HOLY CRAP

[athelind]

I have today off, so I decided to go for a walk. My usual walking route, since moving here, has been along Coyote Creek Trail.

It's a nice, warm, sunny day, and we've been getting plenty of rain. The trail was lined with tall stands of tasseled grass on one side, and bright, colorful wildflowers on the other.

Now, Your Obedient Serpent has had allergies all his life. That's four-plus decades, folks.

Usually, though, the cause and effect are subtle, even if the symptoms are anything but. If I get the sniffles or sneezes or random patches of irritated skin, if I get the Sinus Attacks of DOOM, there's usually a delay between exposure and symptom, and there's usually some difficulty trying to pin down the trigger.

Not this time, boy!

As soon as I passed the first patch of grass, I sniffled and coughed.

By the time I realized that this was hitting now now now, I was at a point in the trail loop where turning around would have taken me just as long to get home as plugging on. By this point, I was sniffling, sneezing, coughing, my eyes were watering, and I was even having some trouble breathing.

And as soon as I got out of that chunk of the trail, I instantly cleared up. Oh, I was still a little sniffly, I still had to cough a few times, but the worst of it was gone.

Real allergies don't work like that! Cartoon allergies work like that!

I've had reactions to obvious, visible irritants, like smoke, but to the naked eye, that Allergy Hellstorm was completely invisible. Not even a bit of haze. I've never experience anything like that before—not even yesterday, walking along the exact same part of the trail.

I'd say it was like getting tear gassed, but tear gas doesn't affect me.

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Comments

[ebony14.livejournal.com]

I have been told that, at least in North Texas, the unseasonal weather at the end of March (i.e., Fucking SNOW!) caused the normally gentle steady pollination of the area to turn into full-blown allergen explosion. Perhaps it's the same in NorCal?

[athelind.livejournal.com]

It may be more a matter of timing and specific place. If I'd gotten up this morning and was generally miserable, I'd assume it was just Pollen Time; this was such a specific and restricted area, and such a dramatic difference between the exact same spot yesterday that I think I just happened to wander out right smack in the middle of Pollen Central, just as every happy little veggie was spewing its ...

... okay, let's leave that metaphor unfinished.

That said, with the unusual amount of rain this season, I've been expecting a nasty, terrible allergy season. Not only do we have a lotlocal species that only bloom when we do get those above-average rainfalls.

If this is Day 1, that pollen explosion a block and a half away is going to become less-localized over the next few days, so it's time to make sure I take my antihistamines.

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

Rather than your usual allergens, it's also possible that something like rust or other mold was, in that area, deciding "NOW" is the time to release spores. Something along those lines, anyway. Might even been the grass deciding "Pollen Release!!" right as you walked by.

Allergies are funny things. Growing up in the Contra Costa (the second worst county for allergies in CA) I had hay fever. All summer I was on sudafed until it stopped working, then on other things.

I moved to SLO (first worst county for allergies in CA) and the allergies stopped. Never came back, either.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

I'm leaning toward "grassplosion", myself.

And, yeah, my allergies got milder the further North I moved in CA.

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

I know it's likely triggered by humidity and wind, but this got me thinking about what might pass for grass porn. giggle.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

As a general rule, if I find a metaphor is leading inexorably to words like "orgy" and "bukakke", I'm just going to change the subject.

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

I honestly wasn't going any further than I did.

[snobahr.livejournal.com]

Just read everyone else's responses. I was just gonna say you were a freak, but apparently, you're not. Ah well.

[rikoshi.livejournal.com]

Oh, he's still a freak; just not a freak for this.


When I say 'freak,' I mean it as lovingly as possible.

[trpeal.livejournal.com]

I don't have allergies, never have, but I have a similar cartoon-allergy story. After graduation from graduate school, I was working third turn (11PM-7:30AM) for Pennsylvania's underground line notification service and came in one night to immediately find my sinuses block up and to start sneezing uncontrollably. When I went to the bathroom to clear out everything, it cleared up. When I returned to the after-hours call center, it started up again. Repeat, with same results. When the second turn crew left at 11:30, my sinuses cleared up for good, and it never happened again.

I submit that I am allergic to one of those people that was on second turn that night (specifically, her perfume).