Pinus taeda, or my nemesis Pine Pollen

Pinus taeda, or the Loblolly pine, is a tall, skinny pine tree native to the coastal Southeastern United States. It is known for growing quickly, stopping erosion, producing a fine timber, and, every year around this time, blanketing the entire Southeast in a fine yellowish green dusty pollen. Yes, ladies and gentleman, it's Pollen Season and it's disgusting.

Observe:

That's the pollen floating on top of a puddle on the sidewalk.

All over the bench.



Seriously, this shiznit gets everywhere. You wash your car and an hour later, it's covered. It sticks to bushes, sidewalks, windows, anything. Almost everyone who was not born into a family who's been in the South for at least 12 generations is allergic to it. Like me. I have lived in the South for 17 years now and every year during pollen season I feel like I have a horrible cold for weeks on end. Forget opening my windows, because it'll come in through the screen and blanket my living room. A few years ago, in my old apartment, I had a backyard. My cat Truman got out while I was watering plants and started to roll around on the stoop. When he stood up, he was that evil greenish color, covered in pollen. We immediately went inside and gave him a good, long scrubbing. I was home yesterday in the morning and felt fine. I went to the grocery store by bus. By the time I got to the shopping center with the Kroger, my eyes were watery, I was super sneezy, and my throat was scratchy. Only last year with the wicked drought were my allergies not so bad.

I am going to stay inside until June, leaving only so long as I'm wearing one of those Hazmat suits with it's own air system.



If you lived in North Carolina, you'd understand.

Traffic report

I've been meaning to take pictures of the traffic around here to give you an idea of why I take the bus. Today, I was sitting in the front. I have stopped caring that other people on the bus think I'm nuts. "Bollocks to them," I say!

I have a friend who lives just north of Williamsburg, in the country. He occasionally comes to Rocky Mount to work. Last time we talked, he told me the only decent radio station he gets comes from Raleigh. He marvels that the evening traffic and accident report takes 15 minutes. I'm surprised it's that short.

Again, I can only do so much with the 2 megapixel camera, but thats all white headlights on the left and all red lights on the right. Bumper to bumper in both directions. With the exception of Mexico DF, can any other city claim rush hour traffic as bad?

Welcome to North Cackalacky!

I came across this story today in the News and Observer, our local rag. It just makes me sad on so many levels.