling their homes in the islands assume they should wait until Spring to list when the tourists arrive. Some sellers even opt to take their homes off the market for the Winter months. The thought process includes thinking homes show better in the Spring. Unfortunately, many assume incorrectly that homes do not sell in the Winter. This school of thought makes for low inventory…
However, low inventory is nothing short of fantastic for sellers. Basic economics of supply and demand tells us that most things sell for more money when there is less of them available. It has been proven time and time again this applies to housing. http://www.sanjuansre.com/listfall
Today’s serious buyers look at listings pretty much all day, every day. They have apps on their phone, get listings texted and emailed to them, and simply don’t care about the time of year. In fact, many want to purchase prior to Spring to have time to make their new house a home. Listing in January makes for a captive audience!
A Place in the Islands
Sacred partnerships arrive in our lives in many forms; sometimes consisting of wood and stone, rather than flesh and bone. There is a deep peace and contentment to be found in the intimate connections with places as well as people.
Every relationship we have – with other people, with our work – reflects in some way our soul’s intimate union with ourselves. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the relationships we have with a home. We deserve to live in a home that welcomes, embraces, nurtures, delights, and inspires.
When we find ourselves there, we recognize it. It is a vision of something we have had in our mind and the discovery, quite often, has the characteristics of an epiphany. We have the feeling of coming home. It wraps itself around us.
The same is true of a getaway – a haven, a retreat, a refuge – a special place that offers a sense of sanctuary. Families, couples, and singles – regardless of gender – share an urge that borders on primal to have what can be called a getaway. Whenever we find this special place, we add a richness to our wondrous, but sometimes hectic, lives by following our vision to create a getaway of our very own.
To live on an island is to experience a life apart. The island home reflects the owner’s reason for escape. Island homeowners are individualistic, socially conscious, and creative with every home fulfilling its owner’s dream of privacy, harmony with the surroundings, and more importantly, providing a chance to take a closer look at the world.
Living at the water’s edge is an almost universal desire. It is different – where two worlds meet; a little piece of infinity. Magic!
The Friendly Isle – Lopez Island
Lopez Island is truly a magical place, eliciting in many an almost ethereal response to its sheer beauty, its substance, and its peace. It is a different way of life: the pace is slower, the world quieter, the people approachable. Many from near and far have discovered Lopez and found it irresistible.
A rural patchwork quilt of fields and pastures, interrupted by sections of velvety forest rolling down to the edge of the sea, with its quiet pace, reminiscent of days gone by, Lopez boasts a well-developed sense of community. To understand the present, you need to understand the past – understand the island’s history.
In the beginning, Northwest Coastal Indians spent Winters in cedar-planked loghouses and used the warmer months for hunting, fishing, and cultivating/gathering plants. Later people came to Lopez for a variety of reasons – prospectors returning from various gold rushes and passing through the islands, relatives and friends of residents, respondents to advertising – those hoping for a better life.
As people moved to the islands, three main communities formed: Port Stanley, Richardson, and Lopez Village. These communities all boasted steamer service, a store, and a post office. A smaller area known as Mud Bay also had a post office and a school. People were, by necessity, self-sufficient. Survival depended upon community; they bartered and shared. And now, as then, the best way to make a living on Lopez is to wrest it from the land or from the sea.
The story of Lopez is the story of community. Living self-reliant lives while helping friends, neighbors, and newcomers. Lopezians created a unique community character that abides today. It is this which has shaped the island’s history, far more powerfully and significantly than we may realize. The island continues to echo those early times.
