Improving lapses between posting

Look, it's not been six months (or more) since the last post! As usual, I'm demonstrating my passion and devotion for keeping the blog current with the most up-to-date information about my life. La la la.

Quick update: The snowbank, a.k.a. the Merrimac Range, finally melted. It was nearly a couple of months ago, actually - but not before it got a reinforcing shot of snow on Easter Sunday. The weather finally turned more agreeable to spring, in dribs and drabs, but even yesterday morning it was only 30 degrees outside the front door.

Perhaps my lack of enthusiasm for snow melt updates stemmed from the snail's pace progress of the whole affair for what seemed like weeks on end. And even after the snow finally did yield to extinction, it didn't feel like spring. "Below average temperatures" have started to become, well, rather average. It still doesn't feel like spring, except that my old friends Burning Eyes and Running Nose have returned to help me ring in the pollination of every tree from here to Canada.

Speaking of which, I had an allergy test last week. Terribly exciting, sitting bare-backed in the doctor's office, feeling the nurse scratch my back with a whole variety of histamine cocktail solutions. "You'll feel an itch on some of these in a few minutes," she said, "but don't scratch them." Easier said than done; after eight minutes, I was sitting on my hands, squirming, trying not to concentrate on the intense itching radiating across my back. The rule of trying to ignore it is that it gets more intense, and the more you try to fight it off, the worse you feel. When the nurse came back in she said, "My goodness, you're lit up like a Christmas tree!" When I looked at my back in the mirror I saw bright red welts the size of a fist. It was such a classic case of being very allergic, in fact, that the nurse called other nurses in to have a gander at me. Nothing like being a lab rat.

(Just writing about it now is causing my back to itch again.)

The results: I'm allergic to tree pollen (this I knew). Specifically, birch, oak, maple, elm, cottonwood. And grass pollen (news to me). And ragweed, especially so, judging by the 100-millimeter welt that spread across my skin. (Again, news, since I seem to have my most severe allergy problems in the spring.) Also, somewhat allergic to cats. But not dust or mold, nor dogs or birds, so the parakeets that moved in with my wife will have to stay.

After all this excitement - and with Running Nose and Burning Eyes now being a nearly constant presence - I've been holed up inside spending too much time at the computer. But I'm in the process of creating a website about the canoe trip that Jenni and I are planning for September. It's no epic paddle-to-the-Arctic, but it's along a route that is still interesting, notable, and adventurous. And I promise it will be updated more than once in a blue moon.

I'll post a link as soon as the site is completed.