PORCH PONDERINGS

Pollen-20

Well, life on the porch is not the same. It is time for the cotton to fly in the air. Cottonwood trees all over town are blooming. And when they bloom, they send out voluminous amounts of seeds in the form of minute balls of cotton. Hence the term: cottonwood. This year, for some reason, I have a bad reaction to the little buggers. So, the heck with Covid-19, I have Pollen-20. Runny nose, sore throat and sneezing. After two sleepless nights, I caved in and hit the drug store. Nasal spray for me, perhaps this will do. Allergy pills give me restless legs, can't do them,. So no sitting on the porch until the histamines stop overreacting.

Our remodeling project is limping along. Almost all the drywall is up, and it will be all in place by the end of the week. We still need a heating vent installed, perhaps tomorrow on that. Hubby had to redo an electrical outlet. Seems it stuck out too far, so he had to take off a whole sheet of drywall, dig out the box from the insulation, the spray-in kind, redo the box, redo the insulation, and now that sheet of drywall has to be rehung. Nothing is ever easy. But at least my dining room floor is clear again, no 12 foot sheets of drywall in the way.

I tried to go to church and do the radio show, but begged off due to the coughing and sneezing fits. Maybe next week. If anyone is interested, we're on Facebook, KQLJ 105.5 FM. Our church has a low power FM station that broadcasts locally 24 hours a day. Each Monday at 4PM we do a live Facebook show, usually a Bible lesson. You can also access old lessons on our Facebook site. I seem to be the go-to computer person. No one else wants to do anything with Facebook. They'll do the show, but I'm doing the blurbs on the internet, making sure the show goes live, getting the station back on air if something goes wrong.

So then after that ill-fated trip, I headed to Northern Treasures thrift store. I volunteer there on Wednesday afternoons. I'm also on the advisory board and help them with advertising. I needed to talk to the owner, not in today. But a friend was in and so we chatted. Her granddaughter was trying on clothes, and that was fun. Plus the A/C in the store stopped the sneezing and coughing. So I lingered and talked a bit.

Now back home I'm trying to decide how the evening will be spent. I have a meeting next week for a non-profit group. They elected me chairman last year, and I sent an email to the secretary reminding her to remind everybody. I'll see how that goes. Transfer of power sometimes takes patience. Then on Wednesday I have a Zoom meeting of the Southeast Montana Tourism Board, of which I am also a member. I had wanted to go to Colstrip, a small town south and east of here, but darn it, not now. So we'll meet online. Bummer.

So perhaps tonight I'll just do some writing. And reading. I just finished Stephen King's "11-22-63", all about time travel, alternative history, and what might have happened if JFK had lived. Written as only King can write, it is a big book but I loved it. Worth the effort. Now I've started "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle". Quite an unusual book with amazing characters. We'll see what happens with this.

Whatever I choose to do tonight I sure hope the allergic reactions stop and I can get some sleep.