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.

Gloom, doom, and five days of heavy rain.

It's been raining for four days. And when I say rain, I mean pouring. It's going to rain tomorrow. We can expect a nice day on Wednesday and more rain on Thursday. I don't usually mind rain, but seriously. Enough is enough.

1. Rain causes earthworms to come up out of the dirt at the office park. They squirm and float in the puddles, where they die and rot making the office complex smell like the docks at low tide.

2. When said earthworms die and the rain dries up, the worms shrivel up on the warm side walk which is equally gross.

3. I haven't seen the sun since last Thursday. It has been cold and grey.

4. I made matzo ball soup for dinner tonight. Matzo ball soup makes everything better.

5. Rain makes everyone stir crazy. Even kittens that have never gone outside.

6. All I want to do is sit around in my flannel pjs and drink tea.

7. Last night's Iron Chef America episode was awesome. It will be on again on Thursday at 9 PM.

8. This much rain is what it takes to flood Crabtree Valley Mall. Good thing the Apple, Bare Escentuals and Sephora stores are all on the second floor. Oooh, Williams-Sonoma is on the second floor too. Excellent.

9. Five days of 100% humidity is not good for my hair.

10. We've received 2 inches of rain in the past 4 days.

Hillsborough Street Renaissance Festival

The Hillsborough Street Renaissance Festival is scheduled for Saturday, March 14 from Noon to 10 PM. The street will be closed from Gardner St to Logan Court. Since they will need to set up, expect that portion of Hillsborough Street to be closed all day.

No, it doesn't involve jousting or men wearing tights. It's a celebration to kick off the changes planned for Hillsborough Street over the next year and a half. If you live in Raleigh, do take the time to click on that link and especially watch the video of the changes planned. It's going to be cool, but man that's going to be a mess until it's finished! (Click on downloads->additional files->traffic simulation flyover video Aug 2007)

There will be music, food and fun as we would expect from any self-respecting street festival. There will be an eco-friendly fashion show, an alternative fuel vehicle showcase, and a Kid Zone. They are claiming to have a fraternity, sorority and business BBQ cook off. I am still awaiting confirmation to see if they are going to barbecue actual fraternity boys. I'll keep you updated on that one.

The event is free, but tickets appear to be required for certain parts, like the sorority girl barbecue and the fashion show. Keep in mind also that this is the same day as the Raleigh St Patty's Day Parade. The parade begins at Noon also then ends with a party in Moore Square Park where the townsfolk gets their Irish on with the homeless people.

Basically, what we're looking at here , from a public transit standpoint, is a big ol' mess downtown on Saturday. If you have to take the bus anywhere on Saturday, and I suggest you do NOT, go first to the City's transit website to check the Announcements and Detours, which includes street closures and bus detours. A better solution would be to just join the party, any party, that you might stumble across on Saturday.

The weather on Saturday looks crappy at best. So, bundle up and carry an umbrella.

March comes in like a polar bear and out like a lamb. Or something like that.

Would you trust this guy? What is he? Like, the Doogie Howser of weather? C'mon. people! He's apparently a weather guy for News 14, but for reals, y'all, HE LOOKS LIKE HE'S TWELVE YEARS OLD!!!!!!!




And so it is. I go to be at my normal time with nary a flake in the sky and hope and pray I wake to find 7 inches of the white fluffy stuff dumped on my fair city. Cross your fingers, peeps.

Snow day!

My building

Hillsborough Street

Let it snow!

Raleigh is gearing up for snow. It looks like we will get at least a few inches tomorrow. Personally, I'm hoping for a foot. In years past, we expected to get a few inches and ended up with almost two feet. I'm hoping this will happen again.

Zelma, I'll holla if I need your mad snow shoveling skills.

And if you act now, we'll double your order!

We've been having really wacky weather recently. Lots of rain, 40 mph wind gusts, a lot of fog, and, just for fun, as I was leaving to get Chinese food tonight, hail. Quarter of an inch hail. Pelting me in the head. And my left eye. However, as you can see the proverbial silver lining in this craptacular weather pattern was a double rainbow as I was leaving work today. I should have taken pictures of all of the people who pulled over their cars to take pictures! This was especially amazing because it was two full arcs, and you could see all of the colors. Amazing. It made my day that so many people were just a captivated as I was.

Sadly, the 2 megapixel iPhone camera doesn't do it justice. The rainbows were so intensely colored.





And because I know you are all dying to know what my hair looked like after several days of 40 mph wind, here ya go. I'm not going to bother to comb it until this is all over. Hopefully I'll find that bobbypin some day.

Ho ho ho, Merry Thanksgiving!

Today I can use three words I never thought I'd use in the same sentence in reference to Raleigh, North Carolina. Especially not before Thanksgiving or in the same week even! Those three words would be "our" "second" and "snow." For reals, peeps. We got a second round of snow/flurries this morning. As always, it was beautiful. I arrived at the bus stop a bit early, which I means I got to enjoy those big, fluffy flakes for about 20 minutes. My bus was late. It was the same jerky driver who is ALWAYS late...remember him? Last time he told me that I should have left earlier. blood pressure rising, moving on! Because he was late again, I missed my second bus. I had to stand outside waiting for the next bus for about 30 minutes. Quick math tells me that was almost an hour. Did I mention it was around 35 degrees this morning? Yeah. I was mighty cold once I finally arrived at the office. This time of the year, I am very thankful to have steam heat in this apartment. It's so toasty warm in here and it's free. Never again will I rent an apartment without radiators.

Tomorrow morning is the 64th Annual Raleigh Christmas Parade. You remember, the one that nearly kept me from being able to move in last year. Yeah, that parade. Since I'm on the first floor, I'll have box seats for the parade which starts right outside my building. I'm having a few friends over to watch the parade. It should be a lot of fun. I'll report back with pictures soon! This area looks weird since there's no parking anywhere near here right now. It's like a ghost town!

Why I love Macy's, or I'm sorry...I saved how much?

In case you haven't checked the weather in Raleigh lately, it's butt ass cold here. Cold enough, in fact, for it to snow today. Yup, peeps, we gots flurries. And, yes, I went running outside each time it started "snowing" today.

It also made me realize I needed a new winter coat. For some reason, I have never had a long black wool dress coat. I am not sure exactly who is responsible for this oversight, however, I am willing to let this go since the situation has been rectified. I have a bunch of cool coats, but they all end at the waist. When it's 28 degrees at the bus stop, I'd like a little more coverage.

I hopped a bus to the mall and hit Macy's. I got there a little after 7 PM and had a hair appointment at 7:45. I've learned a time limit is crucial in this process. There was a lovely girl working in the coat department. I told her I wanted a knee length wool black coat. She kept picking up short coats and asking me, "what about this?" She tried to give me a fuzzy one, but not good fuzzy. Just cheap K-Mart coat fuzzy. I tried on a few coats, one Guess, one Kenneth Cole, one Larry Levine (like, who?). Knowing how much I was planning on spending, I was looking for a good style, a good fit and a designer name. (I'm not going to lie here. The label was as important as the style. But you have to believe I don't usually care about that kind of thing. Much.) I was distracted by the hats. I found a black wool and velvet cloche that I wore home, thankyouverymuch. As I was about to give up, a divine light shone down from the designer heavens on a lovely DKNY coat. The fit was perfect. The style? Definitely that French girl look I love. Oh, but wait, there's more! The price? $295. (Eeeep!) The sale? 50% off. Let's see, I do the math and came up with roughly $150. Okay, I can handle that. Sales Girl rings me up and the coat rings up for...$118. Boo-yow. With the hat, I ended up spending the $150 I had planned on the coat alone. I also made my 7:45 appointment.

I love Macy's because I seem to have a psychic connection to their marketing department. Anything I need, a coat, kitchen stuff, a couple new dress shirts...there ya go! It's on super sale. Always. When I moved in last year, I needed a bunch of new kitchen stuff, colanders, pots and pans, etc. Macy's had the Martha Stewart stuff on sale. With my extra 20% off coupon, it was a mega sale. I think I got a 10 piece pot set, two colanders, a chili pot, and four small cast iron casseroles for less than $200. No really, I did.

I can't wait to wear the coat tomorrow. Now I just need the perfect scarf.

Just checking in....

Hey y'all. I just wanted to let you know Hanna didn't amount to much more than a lot of rain in my area. I've been a bit busy and will be back soon!

I knew I should have built a bunker!

Hey y'all! I just wanted to let you know I am getting ready to hunker down for the next day or two. Tropical Storm Hanna is on her way. I am only now realizing I was remiss in not stocking up on a fresh pack of Newman Os, kettle cooked potato chips and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. I do however have three netflix movies and enough knitting projects to last decades. Not to worry, loyal readers! Meg On The Bus will be okay!

I don't expect this storm to be that bad. Like most residents on the South East Coast, Hurricane Ike is looking a lot worse. I will be back shortly. I have a great Amy story for ya.

Until then, have a happy storm! Be safe!