What most people call Spring, I experience as Pollen Season. This month, all the plants and trees are soaking up the sunshine and rain and growing inches each day. They’re also putting out unbelievable amounts of yellow, dusty stuff that makes me sneeze like crazy.
Thank goodness for antihistamines. Without them, I’d spend the whole spring wheezing and sneezing, walking around in a fog with itchy eyes, and lying down with a pounding headache every afternoon. (My allergies are pretty severe.) With them, I can appreciate the beauties of May. I can take walks to admire my neighbors’ yards. And there’s plenty to admire this year. My neighbors seem caught in a competition to see who can plant more dogwoods and red Japanese maples. I suspect the orgy of planting is partly our local way of Keeping Up with the Joneses, but it’s also a gift to passersby.
With the help of Allegra & Flonase (& a little more coffee than usual), I can also play with my new toy: an electric-assist bicycle. My husband and I bought them last week as anniversary presents for ourselves, and—after a couple of minor glitches during the first ride or two—we’ve loved them. E-bikes have downsides, for sure: they’re expensive, they’re heavier than our old bikes (which means buying a new kind of bike rack that requires installing a hitch on the car), and the battery has to be charged about every sixty miles. On the other hand, though I still get exercise, I don’t dread the hills. Neither do I arrive at the coffee shop red-faced and sweat-soaked.
For those of us lucky enough to be fully vaccinated, springtime is also marking a return to the social whirl. All the retired people I know are visiting their children and grandchildren or having their children and grandchildren visit them. People are even boarding planes to do it. I’ve been to several dinner parties (small ones, where everyone is fully vaccinated). In honor of the warm weather, my husband and I have also re-instituted “date day”–that is, a more-or-less weekly day-trip to get us out of the house. Yesterday’s was a tasty lunch on a breezy patio with a view (Baked, in Shelburne Falls), followed by a lovely walk at the High Ledges Audubon sanctuary nearby.
And tomorrow, for the first time, I’m meeting friends for lunch indoors; the windows will be open, tables will be spaced out, and we’ll wear masks when not at the table, but still – we’ll be eating indoors, at a restaurant. A bit of risk, but the Northeast is doing a great job of getting the majority of adults vaccinated. The risk seems reasonable when balanced against the chance to see vaccinated friends I’ve missed.
So, as they say in New Orleans, laissez les bon temps rouler! And deo gratias (et gratias doctores) for the antihistamines and vaccines that make those good times possible.