Spring is icumen in

Wow, I love spring, when everything turns green -- the grass, the trees, the sidewalk, the car, the dog ...

If there is a downside to living in North Carolina, or at least this part of it, I think this would have to be it. We've got corruption and occasional flakiness in state government, but we had that in Louisiana and California. Hot and humid summers, Louisiana again, and Florida. High taxes, California again. But pollen, oh, we got pollen.

The first year I worked in Johnston County, the pollen nearly killed me. I think my co-workers knew me as the new engineer who was slowly choking to death; "Tuberculosis?" they may have thought. It hasn't been as bad since then, and I thought maybe it was just becoming acclimated.

Nope. I saw the first dusting about a week ago, then here it comes. Two of the boys went to Cary for a movie Friday night. By Saturday morning, the new pollen on the hood of the Jeep was so thick, it rolled off in blowing drifts as I drove to the store. Washing the car seems a pointless exercise; by the next day, it looks like a crime scene after the investigators finish dusting for prints (hmm, there are clearly nine people involved with this vehicle). There are piles of pollen in the gutters. The dog's nose is greenish-yellow; how does a hound survive in this?

The news reports that this is the heaviest pollen count in about eight years. Yep, that sounds about right. But it reminds me of my granny's house in Sumter -- short grass, hard dirt, piles of oak catkins, and a slight greenish cast to everything. At least the azaleas are pretty.

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Allusion note: A very old English round