The Watery Eye Guy

Recent numbers suggest that 10 million Canadians suffer from seasonal allergies.  Actually, you can add one more to that.  After a fairly long and healthy life free from allergies I have suddenly become sniffly and watery eye guy.  I used to hear stories about people "suffering" from allergies.  I don't think I ever truly understood what "suffering" meant when they would say that but now I do.  I don't know where they came from and I don't know why now, at this point in my life, but, they're here.  I can't tell you what I'm suddenly allergic to.  I am out of the loop on this stuff.  I don't know what season this is.  Is it the fresh grass, is there some specific type of pollen floating around right now?  Is this hayfever?  I have no idea what hayfever even is but I do know I don't have a fever so maybe it's not that.  Hey, maybe I'm allergic to ignorantly high gas prices?? Each morning this week I've woken up with a head full of crap and watery eyes.  As the morning progresses the nose runs and then by lunch time I'm all good to go.  This is why I'm pretty sure it's not a cold.  It's been my experience that colds tend to stay with you through the day.  So I'm left sneezing, blowing and wondering, when will it end.  Is this permanent?  Will I now have allergies every spring or will they also continue right through the summer?  I'm a newbie in the world of allergies and I have no answers.  I suppose that I could seek out fellow sufferers and start peppering them with questions but I would imagine that each person suffers a little differently.  A quick Google search of seasonal allergies and suddenly my world is opened up to things like snow mould, spores, pollens and the like.  There was no reason for me to understand it before and now, I've got to quickly bring myself up to speed.  Apparently I've been able to determine I might be allergic to the sexual activity of trees.  Okay, I didn't see that coming.  In the early spring pollens are the most likely cause for my sniffles.  The question becomes, will I continue to suffer.  Some people who are really unfortunate, can suffer from March to November.  Wow, that hurts.  Actually looking forward to winter for some relief?  I've never looked forward to winter before and I'm not sure I even know how to look forward to winter.  From the tree pollens we'll swing into allergic reactions to grasses in late spring and early summer.  That's followed by ragweed in the late summer.  The weird part is allergies can start at any time in your life.  A lot of kids develop allergies and some out grow them.  However, you can also suddenly develop them well into adulthood.  I guess that's me, well into adulthood.  Although I can't say I've ever described myself that way before.  So now come the ways to tell that you are suffering from an allergy and not a cold.  You're sneezing and coughing but there is no fever or muscle ache.  Well, there is some muscle ache but that might be from the first trip to the driving range.  Another sign, the mucous secretions are clear and runny.  Yep, got that one, especially the runny, really runny.  The final sign that it's allergies, your symptoms last longer than the typical cold which is seven to ten days.  Wow, they're going to last longer than that?  Now that's the definition of suffering.  I actually feel bad that I haven't felt bad for allergy sufferers before.  This newbie feels your pain my friends.  I just wish I knew when it was all going to end.  In the meantime I'd just like everyone to know, I'm not crying, it's allergies and that's a pack of tissue in my pocket and I'm not just happy to see you. Until We (sniffle) Type Again, Take It (sniff, sniff) Ease !!