A recipe for misery.

Having the pollen count suddenly shoot up to about a billion while you are in the midst of experiencing a cold is most definitely a recipe for utter, complete misery. That is how I spent my Easter weekend (and Monday). How was yours?

Spring is lovely. Too bad mother nature is such a bitch.

What's the deal with pollen counts?

According to our local newspaper, a pollen count over 120 particles per cubic meter is "extremely high". We've had three days this week with pollen counts over 5000. This is an order of magnitude greater than "extremely high" on the scale. There is no way to distinguish any difference between a pollen count of 500 or 1000 or 5000 without resorting to ridiculous nomenclature. Very extremely high? Stupendously amazingly high? Really, really astronomically tremendously very high?

What we need is a non-linear scale for pollen counts. Sort of a pollen count Richter scale, if you like. Because otherwise, every spring day that does not include rain will end up being rated "extremely high" for pollen, and that doesn't tell us anything that a glance at our car wouldn't give away.