Tall tales on falling rain and rising water
MIDDLEBURGH — Rain, rain, go away, come again another day!
We are sure glad this is May, not January, because, if it were, we could be digging out of two or three feet of’snow instead of singing, “Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream.” As we drove over to Mrs K's Kitchen in Middleburgh on May 7, we saw virtually all the streams and creeks overflowing their banks.
While no flooding was occurring on the roads or threatening any homes, water was getting a little close to some of them. Rained all day and even topped it off with a thunder-and-lighting show around 9 p.m.
At least it wasn’t cold as the OMOTM made their way to Mrs K’s for breakfast. Once there, you will never guess what the conversations centered about. Yup, rain.
With all the smaller streams and creeks overflowing their banks in many places, and just about all of them eventually flowing into the bigger Schoharie Creek, the question was whether or not it would crest its own banks. The Schoharie Creek was certainly running high and fast.
The topic of the relative merits of the manufacturer of tires, specifically rain tires, naturally was at or close to the top of these discussions.
One OF lamented that, even though he had thoroughly researched rain tires (he was living in North Carolina at the time where tropical storms and hurricanes often visit), when he last bought tires for his car, that was some 60,000 miles ago.
It is a fact that, with the loss of tread on your tires, there is a corresponding loss of traction, no matter how good the tire was when new. Might be time to think about some new tires.
There is nothing wrong with the OMOTM’s sense of humor early on a rainy morning as was clearly demonstrated by some of the following overheard statements.
There were more than a few classic comments floating around the tables dealing with the rising water. Such as:
— “There were white caps on the brand new pond in my back yard!”
— “I think I need an air boat, to get across my yard”;
— “I could stock my front yard with trout and go fishing,;on second thought, it might have fish already in it from the creek that flooded”;
— “I think my big new pond in the backyard has tides, it does have a couple of ducks!”and
— “I should float my kayak out there.”
Birthday cacophony
The OMOTM were asked to quiet down and give their attention for a very important special announcement. We don't have announcements very often so we knew that something important was afoot.
Since the OMOTM have no officers or anything like that, it can be a bit tricky trying to get a bunch of old guys who are hard of hearing in the first place, to all pay attention at the same time, to just one guy. The job of getting the attention of everyone usually falls to one of the select few loud mouths present at that particular breakfast meeting.
This announcement had to do with our waitress. Now, the waitresses at the five diners the OMOTM travel to on a rotating basis are extremely important. There are only five of them, one per diner, and they know everything!
They know all of us, and we know them. They know where we are going to sit; they know what we are going to order — that’s why none of them even offer to hand any of us a menu. They know which of us wants regular coffee or decaf.
They are always nice, always pleasant, always happy to see us. (That's because we are such big tippers; it is still the same as the tax, right? — right?)
The big news was, it was our waitress’s birthday! Angela is the best waitress at Mrs K'’ Kitchen. As I said, there is only one waitress at Mrs K’s; that’s OK, Angela is still the best one there! By far.
We all sang “Happy Birthday” to her. It was terrible. Every time the OMOTM sing “Happy Birthday,” it never gets any better. Rock-bottom bad. It brings tears to your eyes, but it is sung with sincerity and feeling and a lot of gusto.
Cars stop outside because they hear this awful sound and get confused as to what it means and where it is coming from, and how to get away from it. We are never asked to sing it again.
Even Pastor Jay Francis of the Rock Road Chapel Ministries clearly is not considering the OMOTM for an all-male choir on Sundays. I think I heard him say something to the effect of, “There is enough misery and sadness in the world; there is no real need to add to it.”
Well, today was great, the sun was shining, blue skies, no rain, and the OMOTM got to serenade Angela on her birthday, with gusto. The boys in the OMOTM choir who also enjoyed breakfast at Mrs K'’ Kitchen were; Wally Guest, Harold Guest, Ed Goff, Wm Lichliter, George Washburn, Pete Whibeck, Joe Rack, Frank A. Fuss, Robert Schanz, Warren Willsey, Lou Schenck, Herb Bahrmann, Al Schager, John Jaz, Jerry Cross, Jack Norray, Elwood Vanderbilt, Dave Hodgetts, Bob Donnelly, Alan Defazio, Glenn Patterson, Roland Tozer, Duncan Bellinger, Jacob Lederman, Ted Feurer, Wayne Gaul, Russ Pokorny, Jim Gardner, John Dab, Paul Guiton, Gerry Chartier, and me.