I don’t know if it has anything to do with age, but I have suddenly begun to vocalize my sneezes. These days I’m blaming everything on age – lousy eyesight, facial hair, lack of bladder control, and now, sneezing.
No matter how hard I try to suppress it, I yell – no sweet, feminine achoo for me – instead it’s more like hhhaaaaCHOOOO!
A few days ago I was sitting at the desk in my library which just happens to be in the front of the house. My nose began to tingle and I could feel a sneeze coming. I sneezed so loud that a neighbor who was walking his dog outside looked toward my window and said GESUNDHEIT!
Although I’ve never been an obnoxious sneezer until now, I suppose I come by it honestly. My grandmother set the bar on ear-splitting nasal clearance. My granddad was a rancher. He used to say that my grandmother sneezed so loud that he could hear her all the way from the house out to the pasture and, if he was in the milking barn, he said that her sneezes would cause the cows to stop producing!
Regardless of the cause, be it age or just being a woman, it’s quite embarrassing. And if the noise of my sneeze isn’t enough, add to it the loss of bladder control, and well, you get the picture. If this continues, I may have to start DEPENDing on absorbent, disposable products!
Gesundheit and pass the tissues.
