Tag Archives: juniper pollen

The Texas Curse, early this year

Posted on December 28, 2014 | 3 comments

My nose has been running and its itching causing sneezing fits for a week now and I know it ain’t a cold. It’s cedar fever, early this year. I can’t decide whether the light rain we’re having is keeping the culprit juniper pollen out of the air or making it worse.

How could it make it worse? Beats me. When the Texas Curse hits you try to reason why, but you fail because there’s no reasoning about it. You just pray it doesn’t last more than a few weeks. Shoot, even afflicted atheists pray it doesn’t last too long.

But even when it’s not in the air outdoors, the heating system has pulled it into the house and distributed it around. Even if you vacuumed and dusted, it’d still be around. I know. I’ve tried. Better to hunker down with a good book and lots of tissues. And wait it out.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Texana, Weather

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Our winter almost over

Posted on February 17, 2014 | 1 comment

After four months of chilly-to-downright-cold, we finally have a week’s forecast ahead of daytime temps in the mid- to upper-70s. But LCRA meteor Bob Rose says below-normal temperatures will return for the last week of the month into the first week of March.

No precip in the offing, unlike the experience of a fellow 13th Mississippi descendant who recently bought a copy of our new book. She lives in Maine (of all places) and says they just finished shoveling eight inches of ice-crusted snow off walks and deck and had another three inches of snow over the weekend. Better them than me.

Now if the damn juniper pollen would just get the shuck out of the air. Going on eight weeks now of sneezing and nose-blowing from “cedar fever” is just too much.

If it happens again next year, I have told Mrs. Charm, I’m moving to West Texas—at least for the duration. Hole up in some boarding house (if I can find one; if they have them anymore) with WiFi until the all-clear.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Mrs. Charm, Rancho Roly Poly, Texana, Weather

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Cedar fever

Posted on January 7, 2011 | Comments Off on Cedar fever

I’m dyin’ and I ain’t lyin’. Thursday’s juniper (also called mountain cedar) pollen count was the highest of the season, according to KVUE, which makes daily pollen counts.

Seems like it’s been going on forever but it’s only been about two weeks. Pity of it is, the only sure cure for this allergy is to move elsewhere. Wish I could. But it’ll be over soon.

UPDATE:  Or, maybe not. Friday saw the highest juniper pollen count in seven years, KVUE reported. It’s supposed to rain Saturday afternoon into the evening. It better, or I may just decide to lay down and die.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Texana, Weather/Climate

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Damn cedar fever

Posted on January 4, 2009 | Comments Off on Damn cedar fever

It’s back, the annual winter malady whose culprit pollen isn’t really cedar and doesn’t really cause a fever. It’s complicated. It’s about junipers called mountain cedar, and when the stuff gets up your nose you just feel feverish. Mostly my eyes and the roof of my mouth itch, and of course my nose runs. Runs where? Not far enough. It’s a Central Texas curse that simply must be endured until we get enough rain to clear the pollen out of the air. And in our continuing drought that will be a problem. Have to use the Neti pot. Bleh.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Texana

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Cedar fever

Posted on January 6, 2007 | Comments Off on Cedar fever

It’s not really cedar (it’s juniper) and it’s not really fever (but it sure feels awful), and its pollen  presence is high as a kite this weekend, according to the pollen-counting meteorologists at KVUE-TV in Austin, the only ones who do their own pollen counts:

"Sunny skies and warmer weather has led to an explosion of Cedar pollen today. More than 1200 grains were found under the microscope. Molds remained at medium levels. This allergy forecast was updated on Friday, January 5th. Samples are reported in grains per cubic meter of air."

Allergies are one of the seldom-mentioned drawbacks to life in Central Texas, and cedar fever is the worst of the lot. 

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Posted in Weather/Climate

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