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Subject: RE: Re[2]: We're SPOILED! (was Re: The Roadster Factory)
Author: "Lindberg, Andrew (MN12)" <Andrew.Lindberg@CORP.honeywell.com> at
smtpcc
Date: 5/10/96 9:48 AM
=Jim Sudduth wrote (slightly edited): "TR6, top-down in the California
=sunshine - Oh, sorry you guys! How do you midwesterners stand it? If I go
=for more than a week without driving my TR6 I begin to suffer withdrawal
=symptoms - irritation, fidgetyness, loss of concentration caused by a
=pervasive longing for the wind in my hair and that marvelous sound a TR6
=makes at 3500 rpms on the open road. I mean, I'd be in the Funny Farm by
=the time Spring finally came. I'm serious here: what gets you through?"
Thanks for answering, Andy!
=Assuming that you are serious, you should know that the symptoms you list are a
=good description of a condition known colloquially as "cabin fever." There is a
=subset of this that is a recognized medical condition -- with a
=label something like "sunshine deficit disorder" that is treated by sun
=lamps, etc. (I am not kidding about this.) In Minnesota, many examples
=of these afflictions are noticed in February, March and April. This year
=we are still seeing outbreaks in May.
Yes, I am serious. We've had a couple of unusually rainy years here in
California and it's driven me up the wall. When I see the weather reports
from other parts of the country I can only wonder how others afflicted with
LBC Mania (which should also be a recognized medical condition!) deal with
it.
I've heard of the sunshine deficit disorder (something to do with the
thalamus, I believe?). It's a very real and serious condition and can cause
far-reaching mental and physical symptoms, clinical depression and bone
disorders being two.
=What gets people through? First, some people do suffer actual mental
=breakdowns. On the other hand, the healthier LBC owners divide the year
=into two seasons: driving season and restoration season. (Restoration
=season, in turn, is broken down into days where you can acquire frostbite
=simply by touching your LBC and the nicer days, when the temperature in
=your garage is above zero.) FYI, we are currently on the cusp between
=restoration and driving seasons.
So basically it's a matter of sublimating the driving urge into the
restoring urge. Maybe it would be a good thing for me to do more of that. My
driving urge tends to dominate and I don't get the restoration work done
that I should because of the frequent, irresistable opportunities, even in
January and February, to hit the road instead of fixing my seats, for
example. I mean it's a Saturday morning in January, it's been raining all
week but it's sunny now and the weatherman predicts tempertures in the 70's
- would you spend all day in the garage?
Well, here's hoping that the cusp stage is short and you all can get those
TRs out of the garages and begin proper treatment for those sunshine
deficits!
Jim
TR6 in Berzerkely
Hope this helps.
Andy Lindberg
TR3 in Minnesota
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