I wanted to get out for a stroll this evening, so I put on my strolling shoes and pointed them towards the Grand Lake and Lakeshore districts. Within 5 minutes I could tell that there were acacia trees somewhere within 10 miles of the house. Not only could I smell them (it’s a nice smell which I associate with the coming of spring), I could feel a battle raging in my sinuses between the tiny yellow pollen bombs and my army of histamines. Sure enough, as I was marching up Grand Ave I noticed a whole row of trees with tiny yellow blossoms sticking up between the 580 freeway and Lakeview School.
When we moved to the Midwest it took more than a year for my sinuses to adjust to the new varieties of pollen and other allergy inducing airborne detritus. By year three I had developed a resistance to most of the irritants that we encountered. Now that we’re back it’s obvious that our Moline defenses will be doing us little good here. My sinus system has defenses built for the wrong offense.
I read somewhere that you can stoke your body’s ability to deal with local pollen by eating locally harvested honey. I’m heading out right now to see if I can find some. In the meantime, if you have suggestions for how to deal with the onslaught of the yellow dust, let me know.
All of this may be moot, however. I’m heading back to Illinois in a couple of weeks for a directing gig, so I may avoid the worst of it altogether. Maybe I’ll take some local honey with me anyway. That way I can start building up my defenses for next year.