Cabin fever?

It's not even dark yet and it feels like it was a week instead of a weekend. Father in law needed to get out of the house, the last 4 months have been rough, and the last 2 weeks hellacious. He hadn't slept alone in a few months shy of 60 years, and he had never been in their current house alone for more than a few hours.

Where does the cabin fever come in? It doesn't, I just heard someone in town talking and they said they had cabin fever.... WHAT?!?!?
We did happen to be at a little eatery full of couples our age, and while the food was good, hearing people say they are tired of being cooped up was annoying.

I know that I'm (and we are) untypical and the grain goes in all directions instead of how everyone thinks it should go. How can anyone have cabin fever around here?

Let's start with the first night and a little walk with Rock....

We broke the retractable leash, now we use a 30' lead.

That's right, can't see this if your head is buried in a TV

Seems like a great vaccination against cabin fever.

I don't understand how people, who are able, don't get out.

Father in law spent his first night out of his house, without his sweetie, and he was able to get some rest. He ventured to the end of the driveway and even made his way to the woodshed with me as I checked to make sure there wasn't any wind damage. It was windy in the tree's but on Saturday it settled down some.
Until I went running that is. 10 mph constant wind in the plains, if not 15-20, and big gusts. I'm obviously stubborn and kept going to the designated extraction point. I was completely drained from the sun and from the energy expelled to stay upright as the wind blew sideways the entire distance.

Doesn't look windy does it? It was my turn to extract someone.

Expelling energy means you have to fuel up!

It wasn't enough but I was full. Needed 10 more.

Mountain eating and a cabin tradition of blueberry pancakes!

Saturday night proved exciting in the skies as well.

That's looking back towards the city home and Pikes Peak.

The woods.

Looking South towards our usual hiking area.

Sunday was a nice sunny day and what better thing to do than punish myself with another run. Rock was already pretty tired, we totaled 8 miles on his paws in a little over 24 hours. This is from our early morning hike:

Pitbull on bull action!

Moon!

More moon.

Mollie, the in laws dog, can walk about 200 feet at a time, she needs to be conditioned. A lot. The dogs spent a lot of time together and get a long great. Rock is under socialized but there are only a few dogs he gets long with Mollie obviously, and Lorie (the Amish neighbors dog).

My Sunday run was pretty horrible. My legs were destroyed from the hiking and running I had already done, but I headed out at a faster pace than before. The wind was just a simple 10 mph headwind but no gusts. I was extracted and returned to a chore list, so we worked hard. Father in law commented that we sure don't let the grass grow under our feet. He also was impressed with our supplies and how we had just about anything he asked for. We need to work on medication for him, he needs a longer supply than 30 days especially if he is going to be down here a lot.

We finally got the outside holiday lights taken down, the comforter beaten and hung outside to air out in the sun (to the joy of the Amish that went by), the firewood rack was refilled on the porch, the fireplace ashes were cleaned up and tossed out, we filled the bird feeder and we checked the chimney for soot. It needs to be cleaned but it's not dire, we will try and get it done this coming weekend. The cabin is cleaned, laundry is done. Dinner consisting of elk meat, potatoes and onions has been eaten and now it's just me. Father in law ended up getting some good walks in, on his own, and felt a lot better than he did when he first showed up. I told him it's the thin air, but he actually has some goals and ideas for the future, so that's great news. It's a slow process but nothing we do is slow so he got swept up in it.

In total I put in over 17 miles of running and hiking since Friday afternoon. The weather here is in the mid 50's for the next week minus one day of possible snow. The water is starting to flow but I'm not fooled, it's only February.

Compared to the other photo's this one is dull.

I need to put some canned goods away and do the dishes before I settle down into a good book. It was a great weekend.