Forty days and forty nights of winter is enough to give anybody cabin fever
Dan Brawner
January 23, 2008
I´ve been thinking about Noah lately. He spent forty days and forty nights on that boat with two of every screeching, clawing, grunting, burrowing, braying animal on earth (plus Mrs. Noah), with no land in sight and no way to get away from it all. If, during that time, Noah threw a particularly obnoxious creature overboard, we´ll never know. And who could blame him if he did? But somehow, he kept his cabin fever at bay until the waters receded. After approximately forty days of the worst winter in recent years, I´m looking for inspiration from heroes of cabin fever throughout history.
The famous English naval hero, Admiral Lord Nelson suffered all his life from sea sickness and cabin fever. He also lost his eye in the Battle of St. Vincent and his arm in a pointless skirmish in the Canary Islands and was later shot unfatally in the head. He was further handicapped by wearing one of those silly Napoleon-type hats which, from the side, looks like a python that swallowed an elephant. In spite of his many obstacles to success, Nelson never quit. To combat his relentless cabin fever from the many months at sea, he had an enormous cabin built onto the HMS Victory, a ship so large and grand, its construction took 6,000 trees.
Home construction strikes me as an excellent treatment for cabin fever. With temperatures plummeting and snow piling up over fences and neglected lawn mowers, this is a great time to catch up on projects around the house–like replacing all the windows. Soon, you will have forgotten all about your cabin fever.
Earnest Shackelton was not the first person to reach the South Pole. But he did get really, really cold trying to get there. His first attempt was in 1914. His ship was so heavily laden with provisions and equipment, there was little room for coal to run the engines and he had to have the vessel towed 1,678 miles to the arctic ice. The ship was named the "Nimrod", now a colloquial name for "idiot". Probably just a coincidence.
On a later expedition, 22 of Shackleton´s men spent 105 days huddled in a make-shift shack on the desolate, frozen Elephant Island while he and a small crew braved gale force winds in a small life raft in an incredible race to get help. Shackleton was proud that he didn´t lose a man. However, there is no record during those cold, dark days on Elephant Island, of how many bad words they might have said about him. But my guess is they probably played Monopoly and made popcorn and hot chocolate to fight off the cabin fever.
With 10 below zero and snow in the forecast, I try to imagine what Noah did to keep his sanity. I wonder what roasted giraffe tastes like?
The famous English naval hero, Admiral Lord Nelson suffered all his life from sea sickness and cabin fever. He also lost his eye in the Battle of St. Vincent and his arm in a pointless skirmish in the Canary Islands and was later shot unfatally in the head. He was further handicapped by wearing one of those silly Napoleon-type hats which, from the side, looks like a python that swallowed an elephant. In spite of his many obstacles to success, Nelson never quit. To combat his relentless cabin fever from the many months at sea, he had an enormous cabin built onto the HMS Victory, a ship so large and grand, its construction took 6,000 trees.
Home construction strikes me as an excellent treatment for cabin fever. With temperatures plummeting and snow piling up over fences and neglected lawn mowers, this is a great time to catch up on projects around the house–like replacing all the windows. Soon, you will have forgotten all about your cabin fever.
Earnest Shackelton was not the first person to reach the South Pole. But he did get really, really cold trying to get there. His first attempt was in 1914. His ship was so heavily laden with provisions and equipment, there was little room for coal to run the engines and he had to have the vessel towed 1,678 miles to the arctic ice. The ship was named the "Nimrod", now a colloquial name for "idiot". Probably just a coincidence.
On a later expedition, 22 of Shackleton´s men spent 105 days huddled in a make-shift shack on the desolate, frozen Elephant Island while he and a small crew braved gale force winds in a small life raft in an incredible race to get help. Shackleton was proud that he didn´t lose a man. However, there is no record during those cold, dark days on Elephant Island, of how many bad words they might have said about him. But my guess is they probably played Monopoly and made popcorn and hot chocolate to fight off the cabin fever.
With 10 below zero and snow in the forecast, I try to imagine what Noah did to keep his sanity. I wonder what roasted giraffe tastes like?
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