Pollen in Georgia

Pollen has invaded Georgia over the past few weeks, and it has made itself known not just through a massive outbreak of allergy attacks, but by coating everyone's car with a golden-yellow sheen:

A yellow haze of pollen descended on the Southeast in the past week, coating cars and porch furniture and making people miserable in one of the worst allergy seasons in years.

"Everybody who walks through the door, you can see it in their faces," said Atlanta, Georgia, pharmacy owner Ira Katz, who is running low on medication to treat what he said is the worst allergy season of his 26 years in the business.

Atlanta's pollen count hit 5,499 particles per cubic meter of air Monday, the highest so far this season and the fourth highest in the 12 years that the Atlanta Allergy and Asthma Clinic has been keeping records. In South Carolina, the pollen count hit 4,862, according to the Allergic Disease and Asthma Center in Greenville.

The yellow dust -- which is coming mostly from pine trees -- is proving to be a gold mine for car washes, even though some are offering free repeat washes for cars that get covered again within 48 hours.

The dust created such a thick coat on my black car that my soldiers found it amusing to write "Wash Me" with their fingers all over the hood. I finally broke down and obliged on Wednesday, and already the car is covered again. It is finally looking a bit like rain, at long last, so hopefully the long pollen nightmare will soon be over. More likely, it seems, the clouds are just here to taunt us further.