The Ohio Valley Crud Continues

We're nearing the end of September, and yesterday marked the first day of fall.  But today we set another record for high temperatures.  It makes no sense.  Today, the official high was 96 - it beat the previous record of 93.  And they're calling for mid-90's again tomorrow.  It's still hot and dry, like it's been for the past three months.  We had a little relief two weeks ago when we had a good soaking rain on Saturday and Sunday, but then it dried back up.  All of us who have been suffering from the Ohio Valley Crud (allergies, sinus trouble, coughing, sneezing, etc etc etc) were overjoyed - we hoped the rain would wash all of the Crud out of the air.  Well it did, for a few days.  For a short, short period, there was no sneezing or coughing.  People were happier because they felt better.  But that was short-lived and then the Crud came back. The weatherazzi has our hopes up this week, with rain in the forecast for Wednesday.  I'll believe it when I see it.

For those that are non-believers, let me tell you a bit about the Crud.  It's not psychosomatic - it's a true medical condition. I'm not the real name is, but it's like I described above - sneezing, coughing, sinus trouble, headaches, etc etc etc.  We just call it the Crud.  And the Crud can cause permanent damage.  Not life threatening damage, but permanent damage nonetheless.  Here's two examples.  The first example is me.  Four years ago, I had a bad upper respiratory infection in January and it lingered.  In May, I had a severe viral infection.  I never fully recovered from that, and it developed into pneumonia in July.  The next February, I had another upper respiratory infection, and when I went to the doctor, she wanted to take a chest xray, just to make sure there was no pneumonia.  A week later, the doctor called me at work, informing me that they found spots on my right lung, and wanted me to get a CT scan.  Well, needless to say, I immediately thought I had lung cancer; never mind I'd never smoked a cigarette in my life.  When they saw the results of the CT scan, the doctor said the spots were calcification, caused by the climate and air here in the Ohio Valley.  They went on to say if you took chest xrays of everyone in the Ohio Valley, about 90% of them would show calcification.  My father was the same way.  When he was getting discharged from the Navy and had to take a physical, they, too, found spots on his lungs and made him take more tests before he could be discharged. Yep, you guessed it.  The doctors told him it was calcification. 

So this brings us to the end of September, and even though the temperatures are still in the 90's, the Crud continues.  I just want to sleep one night without waking myself up coughing.  I don't think that's too much to ask.