Plants win.
This past summer, I moved back into Austin to be near work. I was just so tired of losing two hours a day to driving and of all the associated expense.
I have lately been reminded, quite harshly, of why I was willing to commute an hour into and out of town for work rather than live near work. Austin is a sink for pollution and pollen. I have severe allergies. We are not a good combination.
At any rate, this past summer has been mild and moist, a perfect growing environment for nearly any plant. And what plant is most annoying come August? Ragweed. And it is everywhere, and worse than usual, and I feel hellish. I've been on steroids since Friday and can't say that I feel particularly better. I can't get the crap out of my lungs, and the medicines I'm on, while keeping me out of the hospital, add their own layer of lethargy, stupidity, and clumsiness to that so helpfully already provided by asthma. I do OK as long as I am semi-reclining in bed. But bills get paid by me getting out of bed and hauling my ass to work, so into work I must go even though I get exhausted just surfing the net.
And work? The air conditioner is broken. Lovely. Nothing to filter the air or remove a few ounces of water from it. Yesterday, I ended up begging to go home for a bit, just so I could rest enough to close up the office later. Since it was either that or me slowly crawling on hands and knees unable to summon the strength to get up, the boss agreed. Fact, people: Oxygen is vital to good health.
Enough whining. I have to get myself ready to go in again. Maybe the AC will be working.
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Tazu Sasaki (1932-1998)
4 days ago
2 comments:
Ragweed is one bitch of a plant that I wish I could torture if it were sentient. I don't think I have ever felt such hatred for anything as those taunting yellow fronds.
Some people recommend the Neti pot or irrigators (I can't, drives me nuts), at least washing your hair out before bed to wash out some pollen, sunglasses to keep it out of your eyes, but that only helps some. There are some antihistamine nose sprays, and some say you can take Claritin and Zyrtec since they have different mechanisms (12 hrs. apart). You prob. know all that, and not much of it helps with asthma.
Hope the air is back on--egads!
At last, the AC is actually working. I still have my small fan going, though, since the flow is pretty poor.
Oh, the clean-your-nose, wash-your-hair, take antihistamine advice is pretty first level. I mean, who complains about allergies who hasn't already done that? That's how I live my life. When I see a doctor for allergies, it's because I'm taking 12-hour antihistamine every 2 hours. Plus pseudephedrine.
The ragweed isn't even the worst. Come late November, the cedar pollen will be actively engaged in terrorism. The hills change into lovely hues of yellow, gold and red, and then they explode into clouds of biological warfare. No plant is on my "let's make it extinct!" list as much as that one.
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