Achoo....Sniffle....Sneeze
Melbourne....Naarm....Your Pollen Is Crazy
“What is wrong with your face", my Mom asked me.
I was less than a decade old.
My face?
As I had just come downstairs from my bedroom, wiping what I thought was sleep from my eyes, and feeling a bit tired, that was not the words I wanted to hear.
Running, scared, wondering what had occurred during my sleep, I shot into the bathroom to get a look in the mirror. In actual fact, I doubt I did much running as our house was not that big. Also, I was lucky to get into the bathroom as 6 of us lived there with one toilet.)
Staring back at me was this puffy, swollen, watery-eyed weird ass replica of myself.
I was concerned.
Mom came and comforted me and said, “Looks like you have allergies.”
My small brain made me wonder what I could be allergic to as I slept. My Mom was soon on the phone with the receptionist at Dr. Seymour Kaplan to book me in. She told me they would do some tests to find out what was causing the allergic reaction.
“What kind of tests?", I asked. I think there may have been fear in my voice.
My Mom then described skin prick testing to me. You know, they prick your skin with allergens and if you are allergic to them you will get a small raised lump, a weal as it is called.
That did not sound like fun. My biggest fear was the needles.
My sister had been having allergy shots for a while and although they did not seem to cause her any lasting trauma, I was not that familiar with needles and the idea of them on a regular basis brought tears to my eyes.
Fast forward and the skin prick test said I was allergic to grass.
Weed.
Not that kind.
It was the 60s, but I was too young to be smoking anything.
You would have to fast forward a handful of years to the 70’s.
Ragweed seemed to be the culprit although there could be other plants. My allergy season in New York could stretch from late Spring through the Summer. For years I got the shots, then stopped them when I was in my mid-teens.
They really did not seem to be doing that much for me.
I still got symptoms and when I stopped the shots they did not seem to increase how badly I felt at times. It was a seasonal pain in the ass.
When I moved to Sydney in 1984, I had no idea that my grassy hay fever would come to an end. The grasses and pollens that had haunted me for 20 years I had left behind like The Empire State Building.
Since early 2020, I have been here in Melbourne. Most of 2020 and 2021 I was locked down, but I did a lot of walking and had some sniffles and the like, but nothing like this year.
Covid hit me in early October and since then the pollen invasion of 2023 has been messing with my head.
It’s sort of sidelined me in some ways. My energy level, patience, and motivation take a big hit. Medication seems to help a wee bit. Post-nasal drip, and an impact on my ability to taste and smell, all make life a little less fun to live.
I get cranky. I hate cranky.
And in case you ever wondered, ‘cranky’ comes from a mispronunciation of the Dutch word 'krengd' or 'crank'. A crank was an unstable ship or sailing vessel.
My apologies to you if I have been cranky, it seems i have problems with my ballast.
Memories from the past are good to re-visit. Not this one.
Yes, I know, I could have something much worse.
Stop your whining, Pablo.
But while the end may be in sight, the season isn’t over yet as we’re expecting to see several high and extreme days over the next ten days.
So, I have been a bit quiet. I have not been able to comment on things like the senility of Trump and Biden, that when you type in ‘anti-semite’ into a text message spell checker turns it into ‘semi-trailer’ and this fabulous text exchange from a friend of mine.
Yeah, this had something to do with where the keys were.
Life is still marvelous.
It’s just involving a bunch more tissues.
Things will change.
Things have changed.
Enjoy the playlist. Music always makes things better.
“Mr. Jinx and Miss Lucy, they jumped in the lake
I'm not that eager to make a mistake
People are crazy and times are strange
I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range
I used to care, but things have changed”-Dylan
Paul, I'm so sorry for your allergies, they do suck. But Life s good through the maladies. Hang in there with the seasons.Come to the USA with the snow and Blizzards, pollen doesn’t like it. You can come to my house, no allergens until at least March???? I remember going to Dr. Kaplan's office with Ginger so many times. Today it is the same thing, doesn't work so good. Love you so much, I'm still grieving, can't get over that fabulous guy I married, love him dearly.