Over time, the residual effects of expelled smoke, tar and nicotine can be detrimental to a household’s interior. Not to mention its inhabitants. This includes children and doesn’t exclude your four-legged friends and Mr. Tibbs the goldfish. Exterior is affected too- designated smoking area proximity pending. This willful pollution of one’s dwelling has been contributed to, experienced and witnessed firsthand.
Watching the walls bleed brown viscus runnels. Which can be wiped away and painted over, but always return. The ceiling marred at key exhalation points with a sickening yellow sheen. Everything within feels tacky. Holding the equivalent reek of an overfilled, rarely emptied ashtray.
At the former House o’Saw there was no such thing as a no smoking area. Most areas were arranged to encouragingly accommodate the partaking of tobacco products. Things are quite a bit different now, down on the Farm… o’ Saw. You have to step out to light up… and don’t blow your damned smoke out in the laundry room on your way back in (so decrees the mighty Lil Red (the spouse) oft in my direction).
So, grab the coffin nails and check the kitchen window thermometer. It’s a brisk 38° out there. Might want to grab a cup-o-joe, don a jacket and gloves on the way out the side door.
Upon exit, the lighter’s flicked flame is extinguished. The culprit- an icy north wind. That rips through and chills to the core. Winter weather is one of the prime factors that aid cessation to a point of cutting back and quitting all together. But the resilient determination of a smoker knows no equal. Still… better make this quick. Cursing the habit, there’s still time to look around longingly whilst enjoying the addiction.
Downed limbs lay on dead grass. To be added to the brush pile that needs burning. New constructions are needed for the livestock paddock. Reconstruction is needed in the barn. So much to do, with time and want to do it but… it’s too damned cold. A hasty retreat is in order, at the expense of a snubbed half-butt.
Oh well, there’s chores indoors. Projects to pass the time, till the weather is willing. No, those are done and redoing and over doing have gotten monotonous.
Theres plenty of time to kill time. Phone games, television series, movies, video games and VR? Too much screen time has already been amassed.
Nothing new to read, kitchen experimentation is nauseating, bored with board games, bored in general. And the others… those who abide under the same roof. Getting a little tired of them too.
Get out of the house? Go into town? Go shopping? What, trade one prison for another? With more people to find a reason to loathe? Spend money you don’t have? No, thank you. Besides it’s far better to lose one’s mind in the privacy of one’s own home. Because that’s exactly what’s happening here.
It’s called going stir-crazy. “Stir”- being19th-century slang word for prison. “Stir-crazy”- slang to describe a prisoner becoming distraught after prolonged confinement. However, on a domestic level, there is an actual medical term for this mental condition- “Cabin Fever”.
Cabin fever is not itself a disease- there is no professional diagnosis. However, related symptoms can lead a cabin feverer (feverist?) to make irrational decisions. Potentially posing a threat to those they are confined with or themselves.
The onslaught of the fever can lead to bitterness breed of boredom. Domestic disturbances can ensue. Domestic violence may follow. If you’re not domesticated or live alone, you should be okay. As long as you have a good rapport with the voices in your head.
What to do? To avoid domestication? Well, you could take up smoking as an excuse to step outside (not advised). Suck it up, bundle up and be miserable outside. Or wait for the spring thaw.
Somewhat seriously, in the modern age cabin fever usually isn’t the result of weathered entrapment. Rather it’s an unintentionally self-imposed act of personal imprisonment. When one becomes dissatisfied with oneself and the surrounding circumstantial situations, they find themselves in.
So… change the circumstances. Leave the situation. If impossible (nothing usual is) adjust and adapt until you can. Or simply submit to the fever and embrace the ensuing madness. In the end whether you abandon, burn or calm the cabin is on you.
I welcome almost all questions, comments via through the Focus, or E-mail me at –[email protected]. Hope to hear from ya until then try and stay focused! See ya.
