Chris: “Morning Cicely. 8:00 A.M. muchachos. Time to finish those flapjacks, knock back that second cup of joe, get ready to greet the day. Temperature's creeping towards double digits as the solar drought continues--23 days, an average of an hour and a half of sunlight every day. No relief on the horizon. Which only makes sense cause there is no horizon. Our friends at the weather service are calling for another storm and as we know, they've been batting a thousand lately. Hey, let's check our social calendar. Nothing. Total blank. It's cabin fever season people, that time of year when four walls feel like they're going to come in here and choke the spirit right out of you. Time to lock away those firearms and hang tough. No way through it except to do it.”

With only about an hour of sunshine each day in Cicely, Joel is desperate to get to Juneau for an annual medical conference. Unfortunately, a storm front hits and Maggie is unable to fly. To make matters worse, Joel's truck won't start and they hole up in the airport cabin to wait out the storm. Discovering a stash of delicacies, Joel and Maggie snuggle in for a romantic night, until they are caught in an intimate kiss when Ed, who had been filming in the woods and became lost, shows up on the doorstep. Ed eats their dinner, joins them for Monopoly, and falls blissfully asleep while the couple wonder what become of their evening for two.

To help pass the long sunless days during cabin-fever season, Ruth-Anne begins the task of learning Italian so she can read Dante in its original form. She struggles with it until Shelly reveals a fluent capability and agrees to be Ruth-Anne's unlikely study parmer. Frustrated at her own slow progress, Ruth-Anne becomes jealous, but finally realizes to accept what you're given and enjoys the rhapsody of the language as Shelly recites the work to her.

When Walt gets depressed due to the lack of sunlight, Joel fits him with a special light visor. He immediately becomes addicted to the contraption and abuses it by increasing the doses well above the prescribed levels. Feeling invincible, he chops wood without gloves and gets into a fender bender with a snow plow. Chris and Holling finally stage an intervention and Walt agrees to use the visor in doses, monitored by Marilyn.

WINE OF THE WEEK: L'Enclos, Pomerol. Hey you know something, Joel, Maggie, Maurice -- lay off the hard stuff for a week, okay? No wonder the town is so goddamned loony.

Shelly MARIE Tambo (first time we hear of her middle name).
Tammy can eat six burritos at a sitting.
Holling drives a landcruiser.
Ruth-Anne is an atheist.
The Kamsepset Sink Hole (three mile cavern w/ Indian artifacts), one of our most faacinating natural wonders, according to Holling.

• King Porter Stomp - Gene Krupa

• Heart on a Sleeve - Tom Russell

• O Mio Babbino Caro from opera "Gianni Schicci" - Kira Te Kenawa

Books [Shelly helps Ruth-Anne with Italian.]

Owen is the third in the intervention of Walt.

Seasonal Affective Disorder

Una Volta in L'Inverno is Italian for "One Time in Winter."

Light Visor available at Norwood Designs.