The Cabin Fever Kit

Waiting for Spring

O, yeah, I'm definitely waiting for spring. Spring cannot come soon enough for me. I think I am permanently and terminally cold. I'm cold down to my marrow. I don't have enough layers of clothing. I think the cold somehow found its way inside to my core.

I think I have Cabin Fever. The time change was a glimmer of hope that spring was in the air. And then abruptly, overnight, temps went right straight down to zero! ZERO. I had to pull out my down comforter that I had stored away only two weeks earlier. I had to drag out my down coat that I moved to the back of the closet because I thought my fleece jacket would be sufficient, where it is only good to about 40 degrees.

Anyway, Cabin Fever. It brought up a memory from way back when I was first married and my husband and I were stationed in Val d'Or, Quebec, way far north in the "bush" country, where upon leaving your house, you looked both ways for either rampaging moose or runaway snowmobiles. My mother sent us a package that contained two kits, one for me to make a beaded purse and one for my husband to make a string art ship. It had to go through customs and when it got there, well, it started an international crisis in a minor way. Mom had labeled the return address as "Ye Olde Rice Cabin Fever Kit" (Rice is my maiden name).

Mr. Customs Guy (who speaks with a very heavy French accent): Yes, we have a package here from Ye Olde Rice Cabin Fever Kit, but I can't find it listed on our company list.

Me: uh, it's from my Mom.

Mr. Customs Guy: Is this a company in Spokane, Washington?

Me: uh, it's from my Mom.

Mr. Customs Guy: Has Ye Olde Rice Cabin Fever Kit been registered with the Canadian Customs Corporation Department?

Me: It's from my mother.

Mr. Customs Guy: (sighs) Ok, I will register Ye Olde Rice Cabin Fever Kit as a foreign corporation.

This is the short version. It went round and round for about fifteen minutes with Mr. Customs Guy growing increasingly short with me and me growing increasingly frustrated with him and my mother.

We finally got our cabin fever package and enjoyed several days of assembling our different projects.

And even today there is a listing on the register in Quebec for Ye Olde Rice Cabin Fever Kit Company.

.