Cabin Fever and Chills . . .

“Spring is not the best of seasons. Cold and flu are two good reasons; wind and rain and other sorrow, warm today and cold tomorrow. Whoever said Spring was romantic? The word that best applies is frantic!” ~ unknown

The snow is still here and with it extreme cases of “cabin fever and chills” … the flu has hit. The best thing I can say about my bout with it is that the skies were blue, the sun bright and I was able to lay around and soak it all up for a few days. It felt like I had not seen the sun in ages, the dark winter and a classroom without a window has made it seem like an extra long winter. This is a physical and psychological flu cycling through my school. Some speculate that we get physically sick because we have cabin fever others feel that cabin fever attacks us because we are trapped at home sick with the flu. To me, it does not matter. I am just happy that this wave of cabin fever and chills has hit towards the end of the winter when we can see that the end of the cold and the snow is very near.

The first snow that fell here in northern Minnesota and stayed for good was in late November this season. It is now the beginning of April and the snow is still very much here, we were “blessed” with large amounts of it. The snow plow piles are still very high and the skiers are enjoying the thick layer of crusty snow in the woods. Some of the open areas and ditches are showing a little bit of earth but, that may change very quickly as they are predicting measurable snow for us again this weekend.

Being a Minnesotan means that we accept the fact that it is a cold and snowy state for a large fraction of the year. We are also very used to the fact that our temperatures can change drastically by 60º or more in just a few days, we live in an area of extremes. We were teased with a short-lived melt early in March and then threatened with a blizzard of 8-18″ of snow just last week. The temperatures were up near 40º this week with rain/snow mixes and almost zero at night (the maple syrup gatherers love that). The lakes began to melt and puddle at the beginning of the month, however, they have frozen solid again. I hear the ice skating is wonderful, but I yearn for waves on the lakes to return.

Envy. That is what I have felt reading all of your blogs the past few weeks …all the beautiful pictures of trips to warm places, the first blooms of spring, and grass. Envy or not, I enjoyed and basked in your more fortunate circumstances .. you brought some Spring to my fever filled winter doldrums.

Yesterday on my walk, I looked hard for signs of Spring. I found a few puddles, geese flying overhead checking things out, some patches of grass in melted areas on the side of the house, and not much else. However, Spring usually just pops up one day out of no where … I am hoping that day will be soon. One sign of spring did pop its head up while I was home sick. This critter peeked in my patio door and was frightened away by some plastic blowing in the wind. It is rare to see a raccoon out in the daytime .. usually they come calling with their mischief in the dark of night. His visit made me happy and chased some of the fever and chills away. Spring is coming, it is just seems to be dragging its feet.

~ by bearyweather on April 2, 2011.