After my recent success with the grass I thought I would try my luck with the dog allergies. Normally contact with the dogs on my arms or legs makes my skin red and itchy, and I have to take a shower to make it stop. It doesn’t happen to my hands, just my arms and legs.  So this morning I rubbed my forearms on the dogs and waited.

After about three minutes my arms felt like they were on fire.  Oh well, still allergic to dogs.

note: I just noticed that I forgot to publish this yesterday.  whoops.

After all the excitement yesterday about the grass not bothering me, I managed to mess it up.  I’m just not used to monitoring what I eat.  I’ve been on the George Foreman “See Food” diet for my whole life.

As I was setting my spoon down after my last bite of custard it occurred to me how custard is made.  Damn it! By the time I got in bed my head was all congested and I couldn’t breathe through my nose at all.

I guess I’m going to have to pause before each thing I eat and think about it.  Also, keeping a journal of what I eat for a week or so might be helpful.

I’m not making any claims here, this is just an observation.

I cut the grass this morning.  It took about three hours.  To prepare for cutting the grass in normally try to cover as much of my skin as I possibly can. Even in the summer I typically wear a flannel shirt, or something else with long sleeves, and jeans.  One particular pair of jeans – my grass cutting jeans.  I wear my old hunting boots, and a pair of gloves.  Only my face is exposed.  The second I finish cutting the grass I run straight in to the house and take a cold shower.

I do all this because I’m allergic to grass, of course.  I’m allergic to fescue grass, which is pretty much the kind everyone has.  I don’t swell up and die if a piece of grass touches me, but it does make me really miserable.  My skin gets itchy any place grass (fresh cut in particular) touches me, and I normally sneeze about 30 – 40 times while I cut the grass, and then more later throughout the day.  I have the typical allergic reaction. I’m normally better by the following day.

When I finally managed to drag myself out of bed today it was hot and muggy.  I mean disgustingly hot and muggy.  I threw on a t-shirt and my grass-cutting jeans, and cut the grass.  I was halfway through cutting the grass before I realized that my arms weren’t covered.  At the same time I realized I hadn’t sneezed a single time.

I finished cutting the grass and chopped down 3 trees, and I never sneezed a single time.  My arms didn’t itch at all, even though I was soaked in sweat and my arms were covered in all sorts of nature.

I stopped eating dairy a couple of weeks ago.  Something I’ve been allergic to all my life didn’t bother me today.  I’m not saying there’s a connection, I’m just pointing out that it’s kind of interesting.  We’ll see…