Beating Back Cabin Fever

Just before the weekend Toronto received 50 mm of rain in less than 12 hours. On top of all of the snow dumped onto us this winter that has yet to fully melt, this adds up to a lot of water that needs to be absorbed back into the ground in a short amount of time. 

And I’m feeling the frustration of cabin fever. It seems like spring will never arrive.

To amuse myself, I’ve been compiling a list of stories that include missing or erased seasons.

For example, Jadis casts a spell in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe that locks Narnia in an endless winter where Christmas never arrives.

The Giver describes a human civilization so advanced that they’ve learned how to control the weather. There are no longer any seasons in Jonas’ world. In fact, he doesn’t even know what snow is until he begins his special assignment.

Fallen Angels is a science fiction novel on my to-read list that describes what happens to humanity after we successfully reduce our carbon output so much that we effectively end global warming. Unfortunately the greenhouse gases we were emitting were the only thing preventing the earth from plunging into another ice age. Society collapses and our standard of living is dialled back several hundred years when winters become long, snowy, and bitterly cold.

It also made me think of the holodeck on Star Trek. Because the characters spend their entire lives in a season-less, temperature-controlled environment, it makes sense for them to go skiing or spent a humid day at the beach when it’s time to relax. Being uncomfortably warm (or cold) is a new experience to them instead of something that happens regularly whether they want it to or not.

What books or movies have I missed? What do you do to combat cabin fever?

0 Responses to Beating Back Cabin Fever

  1. No stories to add, but I am with you about the weather. This has been a winter to remember and I am soooo ready for Spring. A lot of our snow has melted off thanks to the rain we received a few days ago. Now we have flooding and everything looks ugly. I just keep telling myself …..five more week until April.

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