Day: May 20, 2023

Everything is in bloom, including some native plants here that I haven’t seen in a while due to the drought.

This means during the day I’m pretty much okay. I can breathe with only a few sneezing events.

At night I get to sleep okay, then an insidious thing happens. One half my sinuses clog, then I roll over and the other half clogs, and by 2am I’m a full on mouth breather.

I know this because I wake up with my mouth dry as Death Valley and thirsty as a man in the Sahara.

Apparently my snoring disturbs the dog. He’s part of the reason that I wake up. He’ll hit me with a paw, or try to see where in my throat the snoring sounds are coming from. It’s disconcerting to have a dog who thinks he’s an Ear, Nose, and Throat Doctor.

He’s also the kettle calling the pot black. He snores, barks, and farts his way through the night. Sometimes he howls like a wolf in the dead of night and he’s completely asleep dreaming.

Did you know that there’s still a hard wired response in the human brain to wake up fully alert in fight or flight mode when we hear that sound close by?

I didn’t until I found myself waking up in a standing position on the bed, with a baseball bat in hand, and my back against the wall.

I see the dog looking at me in the darkness as though I was the insane one. My instinctive flurry of activity disturbed his slumber.

Since that night, I’ve heard him howl several times. He’ll be laying on his side twitching as though he’s dreaming then he’ll arch his back and howl. Usually by the time he gets to that point I’m by his side calling his name, gently stroking his ear or side. He’ll come to, look around very confused then snuggle against me. I’ll wait until he’s asleep again and then lie back down.

I don’t know what he’s dreaming about. I gather that he’s scared and lost in his dream based on the howl.

This is a new thing. It started happening over the last few months. Perhaps in response to the death of the other half.

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We, the dog and I, just returned from a walk.

There’s a remote possibility that we’ll get some rain today. It’s cloudy right now but I think it’s all a big tease. If we were to get some rain It might clear the various pollens from the air but I’d bet that a day after the rain it’ll be worse. The added water will hit just when the little plants can use the boost to go full flower adding their unique pollen to the mix already blowing around.

At which point, I’ll be sleeping in a gas mask…

This time of heavy flower / weed pollen only lasts a few weeks. I don’t have a lot of trouble during this part of the year. I have trouble when the pine tree pollen blows around so thick it’s a yellow mist. Everything is covered in yellow dust and my sinuses feel like they’re filled with concrete. That time of year is yet to come. I think it’s going to be a doozy this year, I could be wrong, but with all the water in the ground, I’m betting the pines will be making up for the drought years.

For any of you humans who may be semen-phobic… I remind you that’s essentially what pollen is, so you’re already covered in, and breathing semen.

I’m sure some folks have just decided to live the rest of their lives in a hazmat suit.

Just to make you phobic folks truly miserable, remember why W.C. Fields didn’t drink water…

“Fish fuck in it.”

So there goes your option to run into the bathrooms and bathe.

Ahh, My work here is done!

Have a great day.