Cabin Fever

In my youth during the period when I read westerns by authors such as Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour I read a novel titled "Cabin Fever". The plot revolved around a young man who married a girl whose mother was dead and whose father's whereabouts were unknown. Marriage difficulties ensued and the young husband set off for the mountains. During his adventures he encountered an old man and spent the rest of the winter with him, matured a little, learned about cabin fever, discovered the old man was his father-in-law and returned to his wife to live happily ever after. I hadn't thought of this novel for years until yesterday when cabin fever hit me and I couldn't stay inside any longer.

I had work planned for this weekend, outside work, but the snow cancelled those plans. It began snowing during the night Wednesday, snowed until mid-afternoon Thursday, turned to rain then turned back to snow after dark. The snow continued falling until Friday afternoon when there was a break in the clouds and the wind began blowing and building drifts.

I need and must get outside every day. I bundled up and walked to the mail boxes, a trip of about 2.6 miles. It was beautiful and good exercise. It's been a long time since I've had to pick my feet up high in deep snow.

We have about a foot of snow but Flagstaff has more according to the weather report.

Month to date snowfall: 52.8 inches
Since 1 September snowfall: 89.8 inches
Snow Depth: 40.00 inches

Julie read a list of about eight businesses with collapsed roofs. Sadly, Bookman's was among the list. The store, adjacent to campus, buys and sells used books. I get much of my reading material from Bookman's. I hope they are able to salvage some of their stock and reopen. Last winter the roof of Hastings book store in the same shopping center collapsed and it was almost a year before they reopened that location.

Last weekend on our way to Mexico we stopped in Sedona and bought a piece of furniture from a family moving to Florida. Pick up was scheduled for yesterday but route 89A and Interstate 17 were closed. The are no other routes to Sedona unless a person goes many miles east or west in a large loop. This was impossible also since Interstate 40 was closed. The forecast calls for the possibility of one to three inches more this morning before 11 AM. Interstate 17 is now open so we're taking the trailer to town this morning, having coffee, checking the roads and planning a trip to Sedona. The family is leaving early tomorrow morning so this is our only opportunity without other arrangements.

Regardless of the weather, I'm looking forward to the trip today. It will be good to get out and see the snow. Hopefully it will be more productive than yesterday's walk to the mail boxes. There was no mail delivered on Thursday or Friday.