Column: Watching the Today Show is no cure for cabin fever

By Margi Washburn

It's not yet winter, according to the calendar, but I'm sick of it already. What is it about December 1st the last two years? Last year we were whumped with ten inches of snow, which was too much of a surprise for Sarah the pup. We can laugh about that now, but it wasn't a bit funny then. And this year, the lousy ice, sleet and wind kept the TV 6 weatherman from his own book signing. There's some irony for you.

I like to run all over the place in December. It's fun to check out the sales, mingle with the crowds, get some bargains, and generally get from one place to another without risking life and limb. After all, most of us are stuck inside our workplaces and homes during the sometimes frigid and snow-packed months of January and February. March isn't much of a picnic either, come to think of it.

Now I'm stuck in the house a month early, and it's making me batty. The dog isn't used to having hubby and me both home for such extended periods of time and it's thrown her off somehow. She thinks it's play time from around 7 in the morning until we find some way to get the heck out of Dodge before she drives us completely around the bend. We may live in a big house, but sometimes it isn't nearly big enough.

I'm not the kind of person who can simply sit and do nothing, nor can I do just one thing at a time. One can listen to only so many hours of Christmas music while playing computer games, and daytime television is completely out of the question.

There's always the anticipation that the postman might deliver interesting mail, but bills are what we usually get. Checking one's email every half hour isn't as much fun as it used to be, and surfing the Internet doesn't float my boat, either, unless I need to find something.

I love to work puzzles, so that accounts for maybe half an hour of my day. I cut out the Jumble and the Word Find because I love the challenge, and hopefully the effort will keep my mind sharp. I missed a few of those puzzles over the last week because Sarah was apparently jealous of the time I spent on them. Shortly after I placed them next to the recliner, she sauntered over, grabbed them, stood in the doorway until we saw her, then she sucked in the small pieces of paper and ran. By the time we reached the top of the stairs, she had chewed and swallowed the puzzles.

Just for fun one day I forced myself to watch far more of the Today Show than usual. First, there was depressing news. Then, there was a segment complete with talking heads about how too many of us are depressed. After that, there were dire statistics on our general fattiness as a nation, followed by a snippet complete with candid photos of Jennifer Love Hewitt and her alleged cellulite problem. That led into a piece about how, as a nation, we're far too fixated on our weight. This segued perfectly into a brief news flash that it is far better to be fat and fit, than thin and lazy. To top things off, the marathon news program ended with calorie -laden holiday foods prepared on camera, with the show's hosts and guests stuffing their faces and smacking their lips. I think I heard my brain screaming for someone to please turn off the boob tube.

I know we're not the only ones suffering from cabin fever so early in the season. The other night someone called to invite us over for coffee, and when I heard the giggle in her voice I asked what was so funny. "Oh," she said, "it's just that when I went to call you, I tried dialing you with the remote control." I didn't tell her that I've done the same thing; I just laughed along with her.

Let's hope we get a break in the weather soon. It's fun bumping into friends and acquaintances around town, meeting for coffee, or just driving around looking at Christmas decorations. While you're out, though, you might want to stock up on some things. I heard on the Today Show that we're in for a long winter.