Baby, It's Cold Outside

Winter in central Texas means two things: erratic weather with temperature swings of 30 degrees or more in a few hours along with unexpected ice storms and cedar pollen. I’m not sure which is the more difficult to live with. The first makes my bones hurt in ways they don’t usually, and the second leaves me sneezing, sniffling and draining with itchy, watery eyes that aren’t much good for anything.

Yesterday at 2 p.m., it was warm enough that I was a little too warm in short sleeves. Mid-to-upper seventies. When I left the office at 5 p.m., it was cold, with fierce winds howling out of the north and west. The direction changed so quickly and frequently that I couldn’t get used to being barraged from one direction before another took over.

By 8 or so, we had sleet and rain, and by midnight, snow. The temperature hovered around freezing from about 9 on. Not cold enough to mess up the roads, but just cold and wet enough to be miserable.

And then there’s that other misery of central Texas winters: cedar fever. A particular variety of cedar that thrives here and surrounds us for a hundred miles or more and creates a vicious pollen in huge quantities. Image cedar trees enveloped in clouds of orange dust, emitting huge plumes of it when the wind is blowing enough to stir it up.

Cold weather triggers its release, and we got the first of it today. A mild dose, for sure, because it usually takes a couple or three cold days for it to get into high production, but we have them coming up over the next few days. Tomorrow, the temperature supposed to go from 28 overnight to 60 at some point. And more of the same the rest of the week and weekend.

I don’t much care for cold weather, especially the wet, blustery kind we’ve had the last couple of days. And I don’t care at all for swollen, dripping eyes and a scratchy, itchy throat.

Austin is an urban paradise, except when it isn’t. Personally, I favor a giant dome with filtered air and climate control over the entire city. Just the city, though. The suburbanites can fend for themselves.

As it is, I’ll tough it out, yet again. Keep my supply of tissues and antihistamines up to date. Wear warm clothes and dig out a scarf from where-ever we put them last spring.

Then, I'll start over again.