Fat Louie was a fat fluffy white duck. He lived in a man made pond called Snapfinger Woods Lake.The pond was located east of Atlanta, and had been created as an amenity for the residents of Snapfinger Woods Estates, a small failed condominium complex that had gone broke,and been converted to rental units.
Fat Louie was called Fat because he was the fastest swimmer of the 12 to 14 ducks who called Snapfinger Woods Lake their home. Every day, the human residents would throw bread, cake, pizza crusts, and other assorted unhealthy foods into the pond.
It was a race for the food. Fat Louie being the fastest, would usually get there first. He would eat,and eat,and eat some more. Soon,Louie was the fatest duck in the pond.
When Fat Louie developed the gout as a result of eating too much rich food, he was forced out of the pond by the rest of the flock, who considered him defective due to his infirmity.
Following several years of unusually heavy rainfall,Atlanta, and the Southeast in general had suffered through a fairly severe drought, reaching a high or perhaps low point during the Summer.
When Fat Louie’s recently purchased overflow culvert/home dried up, he defaulted on his mortgage, and lost his home to foreclosure becoming part of the subprime statistic.The bad luck of a recession and the untimely drought had hurt everyone .
Even a fat white duck.
The low water levels and lean times resulted in Fat Louie dropping some weight. His gout disappeared.Fat Louie's recovery made him acceptable to the other ducks.
Halloween night in Atlanta was unusually chilly. The trick or treaters were forced to wear sweaters and jackets, a most unusual occurence that early in the season. The children argued, the parents grumbled, and everyone shrugged it off as an aberration. After all global warming was melting the glaciers.
This year was the exception.
Fat Louie’s downe came in thicker and earlier than in past years.
Fat Louie was invited to a family reunion by his cousins in New York .The reunion was an annual affair usually lasting for most of the month of November. Donald and Donna Duck, were residents of Hempstead Lake State Park, and this year was New York’s turn to host the festivities.
Donald and Donna had been planning the event starting the day that last years ended. They caught a ride back to Long Island , from Minnesota’s Thousand Lakes, on a poulty truck.The meetings and formations began almost immediately.
Accommodation’s and food for several thousand relatives had to be balanced with ecological concerns.
Preserving Nature was a fowl obligation,and the Duck family took it seriously.
November was always the chosen month.It was Fall yet still mild enough to allow the family time to migrate to Wintering destinations before it became too cold to travel.
The week after Halloween, Fat Louie and several thousand of his cousins descended upon a small lake just north of New York City.
The weather in New York was also cooler than usual, and became very cold midway through the month.
The celebrations were attended with great enthusiasm by most members of the Duck family, but several of the wild cousins sensing the onset of early Winter , organized their flight formations, and left for winter homes in warmer climates.
By Thanksgiving, the cold blast of winter chill accompanied by blustery winds and single digit wind chills, took the joy out of the Duck family reunion .
The day after Thanksgiving was so cold that Grandpa Duck had died of frost during the night.
The panic spread like a Chicken Hawk on the prowl.
The Duck family took to flight, knocking into each other , flying in panicked circles.
The cold weather had come early . Heading south was a matter of life and death.
On the lake, some cooler heads prevailed.” Let them go”quacked Fat Louie.” This is the age of global warming.
This cold weather is just an accident.
Probably the coldest day of the year.”
Epilogue: The winter that seems endless is still dragging on.
Record cold weather has lingered from Halloween night (Oct.31st) almost without respite.
Multiple layers and wearing hats has become more of a necessity less a fashion statement.
And its only the end of February.
Well the good news is that despite the prolonged uninterrupted cold, we havn’t had very much snow. Snow would make things really miserable.
If it wasn’t for global warming we would really be in trouble.
Maybe even be into a new Ice Age.