Friday, October 11, 2013

Allergy Stories

Yesterday I was drug free, except for the allergy eye-drops. My eyes are having a tough time. Usually it's the spring when my eyes have it bad - odd year. Toby read where the middle of the country was supposed to have a cold winter.Yeah well, I will believe it when I see it. It has been cool enough to have the windows open, but it has been getting warm enough in the day that the air-conditioner has been coming on (77 in the house). Last night we left the windows closed and let the air-conditioner run. It was a good thang, 'cause there was a skunk outside somewhere that graced our home with an unpleasant smell. This "tween" weather is also hard on my hormones. My body reacts by overheating. Such is the life at a certain age, and no one really wants to hear about that.

I started another painting yesterday. It is time to get serious about my painting, again. Focusing on art may mean less computer. I don't really have much to say anyway.  But with my allergies, I was thinking about the past:

Back about ten years ago when we had a working ranch and ran older mama cows, Toby and I were taking a load of cows to Waurika to the sale barn. He was in one truck with a long, goose-neck trailer, and I was in the other truck pulling another goose-neck with a load of cows. Yes, I am capable of driving a pick-up with a 26' trailer full of cows - just don't ask me to back it - in front of a bunch of cowboys. We left the ranch in Commanche and drove to Waurika - about 30 miles. My eyes started itching, and my head clogged up, and my nose started running. When we got to the sale barn, we parked, and Toby came back to my truck to give instruction. He took one look at me and said, "Oh my gosh! I am sorry."  My eyes were swollen and red, and I looked miserable. I felt it too.   At least my allergies are not as bad now as they were then.

And it is not as bad as the time we were moving cattle off wheat in April one year. We had leased a large section of wheat and had to get the cows off and to market. We put Jesse on her horse to help move the cows to the pen and into the truck. There are some stories right there, but my big memory is that neither Jesse nor I could talk - our noses and throats and eyes were so bad with allergies. Jesse filled the hole under the saddle horn full of snotty Kleenex. Nice. The preacher saw our vehicles and stopped to talk. I hid in the truck - not wanting him to see me - I could not talk anyway with my head closed up. 

So I should be thankful that my allergies have gotten better over the years here in OK. Maybe someday the allergies will be gone all together.

6 comments:

Buck said...

I feel SO bad for folks with allergies, especially of the sort that leaves one unable to talk.

I'm not so good at backing trailers, either... especially when I was in my RV without a rear window and only side mirrors. Some of those backing episodes caused a bit of laughter among the by-standers.

Bag Blog said...

I was pretty good at packing our bumper-pull horse trailer, but not the goose-neck. Dyslexia sets in.

Stefan said...

I somehow was blessed with no allergies.

I just changed all my central air filters today. My house has two filters of a weird size, that I usually have to drive to two places to find. I was smart this time and bought a box of 10. Good thing too, they were pretty dirty after only 6 months.

I was thinking about getting a couple of goats to eat my grass instead of paying some guy to brush-hog. I have two areas he can't get to, that goats would probably love to eat.

One of these areas scares me! There's a bunch of thickets, but when I peeked inside I noticed there was no grass and looked like something was living in there. Then I thought of a mountain lion and ran back to my truck! I may just call the bulldozer man now, as I'm too chicken...

Bag Blog said...

Goats will eat anything - turn 'em loose.

Jo Castillo said...

Not good!! I have never been too stopped up to talk. Gene would love that! Check out the masks on Paula Ford's blog. Supposed to be good for anything, she recommends them for pastels. http://www.paulaford.com/

We keep our house on 77, too. Who knew? Ha.

Bag Blog said...

It is more like my throat closes and my nose is running everywhere. But I am better. I just won't mow the lawn until next year.