Early Spring and Allergies For Me

Yesterday the unusually early and warm spring here in northern Florida hit me with full force. The previous day I spent two hours outside cutting down overgrown branches from trees around my yard. That in itself wasn't very helpful to my pollen allergies. Then yesterday I went out on a bicycle ride around the far northern part of Gainesville. The wind was a brutal 25 mph coming out of the south and the temperatures were climbing into the eighties on this, the last day of February. I finished my quite unpleasant ride after 73 minutes, but I'm afraid the effects went on much longer. I had since been suffering from all of the symptoms of the allergies I have undergone in previous years, in particular the nasal congestion, sneezing, and very dry, red eyes.

I don't remember having severe allergies like this last year, but then again back then in mid-February we were still experiencing temperatures dipping down to freezing. I used to take Zyrtec to help with the symptoms, but that made me annoyingly drowsy and I switched to Claritin, a less effective remedy but one with which I can function more effectively. Hopefully, these allergies will lift soon and I can enjoy life a little more. But I don't plan to stop doing what I usually do in spite of them.