Pine trees are yielding their dreaded gold dust

This past Sunday I saw it for the first time. At first, I didn’t know where that dust was coming from that I found on the windshield when I crawled behind the wheel preparing to head to church. Then I noticed the light golden color of the tiny flecks of dust. It hit me.

Pollen. Pine pollen.
Glancing at the ends of the branches of the hundreds of loblolly pines in my yard, I saw the swollen buds, locked and loaded to dump their load of aggravating yellow dust with no concern as to where their loads would land.
Pine pollen is produced by male pine cones, just trying out their masculinity I suppose. Some people are allergic to pine pollen, the same people are also likely to have allergic reactions to grass pollen. The culprit for most who experience bouts of hay fever in spring comes from pollen produced and released by oaks, hickories, rag weed and other such plants.  
My wife enjoys opening the windows during spring to take advantage of nice comforting breezes. However, once the first bit of pollen is seen, she is not happy because this means she has to wait until pollen season ends in a few weeks to be able to open windows. By then, it’s starting to warm up too much to enjoy the pleasant springtime breezes. 
Keeping windows open during pollen season is to invite yellow dust to make itself at home on the couch, chairs, tabletops, carpet, floors et al. 

The stuff is indiscriminate; it cares not a bit that when it comes into your home uninvited; it’s like the obnoxious cousin, Randy Quaid in National Lampoon’s Christmas vacation who comes to visit with wife and kids disrupting family plans and is in no hurry to leave.
As much as we despise the hated yellow powder, the Internet has discovered and shares a number of reasons why we should give it some love.
Believe it or not, pine pollen has health benefits with research suggesting pine pollen has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. It contains a natural anti-depressant that stimulates dopamine levels in the brain.
Wait, here’s more. Pine pollen can help reduce cholesterol levels and improve cardiovascular health. Here’s a good one; pine pollen is especially beneficial for men because it contains high levels of testosterone. It can bolster your immunity to anti-aging as well as reducing fatigue, regulating metabolism, lowering blood pressure and protects the liver.
It can be used for the topical treatment of eczema, psoriasis, seborrheic dermatitis and other dry, itchy, flaky or inflamed skin conditions.
These research sources are suggesting that maybe we should give pine pollen more love because of all its benefits instead of treating it like a bad case of the flu.
As for me, it’s just too hard to create pleasant pictures in my mind of all the nice things this stuff can do while it’s coating my car, my driveway, my porch with that obnoxious yellow dust.
Even with all this good things pine pollen can do, I still don’t like it.