“I’m sick of winter!” Dave Winston told the other guys when they gathered at Mabel’s Grill for breakfast the other morning.

“Good grief, winter only started the other week,” said Cliff Murray.

“Officially,” Dave said, “but we’ve had snow on the ground since late November. That’s winter to me.”

“But you spend most of the day indoors in your pig barn,” George MacKenzie said. “Imagine if you had to be outside like me, moving hay bales to feed cattle.”

“I’m worried about having to replace my snowblower, after last year and the way things started this year,” said Cliff. “It must be a good time for the guys who make those.”

The conversation ended with the arrival of Molly Whiteside with her coffee pot and the menus.

“Have you guys made any New Year’s resolutions?” she asked as she filled their cups.

“I don’t know if I’ll bother,” Dave said. “I’ve done it so many times and gone back to my old ways eventually.”

“My kids always make resolutions,”  Molly said. “I think last year my son lasted almost until noon on New Year’s Day before he broke his resolution. My daughter lasted about five days.”

“Once I get my sheep fed I expect I’ll just sit in the house and watch the college bowl games,” said Cliff.

“Oh, you’re so energetic,” Molly smirked.

“What always gets me about these big college games is the players play for nothing but free tuition, while 100,000 people show up and pay big bucks for seats,” said Dave.

“And the coaches get well paid coaching players who get nothing,” added Cliff.

“Yeah, but a lot of the players end up getting millions when they turn pro, don’t they?” Molly asked.

“A few, but only a few,” said George. “Most of them just go on to ordinary jobs.”

After that Molly collected their breakfast orders and headed back to give them to Mabel in the kitchen.

“The thing that gets me is how long the National Football League season is,” said Dave. “I mean it’s fine for games in Florida or Texas or California but already in Buffalo they’ve had one game where they had to sweep the snow off the field to see the yard markers.”

The football discussion wound down, and then George started a new topic when he recalled that at Christmas his wife’s brother visited for the first time in years. “He was surprised we didn’t have more modern furniture,” George said. “This from a guy who drives a Mercedes!”

“City people just don’t understand our realities,” Cliff said.

“I’ll say,” grumbled George. “He complained that he has to pay too much for his prime rib roasts and thought we should be living rich.”

“He probably didn’t hear the part in the news that said the cattle population was the lowest it’s been since the 1980s,” said Dave, “back in the days when people like my dad lost their shirts in cattle because interest rates were so high.”

“And we’ve probably got twice as many people living in Canada as we did back then.” said George.

“But so many beef farmers are so old they’re retiring,” Cliff said.

“Don’t look at me when you say that,” growled George.

Molly arrived back with their orders. “So, have you guys got your equipment ready for planting?” she wondered.

“That’s months away,” said Dave. “We’ve hardly begun winter yet.”

“Yeah but we can be hopeful,” Molly said. “We might as well think positively.”

“This from someone who gets to spend her days in a nice warm dining room,” muttered Dave.

“And gets chilled every time you come in the door and let cold air in. And has to mop the floor after you guys have snow melt off you boots.”

“You poor dear. I’ll have to offer you a job in my un-heated garage fixing my tractor,” Tim countered.◊