I Sneeze Like My Father

My father was a big sneezer.  By that I mean that he was a loud, powerful, physical sneezer.  I never much thought about it but in the last few years, I have become a sneezer like my father.  I suspect that when he went into his sneezing fits, there was something in the environment that stimulated him to sneeze. And he did so, until something changed. Sometimes, that meant he finally blew his nose. But not always.

I learned, years ago, walking in the park with Mack, my beloved dog, and my dear friend and her dog, that I was very sensitive to some things, but I could not identify what those some things were. My friend remarked more than once, that if she did not see it herself, she would not believe it.  It was not something I had much noticed until my friend commented on it. 

My friend noticed that I was very sensitive to certain environmental stimulants.  We could stop at a place in the park as we walked our dogs and relaxed, and I would immediately become congested and sneeze. We would move as little as 10 or 15 feet, and I would immediately start to clear up. The weird part of this, is that the same parts of the park affected me differently on different days.  Even within days of each other. Which made no sense.

I have sneezing episodes in my office at work. This did not happen until I moved into this particular office.  Some days, I will have terrible sneezing episodes.  Blowing my nose sometimes helps, but not always

Sometimes, I also have sneezing fits at home. Sometimes blowing my nose helps, sometimes it does not.

I am not horribly  distressed by these sneezing fits, except sometimes at work. I recognize that a sneeze is the body's way of getting rid of some sort of irritant. A sneeze is a healthy bodily reaction to irritants.  But sometimes, I get tired of sneezing. 

I know that my father also used to get tired of sneezing.