Florida is a hot and humid place to be in the summer.  For someone with allergies to mold and fungus it is most definitely histamine overload.  For weeks my husband and I went back and forth about staying AT his dads house.  In the last 14 years, we had actually only stayed AT the house once. That’s another story for another day. Anyhow, whenever we visit, we get a hotel. It’s not that the house is a bad house. It’s a cute little, very little, old, early 70’s old, rancher. It has one bathroom, one real bedroom, a second smaller bedroom that is storage for all the medical equipment and other stuff that belonged to his late wife.  She’s been gone for several years but her stuff is all still in the back bedroom.  Freaks a person out. It looks like her room in the nursing home did.  Very little has changed since they furnished it in the 70’s. Same old carpeting, same old everything. The windows haven’t been opened in at least 20 years so it’s the same old stale air mixed with all the florida dampness and mold.  That’s why we don’t stay there – my allergies go into high gear. I however was apparently not clear enough when I tried to discuss all of this ahead of time.  I kept saying – but I can’t stay there, remember last time, you said we wouldn’t stay there, we never stay there.  Hubby just kept saying, it would mean a lot to dad.  He didn’t remember last time and I wasn’t clear enough. I didn’t say, staying in that house might kill me! Thank God we had come to a compromise at the 11th hour.  We would stay there one night then check into a hotel at the beach. We could do the beach in the morning, get to Dad’s by lunch and spend the rest of the day with him. OK. So Saturday we arrive.  We have barely walked in the door and Dad is going over the list of chores he needs done. That’s fine. Dad is 93 so of course he can’t do a lot of the things around the house that he used to do. Hubby goes outside to take the old satellite dish off of the roof and comes in covered in Florida slime and mold – takes one look at me and says uh oh.  I have been there less than a half hour and I have hives all over my face, neck and chest.  I itch all over and I’m congested – hey at least I can breathe.  Thanks to Benadryl we got through one night there.  To be continued . . . . Till then Paul Simon’s song Allergies: