Mind Your Business

When I heard Liz Merriman of the Deception Pass State Park Foundation use the word Juneuary to describe this month’s weather, I responded with a look of appreciative joy.  Finally, I thought, someone who understands what I have gone through this past month…a big fat case of the January blahs…and right here in the early days summer!

Now I am not about to give you some tourism bureau rah-rah about how this makes living in the Pacific Northwest unique.  The truth of the matter is, I am not happy, not happy at all.  My Beach Boys tapes are still packed with my capri’s…and my grey wool sweater has yet to be returned to the bin of clothes marked “Fall/Winter.”  Plus, I don’t even want to begin to tell you how this weather has killed my love affair with the spray tan.  I mean really, how is anyone going to believe this thing is real when it’s pouring down rain outside…and part of what I am paying for is the image of being “outdoorsy.”  Darn this rain!!!

But the truth is, this weather has the potential of claiming more casualties than my three-minute spray-on fakeness.

After all, there are a lot of great local businesses that depend on the good weather of our “summer season” to survive. Mystic Sea Charters, Anacortes Kayak Tours, and Deception Pass Tours (to name a few).   Brett and Terica of Deception Pass Tours are  good friends of mine, and I am want can only be described as “a groupie” for their tour.  I love it!  And, I have declared it to be one of the best additions to the Whidbey Island Tourism scene since Deception Pass Bridge itself.

If you haven’t been on the tour, you should go, especially when you consider that despite their fun tour, easy on the pocketbook prices, and solid marketing plan, the thing that matters most to their business is the one thing they can’t control. Weather!

As I type, the sun seems to finally have won the battle with the clouds. And if Steve Pool is to be trusted (and I believe he is…how can anyone that devilishly handsome lead us astray?), this victory should last throughout the weekend.  So let’s all get outside, leave the gardening for another day and support a great local business in what I hope is the tail end of “Juneary.”  And yes…I am angling for customer of the year, if you were at all wondering! (Someone has to get the title after all!)

There is nothing a Wii, WoW, or p0wn n00bz (if I am saying that right…and who reading this blog would know!) can offer that this Island can’t on a beautiful day…well except for the chance to forever brand yourself as a couch potato.  (Yes, that’s judgment in my tone!)

Enjoy the sun…and what feel like the first weekend of June!