Achoo!!

It's pollen season in North Carolina.  Now, you hear people all over the world complaining about pollen in the spring, but until you've experienced the pollen that you get here, don't judge.  It's horrendous.  You see, this area is where you find the Long Leaf Pine Tree.  There's millions of them covering the vast area known as Fort Bragg.

To give you a mental image....you know back in the day when you had the job at school of banging the chalk board erasers together and you had giant clouds of chalk dust hit you in the face.  Well, the wind blows, or a bird takes off from the tree, and a giant ploom of green dust just explodes.  Green and yellow dust blows down the street as the wind blows.  You get a little rain and all the dust runs off the house and forms yellow puddles.  I can't begin to tell you how bad it is.

Everytime you go to drive off in your car after having it parked outside, you need to run your wipers in order to look out the window.  My cars look flithy, but its useless washing them because they will look the same way they did before you washed them by the time you are done.  And my house...its a different color now, but I won't bother pressure washing it until the pollen is gone.

So most people I know are suffering from it.  I have been on Clariten for 3 or 4 weeks now.  Mikey has been put on Singulair so that he can stop coughing and hacking away and avoid asthma attacks.  I have to suction Mia's nose out with saline and give her Benadryl 2 - 3 times a day.  It's pretty revolting. 

And as for being outside....you feel dirty like you've been rolling about in sand and by the time you come inside you resemble a yellow smiley face.

So bring on the rain, to wash this nasty pollen away!!