Holes

Allergy season has come late this year, very late. Generally speaking, most of us who come from other lands start suffering some time around Easter, as the olive trees go into bloom, and it's almost always worse in years when there's a lot of rain. I thought I'd dodged it this year - was amazed that I didn't suffer more during Semana Santa - and then it started, on Wednesday. Getting out of Bea's car, in Avenida de America, it almost looked as if it was snowing. There's some kind of tree - not sure if they're poplars, chestnuts or plane trees - that lets loose great cottony gobs of fluff in bloom - and on the sidewalks and the curbs, small drifts of the fluff had started to accumulate and blow, as if it were spindrift at twenty below.

And this morning, I feel it. My face feels crusty, some wiseacre has shellacked my nasal cavities with cheap peanut brittle and I'm having problems breathing (well, that's what the Ventolin is for.) But the worst effect of this kind allergy is that it feels as if someone has drilled a hole in the back of my head and turned on the taps. It's embarrassing how much mucus comes right out of there; no matter how much water I drink, it's as if I can't keep on top of how much it dehydrates me. And I'm worried about taking an antihistamine because a) they make me jumpy as hell and b) drug tests. Yeah, I know, amateurs aren't likely to get tested. But I don't want to start using something that I know I shouldn't be taking anyway. I live three blocks from the national federation. It's tempting fate just a little too much.

Conchi called last night and asked if I wanted to go out. I should be doing the Marañosa test this morning, but I also know that pollen tends to be worse in the morning, and it's going to be slightly cooler this afternoon, so I'm going to take a chance (and take an antihistamine) and see what happens.

Now, if you all will excuse me, I'm going to head out to the bank and pay some bills, hit the pharmacy, and buy more paper towels (because with allergies like this, Kleenexes are, frankly, useless.)

What do you all do to offset the effects of allergies?