Ahhh(choo), Spring.

Spring! It seems to have taken forever to get here this year. The snow hung on for so long, and then came back a second and third time after it went away. Maybe a fourth time, too, but I kind of blocked winter in my mind as a dark black hole and try not to think about it too much. And then after the snow melted, things just kind of hung in a dormant stage, trying to decide whether they were going to survive or die after the winter that just happened. The ones that did survive slowly, slowly, sloooowwwwwly came to life. And then overnight the world seemed to burst from winter to spring, and it was glorious.

It's beautiful out there, guys. You need to step outside and enjoy nature for a minute. I'll wait.

I have a few things to say about this spring, however. I can't remember many of them because of the fog that I live in. At least that's what the commercials will call it. You know, those allergy commercials? The ones that say you should just peel off the sticky film blurring your world? Yeh. Combine that with the commercial where the boulder drops on the lady standing in the bank line. That. Only instead of the boulder squashing me, it seems that I'm carrying it balanced on top of my head. While living in a fog.

For those living with allergies all their lives, you have my deepest sympathy. I have not had allergies in the past. Last year I sniffled on occasion and had the nerve to say, "boy-howdy, allergies suck, don't they?" I'm kicking the 2013 me in the pants on behalf of allergy sufferers everywhere. The 2014 me is SUFFERING. If it gets worse than this, I'm sorry. Whoever you are.

I can live with the head stuffiness and the itchy eyes and the sneezing and the fog and the sinus headaches. I can. It's the dry eyes that are going to kill me. I have Chronic Dry Eye Syndrome to begin with, but allergy season makes it a bajillionty times worse. I administer so many eye drops that they run out like a river. Every 5 minutes. They seem to be drying my eyes more. If that were even possible. Sometimes my eyes hurt like I have a headache IN MY EYES. They just ache. I put drops in. I take allergy pills. I take cold meds. I take both at once while squeezing drops into my eyes. In return, my eyes sometimes feel like a red hot needle is being poked into them. Or rather, my eye. It's always my right one. In one particular spot. And it's a real jab. I've actually yelled in pain once, frightening the family. It's so weird. Becky is convinced that someone has a voodoo doll of me. It would explain a lot.

This evening I sat around waiting for the eye drops and allergy pills and cold meds to combine to give me enough relief to actually see, and then got tired of waiting so I just went outside. When I say "actually see" I'm only kind of exaggerating. I took an hour out of my day to spray the patio with horrid pesticides to kill the grass that insists on growing in the cracks between the pavers. I hate that I have to use pesticides, and hate even more that every crunchy remedy I've tried has failed me. I've tried a lot. So while I was spraying every crack in a 1200 square foot patio, my eyes couldn't exactly focus on the cracks. I was seeing double, and the double lines were dancing. The good news is that by the time my back was permanently stooped from bending over, my eyes had cleared. I'll take a permanently stooped back any day! Seeing is such a beautiful thing.

Because I could see clearly, I was able to fully appreciate this.

Someone else is loving that spring has finally arrived. Even if it means he has to take a bath. Also? WHEN DID THAT BOY GET TO BE SO GROWN UP?