The Greening Of Atlanta

This is not a post about recycling, energy efficient use of resources or anything of the kind.

This is a post about about pollen.

People flying into Atlanta for the first time often comment about the tree cover. Other than the business districts that stick up into the sky and the connecting expressways, from the air, Atlanta looks like mostly untouched forest. Under the trees there are a lot of us living here. But again, this post isn't about us; it's a post about what all those pesky trees do when their sap gets warm in the spring and they see the other cute trees all around them:

They throw out pollen. Pollen by the billions and billions of particles. The trees started their mating dance a week or ten days ago. They do it in order, by species.

From the Atlanta Allergy and Asthma Clinic's website:

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Today's Pollen Count: 3,905

This is the amount of pollen particles measured within the last 24 hours in a cubic

meter of air.

Major Pollens Present: Pine, Oak, Sweet Gum, Sycamore, and Birch

POLLEN COUNT
0-30 Low
31-60 Moderate
61-120 High
Over 120 Extremely High

The site then had a March calendar showing daily counts. The last two days they were over 5000. These readings will keep going for the next couple of weeks.

March Madness is big in Atlanta; but, I'm willing to bet that more people in Atlanta at this very moment are talking about pollen than are talking about Florida's chances this weekend.

Car washes here live for this time of year. There are lines at the full and self service places. A futile gesture it is, as a clean car in the morning is green by afternoon.

I used to have a car with teal paint. The green stuff blended right in. Now my car is black with a green sheen. Kind of like the old "candy coating" without the luster.

At least the trees are happy. All God's creatures should have their moments in the Sun. (Sorry about the lack of space between the paragraphs in the second half of this post. Blogger doesn't want them and doesn't pay attention when I hit Enter.)