Fickle weather affects everyone from farmers to ski-resort workers

SCHOHARIE — The snow storm that wasn’t. There are times when the OMOTM are really glad that they are who they are and not those trying to predict what track Mother Nature will take with a particular snow storm.

We expect these meteorologists to tell us how many inches of snow we will get down in the valley, compared to up here in the mountains and Hilltowns. We expect them to tell us when the storm will start and when it will end, and to do all of this days in advance and to do it with 100-percent accuracy. No mistakes, no changing the forecast. Good luck with that.

Then we get this system. From the get-go, this was a problem. Will the storm track take the storm far enough south of us with the result being little or no snow? Will it track a little farther north resulting in a few inches of snow, to as much as a foot or more?

Every day, it seemed like the track would move north, then move back south. Add to all this, there are several different weather-expert agencies from all over the place each predicting their own version of what is going to happen when.

The OMOTM don’t have to try to predict the weather; we just have to remember where to show up for breakfast on Tuesdays. This Tuesday it was the Your Way Café in Schoharie. Next week, it will be Gibby’s.

A nice group of us traveled to breakfast over clear and dry roads with smiles on our faces and more than a little amount of relief that there was not a flake of snow to be found anywhere!

The lack of snow and cold this winter did initiate a discussion of how seasonal businesses cope with this season’s unusual weather. If the weather is too warm, there is no ice on the lakes, no snow on the mountain, so those folks who bought a new plow for their pickup truck so they can plow driveways and parking lots are just sitting idle. But they still have to pay the bill for the plow.

Then there are all the companies who stocked up on their winter inventories of products for work or play. Products ranging from a simple snow shovel or ice skates, to snowshoes and skis all the way to big-ticket items like snow blowers and snowmobiles. 

All of this is not limited to wintertime. How about the farmers? A great many OMOTM are more than a little knowledgeable about this topic.

We talked about the service industry, those who earn a living fixing stuff like boat engines or lawn mowers or air-conditioners. We even mentioned all the seasonal workers such as the resort personnel who work at the ski resort restaurants and on and on.

Old cats

Such serious talk was thankfully replaced by much more interesting and light-hearted topics such as the advanced age some cats reach. Stories of cats who “adopted” a particular garage but you couldn't get near them, feral cats, I believe.

They would leave food for them, which they ate, but they could never get them to come inside their house. In fact, they really rarely ever saw them.

A couple of OFs  told of their cats reaching well into their 20s. Those were the domestic cats, not the feral cats. Feral cats don’t live very long.

A tale of two mailboxes

One OF related the saga of his driveway(s) and mailboxes. Seems this OF has a large lot with several hundred feet of frontage.

At one end of the lot he has a small shop building and at the other end of the property, he built his house. He has a long driveway to his house at one end of his lot, as it is set back from the road quite a ways, and a short driveway ( two or three car lengths) to the shop building, which is located close to the road at the other end.

He was informed in short order that there can only be one driveway per lot. But he needed both.

So as the driveway issues were being worked out, the post office decided that the one mailbox, which was in place for a decade or so, was in a dangerous location for the postal-delivery person and would have to be moved to a safer location.

So the OF moved the mailbox and all was well for another decade. 

Then the post office said that the house was one address and the shop was a different address and mail for one address could not be put into a mailbox of another address. OK, so the OF put up another mailbox — and the story of great postal service and a happy OF postal customer has continued unchecked for another decade.

All is well for the moment; just don’t breathe.

Have I mentioned that there was another learning curve of information regarding culverts and driveways? No? Another story for another time in the life and times of the OMOTM.

Those OMOTM who gathered at the Your Way Café without a snowflake in sight were: Harold Guest, Wally Quest, Roger Shafer, Joe Rack, MarkTraver, Glenn Ptterson, Warren Willsey, Russ Pokorny, Elwood Vanderbilt, Bob Donnely, Miner Stevens, Bill Lichliter, Frank Fuss, Marty Herzog, Ed Goff, Rick LaGrange, Jake Herzog, Lou Schenck, Jack Norray, Gerry Cross, John Dabs, Paul Guiton, and me.