Fishing With Trish...

Don't Waste Your Cabin Fever

Last Christmas season was very cold. We experienced lots of ice here in Texas and had nearly one week where we couldn’t leave the house because the ice was so thick. For those of you living in the very cold states like New York and Minnesota I know what you are thinking, “If only she knew what it's really like. She is a lightweight!” But bear with me; I woke up one day to find a rather large leak in the ceiling of my office from the ice melting off the roof, that ruined the carpet and an entire wall. And because I work from home, it was certainly an eyesore. Not only that, but the heaviness of the ice had caused my car windshield to crack. During all of this I began receiving reports from some of our church members that several people had slipped on the ice, one of them requiring an ambulance. All of this happened while we were stuck in the house not able to go anywhere. I was beginning to feel cabin fever setting in.

The cabin fever was getting so bad that I was even beginning to have the urge to go running, and I’m not even a runner. I was so tired of being in the house that even running was starting to sound appealing.

Finally, the ice started to melt and one afternoon I heard sirens outside. The wailing got louder and louder, which instantly worried me. My first thought was that someone else had fallen on the ice and had called for an ambulance. As I peered out my office window, my eyes scanned the street to see where it was coming from. Sure enough an ambulance and fire truck were slowly creeping up my street. “Lord, please have mercy on whoever is in trouble.” But as they drove closer I heard honking, and saw Santa on top of the engine yelling “Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!” "Is this some sort of joke?", I thought. Then it dawned on me that it must be some sort of tradition within the city that I was unaware of since we had just moved there. Seeing that I had cabin fever and a strong desire to run, I looked over at my bookshelves, saw a stack of Ray Comfort’s 180 Movie DVDs, tucked them under my arm, grabbed my shoes and darted out of the house to catch the fire engine. But they were moving too fast for my slow feet. So I began to shout to each neighbor that was outside saying, “Merry Christmas and happy New Year…here’s a gift for you!” The neighbors were so grateful and shocked. They must have thought that I worked for the Fire Department and had been hired to run behind them and give everyone gifts on their behalf as I could hear several neighbors yelling “Hello!” back to me and, “Wow! How much do they pay you to do that?!” Only eternity will show the rewards.