Mulli of the MidWest

Cabin Fever

Friday night I was forced to watch a Horrible, Frightening, Disturbing, Movie. I could not move to another part of the house because Oldest Lad had brought yet another beautiful Young Lady home for the evening, and I had to be make myself available to entertain her, and to kiss her, and to allow her to run her hands over my luxurious fur.

The movie was: "The Shining," starring Jack Nickolson. Jack Nickolson plays the part of a writer named Jack who moves his family to Colorado to become the sole caretakers of a haunted hotel for the winter.

Jack quickly develops a horrible case of CABIN FEVER! I am certain that I, Mulligan have this terrible Cabin Fever. It is well known that Cincinnati has had mountains of snow and ice this winter and the Lads are well over their number of school "calamity days" throwing me completely off my schedule.

Jack develops Writer's Block. His poor wife discovers that he has been writing pages, volumes, even of the same sentence: "All work and no play make Jack a dull boy."

I, Mulligan, sometimes suffer from Writer's Block! Yes, I often can not think of anything to write in my diary! Someday will I succumb to writing diary entry after diary entry of: "You can't teach an old dog new tricks."?

The Hotel, called the "Overlook" has a Hedge Maze. This is what eventually Does Jack In. He gets lost in the Maze and freezes to death.

The Mulligan Compound is Surrounded by Hedge! In the most recent ice storm parts of it even bent down so low to the ground that it practically grabbed me as I tried to "do my business!"

Oh, I am certain that I already have the terribly Cabin Fever. Poor Jack eventually chases his family around the hotel wielding a giant Axe. That is how poor Jack gets lost in the Hedge and freezes to death. Shall that be my fate as well? Will I soon be chasing my family around the Mulligan Compound, wielding my Giant Teeth, only to get lost in the Thicket, where I shall be found, frozen, pathetic, and with no more Diary Entries?