Mother Nature has all the weapons: Fire, wind, and water
Once upon a time (which now seems a long time ago but then again it is not so long ago) a few at that time not so old, Old Men of the Mountain would gather in the kitchen of one of the OMOTM. The wife of this OF got tired of this and refused to keep serving these OGs coffee and kicked them out of the house.
The OFs milled around outside and came to a serious conclusion: “Now what?”
The OFs (not really old yet) piled into one of the OF’s vehicles and headed off to a restaurant so they could still be waited on for their cups of coffee. This turned into a really good idea, and it appeased the old lady because the OFs were out of the house, out from underfoot, and she could have a relaxing cup of coffee without having to listen to these old guys lie to each other.
This Tuesday, Oct. 4, the anniversary of the infamous October snowstorm, the Old Men of the Mountain met at the Middleburgh Diner in Middleburgh where they now had started to gather around 7 a.m. instead of 9:30 or 10 like in the beginning.
The original group was small, retired, and easygoing, but as more friends joined the fraternal brothers of OFs they had things to do and places to go, so the original OFs acquiesced to the OFs who had things to do and places to go and started meeting earlier.
Eventually, the OFs were at the doors of some of the restaurants, waiting for them to open up. The old farmer conditioning had kicked in. To many, the sliding back of the manger door, the lowing of the cows, was a pleasant call to the early hours of the morning.
Judging Judge
Now, not many of the OMOTM are farmers, but there are a few who know what all this means, because at the breakfast this past Tuesday morning, one of the first topics was, “When was Aaron Judge going to hit number 62?”
As of Tuesday morning’s breakfast, this achievement had not yet been done. Some thought that, because of the pressure, Judge was way off his stride and wasn’t going to make it, while others felt some pitcher was going to make a mistake and cough one up close to where Judge could at least get part of the barrel of the bat on it and would hit number 62.
Some would just like to see him hit the ball and get the batting title.
Ian hits home
The OFs discussed Hurricane Ian in Florida for quite some time and how it impacted that area so badly. Some of the OFs had property in the locations where the storm hit.
One even showed pictures of his condo reduced to rubble.
Another OF owned property at one time, and then that got into a legal mess and does not know if he still owns it or not. Nothing has ever been done with it, and the OF said now he is glad they never built on it. The land is still that — just land. The plot is in what would be a suburb of Englewood.
Many of the OFs have friends or relatives smack-dab in the middle of where this hurricane came inland. Sanibel/Captiva, Fort Myers, Punta Gorda, and Rotunda were some of the places mentioned and, from all appearances, these places took a direct hit.
One OF said, “We have our blizzards but I will take them in place of a hurricane like this thing was.”
Another mentioned we had Irene, but even though that was bad and many people lost a lot, it was nothing compared to what the hurricane in Florida did. Not only this one but hurricanes in general do a great deal of damage. Andrew was another, which hit Homestead, Florida in 1992, and was the costliest until Ian came along.
Blizzards, the OFs seem to be able to battle, but they certainly are not looking forward to the next one.
Gender issues with naming
Since we were talking about disasters, how about all these fires? It seems Mother Nature has quite a repertoire: fire, wind, and water seem to be her arsenal.
How about, now that it has been determined nature is a woman, there can be a whole lot of shaking going on. Yeah, if that lady wants to let us know who is in charge, Mother Nature has all the weapons.
Who gave God the masculine nomenclature when it is Mother Earth, Mother Nature, and to cap it off ships, planes, trains, and cars, etc. are generally called “she?” It seems somewhere we got this naming thing wrong.
Inflation questions
With winter coming on, the price of heating fuel came up.
One OF asked, “How come fuel oil is more than gasoline?”
This OF said his last oil bill was over $800. Who has this kind of money?
Then an OF asked another question, “Who is getting all this money?”
The questions kept coming. One asked how can groceries jump so much so fast? One week Gatorade is $5.49 the next it is $6.49, and muffins are four for $4.69 one week and the next week the same muffins are $5.69. This rip-off money is going somewhere.
One OF said we should watch for the politicians building mansions and buying yachts; there has to be a bottom to the hole all this money seems to be thrown into. There the big-shot politicians are waiting, one OF commented, not the elected officials that we work with every day.
Some of those take every cent they can and give it away to those that really need it. When and where this changes the OF didn’t know, and with some it never does.
Those Old Men of the Mountain who would like to manage the Yankees and make what a big league ball player makes (and that is any kind of ball, basket, tennis, foot, whatever) had breakfast at the Middleburgh Diner and they were: Marty Herzog, Wally Guest, Harold Guest, Wayne Gaul, Ted Feurer (who has hiked 1,000 miles of the Appalachian Trail), Robie Osterman, George Washburn, Bill Lichliter, Jake Herzog, Duncan Bellinger, Rev. Jay Francis, Lou Schenck, Jack Norray, and me.