If It's Spring, Can Pollen Be Far Behind?

The sun was shining, the temperature a moderate in the sixties, folks were out walking, playing with their kids and dogs, running, biking...a lovely weekend! Then. The front started rolling in from the west~ winds and a barometric drop, along with the temperature plumitting...again!

This has been the scenario for a few weeks here in East Tennessee. Warm up, cool down, warm up, cool down. The poor frogs in the creek (or 'crik' if you are from these parts!) are badly confused. The temperature goes above sixty, and they start their froggie singing, a sure early harbinger of Spring. The temperature plummets back to what it should be in February, and the frogs, no fools, they...silence. This has happened at least three times. They just go back into froggie hibernation till the temperatures moderate enough that they can stay awake more than 24 hours. The resilience of nature's creatures always stuns me.

Can you imagine if you didn't have a clue what the weather would be any day of the week? No weather channel, no local or national news...no way to look outside and check the weather. That's what the frogs put up with. They take a shot in the dark, each time the weather warms enough, shutting down for another week or two till the weather decides for sure and certain that it's going to warm up and stay warm.

Others aren't as lucky as our frog friends. Something...something is blooming. I don't know what it is...but it's out there, and it has pollen. How? How would I know that? Because as soon as the wind began to blow, before the temperatures started to drop, my nose got incredibly stuffy, I started breathing out of my mouth, and tears were literally running down my cheeks! “Bill, do oooo' fink dat mebbe dar is pollen in da air?” I sniffed and sneezed at my hubby. “Why? because tears are running down your face, I can't understand a word you just said, and your nose is a most becoming shade of pink?” laughed my hubby. I started rooting around in the medicine cabinet for the Benadryl. I didn't care if it made me sleepy. A miracle drug! Within minutes I was halfway understandable, and most of the waterworks from my eyes had eased off.

I have to preface this with the fact that East Tennessee is the Allergy Capital of the Nation. Unfortunately. It couldn't be something wonderful. We are known nationwide for our pollen. We have it ¾ of the year. In copious amounts. Spring is the worst. You will be positive Spring has sprung when you go out to your car, and your once white colored car is now a verdant green~ covered stem to stern with pollen! Yup, others might have to scrape the snow or ice from their windshields, we get to scrape pollen off ours! YUK!

The best thing to do, is when you get home each day and before you go to bed, take a shower. Everyone in the house. Before you get betwixt the sheets and transfer the pollen all over you to all over your sheets. Of course, that would include showering the dog. Frax will NOT go there! With his great fear of all things water related (a slur upon his esteemed Retriever ancestors!)...a weekly bath might be tolerated, but a daily one....notgonnadoit! And, really, opening and shutting the doors to the house, the clothes you've worn, the purse you carried, the briefcase...even the food items...all these things will have the minute particles of pollen on them.

However, I wipe Frax down with a damp cloth, and that seems to help a bit. During pollen season, I also wipe anything that's been out with me, like the purse. It helps, not a huge amount, but it does help.

The shower idea still is a great way to help with allergy control, but taking either a medication over the counter, or from your doctor, whatever your doc and you decide, would be an easier way to live. We never go anywhere without Benadryl. It's just so good for allergic reactions, and my entire family seem magnets for bees, pollen, spider bites and the like. Having it on hand, especially when my niece and nephew visit with their kiddos (all six girls!!!!) from thirteen to five years old, it seems a good idea to have it around.

You would be hard-pressed to find a family in the East Tennessee region without some allergy medication, prescription or over-the-counter somewhere within their homes. It's nearly impossible to function without it during the peak times of Spring and Autumn.

So, the little green harbingers of Spring have arrived to Tennessee early this year. No, not the frogs with their sweet peeping in the creeks, or the lovely daffodils bending their yellow pokebonnets towards the sun as they nod and wink in the gentle breezes. Nope...it's the little green bits of undetermined plant pollen that have already started making their inroads at this early date. Unseen at this point, but already making their impact upon the susceptible population. Egad!

Yet I love Spring, and cannot wait till the days decide not to go through this up and down rollercoaster. It shouldn't be too much longer. We have been known to have snow very late in the season, into March. It's unusual though. Normally we have three appreciable snowfalls of over 1” after January. Then Spring will set in. That's the norm. We've had the prerequisite three snowfalls, and one day of snow showers. We should be set for Spring: bring on the Benadryl and Kleenex...we ain't skeerred, right Frax?!

#pollen #spring #allergies