Everywhere you look in the greener parts of the city, there are green weeds with green flowers. I don't know why they bloom at this time of the year, but I'm sure there's an evolutionary reason for it. Green flowers mean that the plant has decided not to invite flies, bees, butterflies, moths, or beetles. No need for pretty colors or sweet aromas, they just need a gust of wind to push their pollen to the next plant's female organs. The most notorious of the green flowered plants is
ragweed. All that pollen moving through the air makes life difficult on those of us allergic to that particular alien protein.
Today I had to shoulder my way through a stand of
mugwort that was easily a foot taller than I am. As the stalks bent, a visible cloud of pollen erupted into my personal space, and the personal spaces of my head. Suddenly my tongue felt much too large and dry to belong in my mouth. My usual allergic sneezing, charming in its way, was joined by what sounded like a smoker's cough. These symptoms constituted an elevated level of suffering that I haven't felt from pollen before. Soon I was finding some Benadryl and dry-swallowing it. Talk about a cure that's almost worse than the disease. You have to say one thing about diphenhydramine HCl: It prevents lethal anaphylaxis. Beyond that, it's a good tranquilizer, but I won't take it unless I'm on the verge of the verge of death.
After work I laid down for a minute and woke up an hour later, feeling like I had the flu. Alexis even made me chicken soup for dinner. I'm about to go back to bed for the night, and I'll hopefully feel better tomorrow. I'll take some Claritin, and I'll avoid the green flowers.