It’s not officially spring in North Carolina until I walk out to the parking lot and discover my car is now yellow instead of red. Early spring is the time of year around here when every object within a wind’s breath of a tree gets covered in a thin film of yellow pollen. It’s so thick that my neighbors actually left footprints in the pollen outside my door.
I’m sure there is a plot to CSI hidden in here somewhere in which the villain is apprehended because they match his bootprints to those left in this allergenic dusting. I think this pollen problem if fairly universal in the triangle area. I’ve run into it at my current place, my old place, and at my brother’s old place in Durham. It’s annoying, but at least it washes off fairly easily. I will take a week or two of pollen of a month or two of snow any day.
I’ve heard of hypoallergenic, but this is its opposite: hyper-allergenic.
My husband have been getting nasty headaches even though it is Autumn here in Australia. On Saturday I was walking past a park and a gust of wind hit a big tree of unknown genus … and a huge waft of green dust was swept into the air. So I guess it is not only in Spring! Annoying, but it will pass. I suppose the trees have to live and reproduce too.
just finished your book. i’m 62 and don’t have headaches much anymore. ? no explanation..but i found the musings on “invisible” illnesses important as a lifelong treatment resistant depressive. i took my first antidepressant in 1989 and haven’t stopped seeing docs and trying meds since… in addition to all the other “tips” to enable myself to function which i do not…25 years later…. still… thanks for the great descriptions of waiting rooms…seriously…i mean funnily…my full time job is seeking humor wherever i can find it.
i always type in lower case in honor of us all who suffer from invisible illnesses…gotta rebel and express rage in some subversive manner…
Just curious if you had any remedies for allergies? When I see the plants budding out I feel the plants are saying they are so happy.. I look at it as though they are giving birth. But man, it really messes with my head!
@sher – Glad to hear you don’t get headaches anymore. Happy to know you picked up on all my descriptions of waiting rooms. I was trying to convey the sense of how much time you sit around waiting, waiting, waiting, to get better.
I live in North Carolina as well and we have had our share of pollen this year. I’m having to wash my car every weekend just so it doesn’t look yellow anymore.
Despite of the regular cleaning that we have to do because of this scattered pollen, I am still excited! I love Spring! It is time to see some color, plants and of course, more sun!
“A week or two”! Ha ha, I wish!