It’s time for cabin fever to strike. We are approaching the middle of February after struggling through below zero temps and several feet of snow. Its been a brutal winter so far. In fact as I’m typing this blog a blizzard is raging outside my office window.

Thirty years ago cabin fever was a normal part of a Minnesota winter. There were certain things that brought it on. Having to shovel your driveway out before going to work and then having to shovel the same driveway out again after work so you could park your vehicle and get back into your house. Also during those days of snow shoveling the sky was overcast and the winds blew viciously from the northwest day and night. The sun was not visible in the sky for weeks at a time. The insidious cabin fever began to make inroads into our lives.

Cabin fever really took a strangle hold on our lives when the blizzards were so severe that we were forced to spend several days isolated in our homes.

In those days we only had three television stations that we could pick up on our television antenna. To change stations required that we rotate the antenna on top of our house and point it in the direction of the television station we wanted to watch.

When the weather got below zero sometimes the rotating device on the antenna froze up and would not move. That meant we were down to watching only one station. Cabin fever rose to a frantic pitch!

It didn’t take long to finish a library book during those forced home bound days. Cabin fever could be abated until the book was done and then we’d check out the one remaining television station and hope it would provide some relief from the returning boredom.

I remember one particular day that my cabin fever became obvious. I found myself reading with great interest through the junk mail that had arrived that morning. Bless those mailman who delivered the mail through rain, sleet, hail and snowstorms. 🙂

Reading junk mail was normally unheard of but cabin fever causes you to react in unusual ways. Examining the contents of the Publisher’s Clearinghouse Contest envelope really was a life saver because that took hours to look through! 🙂

Cabin fever of today is not nearly as severe as it was thirty years ago. As I’m typing this blog I am aware of minor feelings of cabin fever anxieties but it can’t get the strangle hold on me that it did thirty years ago. And why is that you say?

Technology is helping to eliminate cabin fever from our society. It allows us to feel more free and in control of our lives.

When the wind dies down and I go out to open my driveway I won’t need a shovel. Instead I’ll rely on that wonderful technology improvement called the snow blower. That ‘heart attack’ causing shovel will remain hanging on my garage wall.

When I complete the snow cleanup on my driveway I’ll go into the house and turn on my television and select one of the two hundred twenty-five possible channels and there will be no frozen antenna to worry about.

I can locate a channel that will transfer me to a sunny, white sandy beach with sky-blue ocean waves crashing onto the shore. That may prove to be too depressing considering my two hour snow blowing exercise. So instead I may turn to Fox News and catch up on all the conservative news and then turn to MSNBC and hear the liberals’ spin on those same world issues. Although that could even be more depressing than watching beautiful warm ocean scenes.

Game shows might entice me for a couple hours or maybe some historical shows like Gun Smoke or Bonanza.

Don’t forget that library book. What if I finish it before the nasty weather has left us? I just go online to our local library and download a new ebook and I’m ready for hours of reading.

And I haven’t even mentioned ipads, computers, emails, snapchat, skyping, etc. Don’t get too impressed with me, however, as I’m rattling off those terms.

I’m not accomplished in many of them in fact that’s something I can do during the next snowstorm. I would have to have a teacher imported the day before the storm arrived however since I could not learn those technology techniques on my own! 🙁

So I think as technology continues to improve cabin fever will become a thing of the past. It will be something we will share with our grandkids and great grandkids and they will struggle to understand the concept. That is if we can get them to put their phones down long enough to have the discussion. 🙂

So now it’s time for me to leave my office, head downstairs and put a couple more logs on the fire. I’m happy because my blog has reminded me that even though it’s tough for an old guy like me to understand technology it has lessened the severity of cabin fever on my life.

Until next time.