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Pollen takes over Tampa Bay
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Oh, springtime in the Bay; the warm sunshine, the breezy evenings and the thick orange layer of pollen sitting on everything.
On March 17, Weather.com reported the Bay area to have a “Very high” count of pollen. Um, yeah, we noticed.
You can always tell when pollen season is starting; you feel it before you see it.
First, it’s a sore throat, and you swear you’re getting sick. Your nose starts to run and the sneezing attacks begin. By the time you get to work, you notice the orange worm-shaped bodies sitting delicately in your hair.
Then you know it’s that time again.
Most adults have some reaction to extra pollen and most of them will relate the same sentiment, “I never had a problem as a kid, but as I got older, pollen became my worse enemy,” or at least something like that.
A friend of mine, who happens to be a biomedical science major, recently explained it to me like this, “When you are a child, you are an empty jar. Each year, that jar slowly gets filled up. By the time you're in your twenties, the jar is filled and anything left overflowing from the jar, is going to bother you.”
I knew there was a reason why I was such an airhead when I was an adolescent, I was an empty jar. Now that we understand the young person psyche a bit, let’s figure out how to deal with this pollen.
The one thing that always helps to quiet the effects of pollen is rain. The one thing we are not expected to see anytime soon, also rain.
When it rains it flushes the stagnant pollen into drains and pushes it out to sea, so the fish and the stingrays can share some of the watery eyed fun, yet I don’t think it bothers them too much.
But, as you all have heard, we are in a drought.
Another way to combat the effects of pollen is medicine. However, every medication usually has a side effect or two that makes this an ineffective method. If I take Sudafed, I can breathe but I also turn into a zombie.
According to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, it’s helpful to use air conditioning with filters, both in your car and at home. Another thing that helps, which is painfully obvious, is to get away from the pollen.
That’s where people of Tampa Bay get lucky. All we need to do is head to the beach for a day. Without any pollen around, not to mention fresh beach air, it helps to clear our heads of all the yucky spores.
Another problem the pollen presents, other than suffocating us, is ruining our cars. If you wash your car on Saturday, best believe by Sunday the thin green layer will be back. By Tuesday, it’s a thick green layer with speckles attached.
So the moral of the story, grab a box of tissues and learn to love you green hued car for at least another month, or so.
