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I literally have tears in my eyes as I write this.

Why?  Because spring has arrived in Oklahoma!  After the drabness of the winter months, we are rewarded with all the beautiful colors of reemergent life all around us.

The Bradford Pear trees are already in full bloom.  The forsythia and redbud trees are just about ready, another week perhaps.   By Easter, we should be awash in the whites, pinks, and reds of azaleas.

As long as you’re good at dodging tornadoes, this is truly the best time to be in Oklahoma and I do so look forward to it.

Except for one thing.

You see the tears in my eyes are not only for the joy of spring.    I have allergies.

My life has not been the same since one clearly remembered day when I was 15 years old.    That day, in late summer of my sophomore year of high school, my body decided to add something new to the experience of being a teenager.

Sneezing, itching, tearing eyes, and a running nose became irresistible parts of my spring ritual.

See this photo?

It isn’t me, but it could have been.   This is the “scratch test” allergists do to see what pollens, danders, molds, or foods you might be allergic to.

I’ve had this test done several times, all with the same result.

I have been known to set a clinic’s record for the number of things reacted to.  I think the last test showed reactions to 120 different things, mostly tree and grass pollens.  Yay!  (Note:  don’t let your big sister, the nurse, administer the “scratch test.”  Let’s just say she took compensation for any little brother annoyances I might have caused her.)

Meet my arch-nemesis.   This is Juniperus virginiana, more commonly known as red cedar.  This little devil, is not only invading Oklahoma at an alarming rate, it’s a prolific generator of pollen that is carried on the wind to my vicinity from all directions, mostly from Texas.  It’s the precursor of things to come, usually arriving in mid-February.  It’s awful awful stuff.

My only defense against this spring onslaught, only to be repeated by its corollary in the fall, is medication.

The price I pay for the beauty of spring is the self-induced fog of antihistamines.  Flonase, Zyrtec, and sinus blasting nasal pepper spray are my weapons of choice.  I’ve experimented with them all.  I even gave myself allergy shots back in high school (they don’t let you self administer them now – too much liability).

These particular medications work for me, but occasionally, I find myself staring into space, my mind-clutch slipped into neutral by the combined effect of the antihistamines.  It also keeps me indoors on beautiful days, especially when the wind is up.

It’s the price I have to pay to enjoy the beauty of spring, but bring it on!  Summer beckons and I’ll only have to deal with ticks, chiggers, and mosquitos!

Yesterday, I fell off a ladder.  Yep.

I felt really foolish, but luckily it was a short fall and I wasn’t injured in the slightest way.

At least I learned something I never knew.

I am in the process of painting the outside of my house.  It has needed it for quite some time, but the recent repairs done after the BIG TREE fell on my roof last May has necessitated the project before winter comes.

Being predominantly left-handed, my left arm and wrist have been taking the brunt of the workout as I slowly make my way around the house, paint brush in hand.

So yesterday, I thought I would see if I could make my lazy right arm do its share of the work.  Bad idea it turns out.

Who knew that working left handed most of my life has  developed a certain muscle memory when it comes to balance.  Ladders have never been my favorite playground, so it was a surprise to learn that my sense of balance immediately departed as I tried to accomplish the simple task of slapping on some paint right armed/handed.  That was the first mistake.

The second mistake was doggedly trying to overcome this deficiency while standing several feet above ground level.

No harm done.  Lesson learned.  Mr. Lazy Right Arm will have to do his share of the work only when both feet are firmly planted on the ground.

How much longer til winter?

“Steven?!?”
“Yes?”
“Can you come over?  Chloë got out and ran down to the end of the street and I can’t get her!”

My aunt Joanne is a wonderful person, a widow in her early 80’s, who still lives alone in the house she and my uncle bought in the early 70’s.  Just like her sister Mary, my mother, she has a penchant for attracting the strangest assortment of animals as pets.  She has the heart of St. Francis and has found her latest adoptees  from Animal Rescue groups who appear on the local morning news programs from time to time.  Chloë is the latest and most unique of all her pets.

Knowing that my aunt would be a little frantic at the thought of her dog running around the neighborhood, which is bounded by very busy streets, I rushed to her house to help the Search and Rescue teams that had no doubt been called into action.

My aunt was not at home when I arrived, so I knew that she was cruising the area in her Toyota minivan, trying to at least keep an eye on the dog until I managed to find them.  Trying to imagine which way the dog would run when set free, I circled the neighboring blocks around my aunt’s house to no avail.

Finally, turning a corner in the direction I least expected, I found my aunt’s van pulled to the curb, along with one of her neighbors, and an unlucky pair of plumbers that had been deputized into the posse.  Little Chloë was cornered under a car in someone’s carport still managing to stay out of reach of neighbors and plumbers alike.

Meet Chloë

Chloë

As I said before, Chloë came to my aunt from Animal Rescue.  So, what sort of animal is she that she managed to stage her own spring break-out and elude being captured by five grown adults?

Meet Chloë, a 10 lbs Japanese Chin, with one eye and four teeth.  She unfortunately came from the awful confines of a puppy mill and was so traumatized that she usually cowers under the bed.  But not on this day!  Today, Chloë broke free and ran the neighborhood just like the big dogs.

Eventually, Chloë was captured and returned home where she parked herself in the corner of the kitchen with a knowing gleam of excitement in her one remaining eye.  I imagine that some instinctual desire to feel the sun and wind in her face was at least momentarily satisfied.

Well done Chloë!  Please don’t do it again any time soon.

My clothes still smell like wet dog.

(here’s a shout out to Mullins Plumbing whose employees were neighborly and helped in the great search)

Here I am on a blanket in my baptismal robe & booties. How cute!

Today is my birthday and according to calculations, I have been alive for 17,896 days.  That seems like an enormous amount of time, and yet, I still feel like I’m just getting started.   I’ve been avoiding making a “bucket list”, but there are still lots of things that I want to do.  I’ll ponder that for another post.

Wait!  Don’t leave just yet.  Since I’m a history buff, here are some interesting things that have happened on this day, February 25th:

• Pope Pius V excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I of England for schism and persecutions of English Catholics during her reign.  Pope Pius V was also the pope who named St. Thomas Aquinas a doctor of the Church and created the alliance that defeated the Ottomans at the famous Battle of Lepanto. (1570’s)
• George Washington held his first cabinet meeting in 1793 and we’ve been trying to understand why ever since.
• In 1947, the state of Prussia ceased to exist, apparently, it was under too much prussia.
• Ferdinand Marcos flees the Philippines during the People Power Revolution. Corazon Aquino becomes the first female president.  Marcos was very surprised by all this.  He thought he was a shoe-in, not realizing that his wife, Imelda, actually had all the shoes.

Apparently, lots of famous people have been born on this date.   Here are some of the ones that I’ve heard of:

• 1778 – José de San Martín, Argentine general and liberator of South America (d. 1850)
• 1841 – Pierre-Auguste Renoir, French painter, graphic artist and sculptor (d. 1919)
• 1873 – Enrico Caruso, Italian tenor (d. 1921)
• 1888 – John Foster Dulles, 52nd U.S. Secretary of State (d. 1959)
• 1901 – Zeppo Marx, American actor (d. 1979) – not one of the funny ones.
• 1913 – Jim Backus, American actor (d. 1989) – aka Thurston Howell, III to my generation.
• 1928 – Larry Gelbart, American comedy writer (d. 2009).  He was a writer/producer for the TV show M*A*S*H, without which my early life would have been much different.
• 1943 – George Harrison, English musician (The Beatles) (d. 2001).  ’nuff said.
• 1965 – Carrot Top, American comedian.  Extremely annoying, what can I say?
• 1971 – Sean Astin, American actor, always to be remembered as Sam Gamgee.
• 1986 – Justin Berfield, American actor.  He played my favorite character in “Malcolm in the Middle.”  The show had some very subtle humor.
• 1986 – James and Oliver Phelps, English actors.  aka Fred and George Weasley from the Harry Potter movies.  It seems they actually have dark brown hair.  Weird.

Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be any saint for this day on the Roman calendar.  I guess it leaves room for me.  Of course, that would mean I would have to do something saintly and actually die on my birthday.

Today’s Gospel reading includes this speech from Jesus to his disciples:

“Ask and it will be given to you;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. (Mt 7:7-12)

This is good scripture for me.   I am always seeking and contentment always seems just out of reach.  Would you agree, dear reader, that this is just part of the human condition?

Here are some things planned for the next year:

• March, 2010:  Travel to the state of Georgia for business and family.
• April, 2010:  Travel to Haiti on parish mission exploratory trip.
• August: 2010:  Travel to Boston for the Catholic New Media Celebration
• October: 2010:  Travel to St. Louis for my friend Tom’s wedding.

This doesn’t seem like near enough adventure for this year. I hope to add to this list.  I’d like to plan a real vacation, perhaps to one of the states I haven’t visited yet, like Hawaii or Alaska.  Stay tuned.

OK, enough of this rambling nonsense.  Thanks for reading.  Send comments.

When I saw this video, I knew I would have to blog about it.  My last couple of entries have been rather serious in tone, so I thought something lighter was in order.

One of the most endearing memories I have of my dad is his teaching me how to tie my shoes.  I was in kindergarten and needed to be able to show Sr. Stephana I could tie my own shoes and thus earn the coveted gold star on my report card.

It seems that I tie my shoes backwards from my dad.  I clearly remember him sitting in front of me and showing me his tying technique.  I apparently mimicked him perfectly but in mirror image.  Nonetheless, it has been working for me all these years.

After watching this video though, I was a little bit paranoid about my shoe tying ability.  Was I a granny or a reefer?

I am happy and relieved to announce that I’m a reefer and shall continue to have tight shoe knots.