Ah, Spring
May 7th, 2008 by heidi
I mean spring the season, of course, not Spring the (admittedly fabulous) person.
Spring having finally sprung, the weather is absolutely fabulous (75 Fahrenheit-ish) and sunny, but that also means (because Murphy/Sod can’t leave me alone) that the pollen count is soaring and every year in May/early June I’m afflicted with hayfever. This is the legacy, of course, of living in Austin – as someone sagely told me when I first arrived, even if you come to Austin without allergies, you won’t leave without them! I finally succumbed my second year.
Too true.
Anyhow, I wasn’t too badly affected my first couple of years here but the last three have been miserable…but being pregnant, then breastfeeding have meant there wasn’t much to do about them. Nasal sprays squick me out, and they were the only thing I was offered last year when I first approached a GP about the allergies, because of the breastfeeding, so I didn’t even bother. This year, however, my son is in a non-breastfeeding state and, while he occasionally exclaims “NURSE! NURSE!” he just giggles when I offer him the boob, pokes at my nipple, and proudly says, “Nipple! Nipple!”
So, we’re weaned. I can clog up my system with any dangerous chemicals I like, so when I see the GP next Tuesday about doing my routine thyroid check, I’m going to demand powerful allergy meds that do not involve spraying things up your nose (ugh).
I’ve set up a basic photoblog using my wordpress account so, although my camera is out of commission, I don’t know if Canon will repair it for free, and I have no money to pay for repairs OR a new camera, I feel like I’m super crafty. Because, you know, if I posted lots of pictures, I’d get lots of readers, right? Or, more to the point, COMMENTERS!
Or not.
It would be nice to get over the high schoolish OMG! POPULARITY PLEASE! attention whoring, but I suppose I haven’t made much progress in the last decade on that front, alas. Someday, when I am a sage, calm, centred individual, I shall not care what the world thinks of me and will experience outpourings of unleashed creative energy.
Or not.
In a stressed out mouse-in-jar anxiety spiral, so pretty much par for the course.
What are YOU doing today?
Glad to hear that Spring has finally come your way. However allergies do suck. My wife suffers from them (actually her Claritin or Allegra helps tremendously) and I’ve always been thankful that it isn’t me. I love open windows and fresh air and the smell of new mown grass. I would hate to have those things be an annoyance.
I love your photos, they are quite stunning.
I know the agonies of lack of commentors. It took a long time to build up my site to the point that it had people commenting on it. Many a tie I had to remind myself that I had started blogging for myself as a way to practice writing and as a forum to discuss my interests, even if it was just with myself. I will offer that anything that gets in the way of simplicity will discourage people from commenting, including having to log in to do so. I know it is a form of security but I also know from doing this long enough that all of us, myself included, have an inherently lazy streak. You might want to consider taking that away and using a program like Spam Karma 2 or something to help cut down spammers. That is what I use and it works really well. Occasionally too well and I have to go recover people’s comments. 🙂
The other thing is visiting sites. The hope is that whenever you visit someone they will return the favor. It doesn’t always happen, but sometimes it does.
And last (because you didn’t ask for a lecture on blogging) I always try to make sure I respond back to people’s comments on my blog. I don’t always do it but I try. I think that encourages people to make multiple visits and to actually have a ‘conversation’.
Again these ideas are not magical things that will generate a bunch of comments, but I think they do help and they are things that I’ve learned purely by experience.
Take some drugs and get over those allergies! 🙂