at this time of year

[adrian_turtle]

Flashing Christmas lights are migraine triggers for me, and they are so very common. I just realized that there aren't any Christmas lights in this neighborhood. None. It's nice living here. Ok, it's not always visually peaceful. (Last year I didn't notice if there were Christmas lights, because there were so many flashing lights around trolley and road repairs.) But this year is wonderfully peaceful. Strangers on the street have wished me "Happy Holidays," quite a few times, and "Happy New Year" (twice, already!) and once "Gut Yontif."

Comments

[sonia]

Yay for peaceful neighborhood and no flashing migraine triggers!

A couple of houses near me have lights, but overall it seems like I'm seeing a lot fewer lights than I remember from last year. Then again I haven't been out much lately.

[adrian_turtle]

This area doesn't have a lot of outdoor decorations of any sort. I mean, there are SOME. Inflatable puppets for Halloween. Big signs with support for various faraway places, hanging out some windows. But the Kollel doesn't have any kind of decoration. And my lease forbids us from putting anything out. (We aren't even allowed a doormat.) The other row houses have other owners, but perhaps similar leases.

Interesting to hear you've been seeing fewer lights than last year. Are you seeing fewer decorations, or are they just decorations-other-than-lights?

[sonia]

I'm noticing fewer decorations overall. But that might be because I'm not getting out much, and the streets near me happen to be less decorated. It's definitely a lot less overall than it was in Portland OR, maybe something to do with the reduced winter daylight there.

[evalerie]

Oh gads, that must be so very hard, to have people's holiday lights triggering migraines. I'm glad your current neighborhood accidentally is an improvement!

Happy Holidays and take care!

[adrian_turtle]

I knew it was a Jewish neighborhood when I moved here. Some places have signs in both Hebrew and Yiddish. But we are far enough from Chabad that we don't see their cars with the big flashing menoras driving down the street.

[silveradept]

That sounds very nice, a neighborhood that's not a migraine trigger.

[adrian_turtle]

I wouldn't go so far as to say the neighborhood isn't a migraine trigger. Unfortunately, I have to go through 2 intersections with rectangular rapid-flash signals to get from here to many of the places I want to go.

A rectangular rapid-flash signal has a couple of very bright strobes flashing just a little out of phase. They're awful...except for the fact that cars are significantly more likely to yield to pedestrians at a crosswalk with such a signal than with other kinds of signs or lights. When city planners put one at a place where there have been a lot of crashes, they save lives, so I can't even say it's bad design or that they should stop.

[silveradept]

Oof. Competing needs problem. The out of phase issue is not the greatest, even if not a migraine trigger for most.