Category: default || By jt3y

No, there was no Almanac yesterday. Try to conceal your disappointment for a few minutes, and let me explain.

Forgive me if I write about myself today. Over the past two weeks, I have had practically no energy. I might otherwise chalk this up to my general laziness but for the fact that this hot, humid weather is really playing hell with my asthma, and that's left me generally pooped.

I've had asthma since I was very young --- my grandfather had it, too --- and I usually have no problem keeping it under control. Oh, it has discouraged me from engaging in a lot of athletic activities, but not as much as the fact that I am possibly the worst athlete in Allegheny County, and maybe the three-county area. (My spectacularly awful performance in little-league baseball has become the stuff of legend, and is still recounted in hushed tones.)

Anyway, I can go weeks at a time without needing my inhaler, but I've needed it every day since the humidity ratcheted itself up. The humid air traps smoke and pollution, and the resulting mix (besides being unpleasant) makes every breath an adventure. I've got AC at home, in the car, and at work, but any trip from one place to the other leaves me huffing and puffing and exhausted.

Add in hay fever, and I have a combination that leaves me permanently tired, crabby and miserable, and not in much mood to write.

I'm crossing my fingers that the humidity is going to break soon, but I'm not very optimistic. The National Weather Service is saying that a "pseudo cold front" is supposed to move through the region today and tonight, which may help temporarily. But another high pressure center is expected to move in, which will make it hot and smoggy again by the end of the week.

At the suggestion of my pharmacist, I recently changed my allergy medication, and the new stuff has helped my hay fever and sinus trouble quite a bit, so I'm hopeful that I'm going to feel better soon. I should be back on a regular Almanac schedule tomorrow, with all of the poorly-sourced, ill-considered miscellany that you've come to expect.

In the meantime, if you or someone you know has asthma or allergies, here are some resources you might find helpful:

NIH Medline

American Academy of Family Physicians

Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America

State DEP air quality indexes

Southwestern Pennsylvania ozone readings