Spanish views from a small town

This week has suddenly clouded over, but until today we've had summer weather practically since May, heatwave included. Beautiful weather with the typical blue skies, puffy white clouds some days, sun, tepid breezes. I am lucky this year, and the past few years. When I was younger, I couldn't have enjoyed this. I would have been sneezing in a corner, surrounded by tissues and sporting a red, puffy nose, and streaming eyes. I have allergies. While living in Boston, I would get the streaming eyes and nose in May and again in September. Working at a children's hospital, I would ask one of the doctors I secretaried for, for a prescription for one of the new-generation antihistamines. Why go through the bother of getting an appointment somewhere else and missing work for a piece of paper I could get at work? My insurance wouldn't have covered the cost of the drug, anyway. So I got by for a couple of years.  Once here, though, the prescription disappeared. Worse, I discov...

It's here. Spring has finally been unloaded upon us and the rain has been taken away at least until next weekend. And, along with the bronze, apple green, and lime green new leaves, there is a fine cover of dust everywhere. Pollen. The dust begins around March, with the yellow-green pollen from the pine trees covering everything. That pollen doesn't bother me, strangely, but I tend to find it everywhere. When it rains during those days, yellow rivulets run down the car, and the puddles are framed in yellow. My problems come later, with the warming of the air and flowering of other trees. And with grasses. And with flowers. And with weeds of all kinds.  There was a time, before I went to the specialist, when I would go to the beach in July and spend most of the time sneezing and reaching for a tissue. While I lived in Boston I did have episodes in May and September with sometimes severe symptoms, but that was a city. This is the country. I was miserable. The specialist det...

I love this. I have allergies that haven't shown their face in at least a year. I haven't had a cold in a few months. I have no idea what I have today. It began yesterday, with unfettered sneezing and a runny nose. It continues today with a runny and stuffed nose, though the sneezing has done me a favor and gone away. Yet, I don't have the other symptoms of a cold. But it's not quite like an allergy attack. It's so lovely to not know what you have. Of course, it would appear (whatever it is) on the weekend. On Saturday, when I have a ton of clothes to separate and wash and hang. When I have to do the weekly big grocery shopping. When I have to do what I didn't do during the week. And it continues on Sunday, when I have to make the usual big lunch. And continue with the clothes. And finish what I didn't finish on Saturday. No, it couldn't have attacked me during the week, when all I would have to do is call a few kids and tell them there's no class....