Rising Fall Means Allergy Season

Fall finally arrives and not a minute too soon for those like my wife and son with chronic allergies to pollen, animals and pretty much everything the wilds of North Georgia has to throw at their sinuses and pores. The sad fact is that as soon as ragweed or dogwood goes out of season then the next one comes in for another couple of months.  

You cannot live in a bubble literally and figuratively, so we went out this weekend to enjoy the almost perfect conditions that you Georgia natives have enjoyed for the majority of your lives. I am from England and for the amount of sunshine we used to receive; we were lucky to get a full weeks worth for the 37 years I spent there. It is not uncommon for the sun to hide for 10 days or more, which is what drove my Marietta-born better half to the brink of vitamin-D deficient insanity in the two years we spent there. Boots, the popular UK drugstore, covered our love-hate relationship with the Sun brilliantly here

What is usual and expected for you only becomes challenged when seen through the eyes of others. I grew up in the North East of England, a short hop across the North Sea from Norway and as a result the outdoor life was severely limited. One example is that because of the naturally cold and damp surroundings, we only had two types of native butterfly to the region, a couple of spiders and certainly no snakes, scorpions, bears, wolves, coyotes or anything else capable of making the news if it bit you. Actually, on reflection, it wasn’t all bad then.

Everybody who has ever been to England realizes the importance of and enjoys our pub culture but never stops to ask why it is so important. Frankly, it’s because when you spend 10 months a year or more in a place, you pull out all the stops to make it as fun and inhabitable as possible. We simply do not have the wealth and variety of outdoor activities that the average American unthinkingly enjoys and assumes is their birthright.

It’s with mixed feelings then that every weekend might be the last that my shorts and sandals get a workout and my wardrobe makes the subtle shift from polo shirt to pullover but while the sun is still shining, we’ll be making hay. 

We took in the  last weekend, located at Legion Post 45 and for a small, compact fair it certainly packed in a lot of fun into the field. Our little boy takes after his thrill-seeking mum so loves the rides, the more rickety the better. We used it as a dress rehearsal for the big where we intend to pull a bait and switch with the young chap. He's already had his fun as you can see here.

Leave him with his grandparents on Friday night while Stacey and I revisit our misspent youth on the roller coasters and waltzers. We’re not heartless so we will probably take him on Saturday or Sunday but fairs are meant to be fun for all the family. We’re part of the family too so we’ll be looking to let our hair down a bit before we start to pick the curling leaves from it.