Pollen allergies. Need I say more?

I will though, if I can manage not to sneeze explosively in mid-rant and blow the computer off my desk. The Pacific Northwet is a terrific place but probably wasn't an ideal choice of residence for someone with reactive sinuses and myriad pollen sensitivities. Allergy season begins in March and lasts through late October. The rest of the year, besides colds and flu, there are a variety of molds.

My sinuses are working overtime trying to cope and since I do my best to avoid constant use of OTC medications my life has become a cycle of sneezing attacks embellished with the usual nose/eye/ear/throat irritations. Last night was a prime example of what goes on. In bed at ten. Awake at midnight for first series of sneezes. Second series hits at one AM before I can return to sleep. Third arrives at four and cat is impelled across the room with initial KA-AH-AHHHH-CHOOOO! She wisely decides to sleep further from the action. Fourth attack happens as I read the morning email. The day will surely hold more.

My home in the country, surrounded by grass, fir trees, and heaven only knows what other sinus threats, is much loved. I couldn't afford to move even if I wanted to. So (sniff, wheeze) here I remain, tissue in hand, ready for another... Ah.....Ahhh... AHHHHHHCHOOOOO!

July 8, 2009

Recently the 07/08/09 thing has been circulating via the internet and
will surely be on the nightly news - but I find the event of November
of 2011 to be more fun. I'll look forward to marking THAT one! In the
meantime - here is an excerpt from one of my daily emails on the theme:

A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

I've been alerted to an event that will take place later this week,
something that happens once and only once over the course of history.
Shortly after noon on July 8, comes the moment that can be called
12:34:56 7/8/9. To mark this momentous event, this week we'll feature
words that have three consecutive letters in order, something that
doesn't happen very often either (there are hundreds of everyday
words, but we are talking here about unusual and interesting words).

It's not exactly true that this sequence of time/date happens only
once. If you follow the day/month/year convention, you can observe
the same sequence next month, on August 7. And even though it appears
to be a rare occurrence, such interesting patterns aren't that
unusual. Consider these from the past:
01:23:45 6/7/89
12:34.56 7/8/90
01:02:03 04/05/06
In a couple of years we'll have 11:11:11 11/11/11. What other unusual
patterns can you think of that are in the near future?

(I highly recommend the A.W.A.D mailings! Subscribe at <wordsmith.org/
awad/subscribe.html> )

from Oxford in the Vacation

"Antiquity! thou wondrous charm, what art thou? that, being nothing, art every thing! When thou wert, thou wert not antiquity -- then thou wert nothing, but hadst a remoter antiquity, as thou called'st it, to look back to with blind veneration; thou thyself being to thyself flat, jejune, modern! What mystery lurks in this retroversion? or what half Januses are we, that cannot look forward with the same idolatry with which we for ever revert! The mighty future is as nothing, being every thing! the past is every thing, being nothing!"

Charles Lamb (Elia) 1775-1834

The Hill

After a certain age, fifty say, or sixty, seventy if you are lucky, there is a tendency to monitor yourself for The Signs of Aging. Lists of symptoms vary from individual to individual but we all seem to have them. The noisy type, like me, gather and compare inventories, calculating the odds and keeping tabs on the advance with all the concentration of bookies at a racetrack. The quieter sort wrinkle their brow, sigh, and read the newspaper obituaries with a shake of their head.

Did I forget something? A name? A date? A chore?

Do my hands tremble?

Is my skin wrinkled; my hair grayer; or my chin, tummy, breasts sagging and my belt tighter?

Are my eyes and ears failing?

Am I slower in pace, wobblier in balance, less able to leap tall building in a single bound?

Are the aches turning into pains and lasting longer?

Many of us are in the 'tween generation. We're still active but no longer on top of our game. We are between mature and over-the-hill, watching for the slide down the senescence slope. How odd to see the approach of old age with its companions: loss of independence and inability to cope. How terrible to move from caring for our parents to having our children consider caring for us.

My friends and I have begun to see the adventure of life as a nearing burden. We contemplate our lives and watch the as the daily chores we took for granted become obstacles. Home maintenance, for instance. Can we paint, fix roofs, mow lawns with bodies that refuse to work as they once did? Changing lightbulbs, washing windows, moving furniture all become harder as ladders get harder to climb and couches seem heavier.

Incapacity lumbers toward us like a bulldozer that will push us over that blasted hill then chug along, picking up speed, as we skid down the escarpment.

KIVA Update

I had email from KIVA today telling me of payments on several of my
outstanding loans. The loan to Senegal is 100% repaid. The one to
Tajikistan is 75% repaid and the one to Samoa is 33% repaid. Peru,
the most recent, has not yet started to return.

It is very own world wide web! How exciting to think that someone
across the globe is getting help in this small way.

I've reinvested part of the repayments by making a new loan: to Togo.
When more of the original is repaid I shall reinvest that so my $100
can keep moving, weaving a tiny thread to stitch the world together.

The local Crow couple, Russell and Sheryl, have fledged their chick, and this youngster has been perching in the trees of our yard doing the standard babybird routine. Babybird involves wing fluttering, and general suggestions of helplessness in feeding, to the parents. In the case of Youngster Crow this begging is accompanied by a continual CAW! CAW! CAW! CAW! which is nerve wracking on the human neighbor (me) forced to listen. I feel some empathy for Russell and Sheryl.It has been quite a while but I still remember the days when a youngster of my own could stand at my elbow trying to get my attention: MAMA! MAMA! MAMA!

The nagging CAW! has been getting on my nerves big time but it could be worse. The Crow family is loud but still relatively small in number and physical size. What is the yard was an albatross rookery? Or contained a condor nest? We could have moas, or rocs! Didn't someone suggest T-Rex and kin were related to birds? Now there would be one problem hungry fledgling!

Remembering...

There was one of those PBS pledge break music shows on TV the other night and it sent me off on a nostalgia trip into my own musical history. I was certainly pre-teen when I first heard, and fell in love with the Mills Brothers. Their song Glow Worm was probably on the radio in the early 50's and I remember seeing them on The Perry Como Show and later on The Dean Martin Show. Harry Mills was my very first girlhood celebrity crush. His smile was so wonderful!

How I have loved, and still love their music - so mellow and yet slightly funky. Songs like Paper Doll, Up a Lazy River, You Always Hurt the One You Love, Rockin' Chair and 'Til Then stayed favorites of mine from the first time I heard them, through my Brothers Four days, my Beatle days, my and my daughter's Duran Duran days, until now. I can still sing those songs, with the Mills Brothers particular arrangements.

I've thumbed through my music collection to locate the "Best of" CD which replaced the "Best of" record a while back. I'm listening again and loving every note.