Outguess Ma Nature? Nope

I remember a long-ago commercial for a certain brand of margarine, in which Mother Nature is fooled into thinking this particular margarine is actually butter. After a guy says it “even fooled you,” she says, accompanied by thunder, lightning and animals scurrying for cover, “It isn’t nice to fool Mother Nature.”

However Ma Nature, or M.N. for these purposes, doesn’t seem to have any compunction at all, when it comes to fooling with us humans. It may not be fair, but it’s the way things are.

Case in point: I’m looking out the door at thick clouds and leaves blowing in the wind. It’s been like that all day, and the prognosticators have promised that it’s probably going to rain at some point.

I need to make a trip to the grocery store. It’s not a chore I mind doing, but I don’t like getting wet. That’s especially true of a chilly wet, which this promises to be. I also hate having wet groceries. No matter how I try to protect the bread, it somehow manages to get wet if it’s raining.

It hasn’t rained so far, although it has looked like it would for hours. So I step out onto the porch, and then into the driveway, heading for my car.

One big drop hits me – splat – as I get halfway to the car. I turn around and head back on the porch. I see no more drops. Okay, I think to myself, and start walking out to the car again.

I see two drops hit the windshield of the car. I go back to the porch. No more drops. The drops that hit the windshield actually dry up. One last time, I say to myself as I step off the porch.

This time, the rain comes in earnest. I have to admit, it could have waited until I was coming out of the store with a bunch of groceries. Still, I felt like it was playing with me. I could hear ol’ M.N. chuckling to herself.

There are more instances of M.N. messing with us, for no other reason than she can, and there’s nothing we can do about it. I’ve heard people talk about having to run their heaters and then their air conditioners on the same day. In fact, I’ve had to do it myself. Is that nice? Come on, M.N.

She also held off on rain until some farmers were out in their fields, trying to harvest. Naughty. Too bad nobody can trump Mother Nature. And man, does she know it.

•••••

I mentioned in a recent column that I don’t think the technology is there yet for electricity to replace the internal combustion engine. But I also said it probably would, someday. I still feel that way. I'm just not terribly sure that I'll be around to see it.

Of course, I'm about as tech-savvy as a rock, and can't really put myself out there as an expert on such things. Still, things are happening that make me scratch my head and wonder.

For instance, a lot has been said, positively and negatively, about that law in California. You know, the one that says no gas powered vehicles will be sold in that state after 2035. And there is talk that some other states are thinking about such a law.

That’s 13 years from now. A lot of folks will probably just forget about it. But if it does happen, I wonder what it'll be like? All of a sudden, although there will no doubt be a lot of warning, you can't buy a gas-driven vehicle? I don't know.

Of course, there are going to be breakdowns and glitches and folks who'll say it'll never work. There were problems aplenty when gas-powered cars first came on the scene, along with a goodly number of nonbelievers ("Get a horse!"), but they were overcome. Will the problems that come with electric cars be overcome?

There weren't a lot of paved roads for gas-powered cars at first. And there weren't a lot of gas stations at first. I've heard stories of people taking a can of gas with them on trips, just in case.

Well, the paved road problem isn't what it was back then. However, what about "filling stations," as we used to call them? There will have to be a lot of charging stations up and running successfully, before Mom and Dad feel free to load up the family and drive from coast to coast in an all-electric vehicle. And will the family car be plugged in overnight at home, like some gigantic cell phone?

Will everything be perfect? Shucks, no. True, the internal combustion engine pollutes, and electric cars may take care of that. But sooner or later, if electric vehicles take over, there will be all those worn-out batteries that someone's going to have to deal with. Can they – will they – be recycled? Maybe. And all that electricity will have to be generated somehow, somewhere. Coal? Solar? Wind? Hmmmm.