Spring was late this year, and wet. Consequently, it's been long. At least it has seemed so to me.However, it has seemed far longer to those suffering from seasonal allergies. A normal allergy season starts in early May and ends in the first half of June--about six weeks. This year, it started in early May and has continued merrily for the entire month of June.
I'm learning a lot about seasonal allergies. My husband has them far worse than I do, so he knows things. Trees, for example, dump pollen at 4 a.m. When it's still chilly enough that our heater kicks on in the middle of the night (which it is), the heater sometimes stirs up the house's existing dust and pollen and distributes it along with that day's pollen dump. The consequences can be histamines a-plenty--gunky eyes and nose plus boggy lungs.
As my nephew would say, Not Much Fun.
(One of the things my husband doesn't seem to understand is that he's only human and an allergy specialist could get him on something like mast cell inhibitors that might prevent some of his allergic reactions. However, I understand that phoning his family doctor now would get him an appointment sometime in 2010. It's easier to wait till he gets bad and to go the Emergency Room, assuming he lets me take him someday. Not that it's been that bad. Yet.)
I'm lucky. It's my third spring in the area, so I'm due to develop allergies this year or next year, but so far, knock wood, all I get is itchy eyes when I work outside, and then only occasionally. A little Visine fixes me right up.
In the past few days, yellow plumes have appeared along the shoreline and yellow specks have popped up on the grass. As the puddles in the driveway dry--between downpours--they leave yellow rings on the brown mud. As the porch dries off--between downpours--a yellow film splotches the boards.
Slowly but surely, the pollen is washing from the sky and the trees. Spring and its allergies will soon be gone for the year. It missed the calendar's deadline for summer, but it might yet make a Canada Day deadline.
And you know what season comes after Spring Seasonal Allergy Season? That's right: Serious Mosquito Season. Stay tuned for more whining.
