Little Old Men

The Island King and Saul Overman have been best friends for almost 30 years.

Which means that when I met the Island King 25 years ago, Saul sort of came with the package.

Luckily, we get along so the fact that he's around a lot doesn't bother me.

But lately I've been noticing a trend.

We've been to Tower Camp several times in the past 2 months and those two have been friends for so long that they've morphed into this little old married couple.

They bicker constantly and one night they started arguing over the heat of the fire and I swear I laughed until I cried.

When Saul looked at the Island King and said “I'm gonna hit you with this stick if you put one more log on that fire” I almost fell out of my chair.

They intentionally poke at each other – just like married people. They remind me a lot of my mother's parents who used to crack me up.

Saul is big on maps and knowing exactly where he's going and how he's going to get there. The Island King has been married to me long enough to have learned the fine art of throwing the map out the window and seeing “where this road goes”

So whenever they go off together Saul will be looking at his map, telling the Island King to turn this way or that and of course the Island King turns the opposite direction. Which freaks Saul out and always makes me laugh.

They also like to go to yard sales and flea markets together, where they spend all of their time saying to each other “You don't need that. Why are you buying that?”

Just like little old married people.

While all of this is funny, the real kicker is that both of them have a good degree of hearing loss.

I know I shouldn't laugh about that but one of them will say something, the other won't hear, the first one yells his sentence and inevitably the other one will say “Why are you yelling at me?”

A lot of times I'll be standing next to one of them and he can tell the other said something but couldn't hear what so he'll look at me and ask what was said.

This is a terrible thing to admit but the fact is that I am unable to control myself and stir the pot - a LOT.

“He said you suck at making a fire” or “He said you don't know how to work the stove” or “What did you do to him – he just called you an a$$hole”

Which then causes them to bicker more and me to laugh even harder.

Saul and I were both bitching about different things at the same time the other day and the Island King threw his hands up in the air and said “Why on earth ANY man would want 2 wives I'll never understand!”

Saul yelled “I'm not your wife!” and I fell out of the chair again.


Hanging out with the two of them always guarantees me a good laugh.

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