Things I'll Miss About Oregon: Volume 3 [Allergies]

Growing up in New England, I never had allergies. There's not much growing in the Greater Boston Area, especially in the suburban ring where I grew up. In fact, I knew of only one person who had allergies over there, my aunt. Once she convinced me to put my finger in the car cigarette lighter when it was red hot, so I never knew if I should believe her anyways.

Portland is located in the Willamette Valley. This guy I know out here tells me that Willamette means "valley of death" in a local Native American language, referring to the excessive pollen out here and its effects on the locals; I don't think I believe him either, but it is possible considering EVERYONE out here has allergies.

See that sign there - 'Grass Seed Capital of the World' - they're not kidding. If you're re-seeding your lawn this year, there's a good chance you're using seed from just south of Portland. The soil here is Black Gold - the perfect storm of volcanic activity and the Ice-Age Missoula Floods has created some of the best dirt in the world for growing stuff. Add a temperate climate - never too hot, never too cold, like Goldilocks, and northern California - and stuff grows here. Lots of stuff, which creates exponentially large amounts of pollen.

Then with the rainy seasons, mold grows rapidly. It's not even that it's that humid here, its just that there's a nice steady stream of rain from October to June with luke-warm temperatures. And these temperatures are apparently the perfect incubator for mold.

Anyways, I have developed terrible allergies, basically year round. If it's not the pollen in the spring/summer, its the mold in fall/winter. It's really great. Add in the contact lenses, the old house that further incubates mold, and the cat, and life is particularly miserable, especially this time of your.

Willamette Valley Allergies...I'll miss you. But in a good way.

[Edit: I just realized that I made Oregon sound terrible. I guess for allergies, it might be that bad]