Alone and Unobserved

This time of year, it is a joy to be out of doors, and I complain much less about having to walk to work. The library branch I’m employed at is located on a hillside neighborhood, and commands a beautiful view of the valley. When I arrive, I smile, at peace with Nature and with myself. I walk in, greet my coworkers, and put on my nametag and cheerful smile. Today will be a good day, I say to myself.

But it is not to last. Five minutes later, my nose starts to tickle, and then to run. I sniff and sniffle and snort and blow, but to no avail: the tides of mucus cannot be stayed by any mere mortal’s puny will. This grows quite old after a while, and I’m certain some day a coworker or patron will complain about the swollen monster shuffling through the stacks, dripping and honking and coughing.

Until that happens, the highlight of the day is the sneezing, brought on every time a customer walks through the front door. Each fit only lasts a few seconds, enough to sneeze four times, maybe, and spray myself and whatever I’m holding with mucus. I wipe myself down and get back to work amid a chorus of “Bless you”s and “My goodness, he’s still sneezing!”s. After the fourth customer enters, I’m a shaking wreck with red-rimmed nostrils and bloodshot, streaming eyes. Is the library surrounded by elms, I ask myself wildly. They wouldn’t produce such volumes of pollen if I went out and cut them all down, would they?!! I never get very far with my plans, though, because the next customer always enters, and I am down for the count.

My allergies have grown and matured since my last, abbrieviated post about them. They’ve branched out, explored, invited in friends, and hit the gym. It would be nice if I had a special, hermetically sealed sanctum–say, my bedroom–where no pollen could reach. Sadly for me, my room has no air conditioning, and the landlord has yet to turn off the heating, but if I open my windows I can’t breathe for the pollen choking the air. What to do? Well, one solution I’ve decided on is a portable swamp cooler that I just ordered through Amazon.com. Utah is extremely dry (just ask my dyshydrotic skin, eyes, and nose), so a swamp cooler should be fairly effective, and it’s less expensive to operate than air conditioning. If all proceeds as planned, I’ll be able to go all summer without cracking a window.

Here’s hoping I’m not allergic to swamp-cooled air.