The Drugs I'm On...

Spring comes late here in Appalachia. But it does come...

I've starter setting my Allegra out where I can find it when I pour my first cup of coffee of the morning. I usually have to put a drop or two of Visine with antihistamines before I can find my pills (or the coffee). Then it's the first dose of Sudafed (or some similar generic) for the day. There's also a nasal steroid, Nasonex, that goes with my first cup of coffee.

By ten or eleven in the morning I often need another dose of Sudafed. On bad days I may end up taking as many as four doses of the stuff. Occasionally I take a second all-day over-the-counter antihistamine. And then there's Musinex some nights to help break up the stuff that builds in my chest.

Between the mold that comes with spring rains, the grass pollens, the ragweed and the golden rod, the oak pollen, and whatever else I'm allergic to, spring is not exactly my favorite time of year.

This is Spring?

We awoke this morning to snow on the first day of Spring. It didn't stick to the grass, but the cars and the deck were covered. The temperature was in the mid-30's at 6am and the snow on the Cheryl's windshield was the type of crunch stuff you get with it melts and then freezes again a couple of times.

One of my students made the newspaper. There was a picture in today's paper of her mother's SUV. It was upside down; and although you can't see the child in the picture, paramedics were attending to her, trying to get her out of the car in the picture. Someone told us near the end of the day that she had a broke arm and a ruptured spleen and that she was in a hospital in Roanoke. The fourth and fifth graders made cards for her. And I hope she's back soon...

The First Robin

I saw my first of the year robin today. It was walking across our wet lawn, near the bird feeder. While there were no other robins, it was not the first new addition to the bird landscape. A purple finch helped itself to some of my thistle seed today. We have yellow finches off and on throughout the winter, but it's been months since I saw a purple finch. We were also visited by some red winged blackbird, a chickadee, some sparrows, and a cardinal. Business at the birdfeeder has definitely picked up.

Does that mean winter's over? I think that technically winter ends about March 22nd. I was talking about the seasons with some kids at school last week - fourth and fifth graders. I joked and told them that our area's seasons are almost winter, winter, still winter and summer. The just looked puzzled at me. They've never known anything else. I, on the other hand, have lived other places - warm places...

The sounds of the night have begun to change, as well. A few days ago I heard frogs shortly after dusk for the first time. And in the morning when I go out to my car the birds are now singing in the light of dawn. Soon there will be crickets, followed by a progression of other night time noise makers.

Of course, we may still have a white Easter.