Silly Hat.

 In this world full of complexities one thing, one little thing, is clear.

Peter (aka The CurMUDgeon) does not like my new hat.

Well, he keeps mentioning his distaste for it.

Really, it's not the end of the world.

It looked like someone had pulled the plug on a huge hand basin. The water in Whangarei harbour was dropping in level rather quickly. Peter was standing on his deck. He'd gone out to inspect some wind damage.

Not the end of the world either?

A chair had been blown over by a sudden wind burst and now he could see that the harbour was draining. He also noticed that the sky was turning red and this redness was eclipsing the sun. There was a strange rumbling that seemed to be coming from the distant hills. Would the water come rushing back, like a tsunami, to wash his house off its foundations? This felt like THE END OF THE WORLD!

In the brief time that this assumption took to take over his thoughts, and the reality started to set in, there was no time to think, or be cynical, about Richard's hat. If Peter had had time to realize that, I'm sure he would have seen the pointlessness of his obsession, but no time for that now! A huge wave was forming. Big enough to block out the mountain range that was a distant part of his everyday view. 

No place to run, no place to hide. No time to wonder if Richard was wearing his new hat.