Talking time, Bonnies, CE Air Preheater, Motorola, and much more
By Chuck Wiser, I write the words to share what my eyes see and my heart feels
In am accustomed to getting up early “day of” to start writing or Wrambling but as a change of pace tonight on the night before I typically Wramble, I couldn’t get to sleep so decided to start very early. Subconsciously perhaps I am practicing what a fellow musician suggested yesterday (Tuesday) as an early start for my writings. There is a small group of musicians that have been gathering at the Wellsville Creative Arts venue to do some impromptu musical renderings. I have participated a couple of times now, but the typical meeting day/time coincided with my typical Wramblings writings time and so I deferred to writing rather than playing. For some reason or other we met on Tuesday this week, so I was able to participate. Upon thanking Dave Mason, the chief organizer of the group for choosing a Tuesday as opposed to the normal Thursday he suggested that I write my Wramblings on a Wednesday instead of Thursday so I could participate more frequently. Despite the fact that we have already met this week I must have subliminally catered to his wish and here I am at 1:00 AM “day of” writing a little early. I’m not sure I’ll get published early as owner/editor of the Wellsville Sun; Andrew Harris has me scheduled typically for a late Thursday publication time.
Whether it’s Wednesday or Thursday I just enjoy writing, and even more so when I receive a nod from anyone, especially from a fellow journalist as I did tonight.
Last week at a St. Bonaventure basketball game I noticed the familiar face of one of the areas former premier newspaper columnists/reporters. Debbie Clark was sitting a few rows from me. During a break in the action at tonight’s game where the Bonnies decimated the Cornell University team, I went over and reintroduced myself to Ms. Clark and told her I used to enjoy her writings when she wrote locally. She thanked me and said that she also enjoyed my Wramblings being a frequent reader of my Wramblings. What an honor coming from someone as popular and well known journalistically as she is/was. Her experiences now include having been appointed editor of alumni publications at Alfred University, returning to AU after a 16-year tenure at Alfred State College as director of public relations and associate director of media relations. Before beginning her communications career, she was a reporter for the Olean Times Herald covering Allegany County government and organizations as well as the village and town of Alfred. She has also worked as a reporter and editor for The Finger Lakes Times, Geneva, NY, and an editor at the Reporter-Dispatch, White Plains, NY. As a great coincidence and example of the reach out of Alfred State College personnel, my “seat mate” at the recent Bonnies game turned out to be a currently active professor in the “law” department. We had quite a chat comparing other faculty that we both new. We both agreed that Chuck Neal was a “friend favorite.” I shared that Chuck and I used to play fast pitch softball together and had done so when I was the coach of the now extinct CE Air Preheater team.
As a side note to the St. Bonaventure basketball season, I developed a conflicting schedule problem for myself. For the first time in my decades of watching and rooting for the Bonnies, I have purchased season tickets. Unbeknownst, or at least not noticed schedule wise, the Bonnies schedule typically consists of Saturday and Wednesday games.
Our church choir practices weekly to prepare for the following Sunday services, but are also on Wednesday nights. I’m going to try and prepare for the church singing by getting the music beforehand so as to familiarize myself with it before Sunday. There’s always a pre-service “review” of the music prior to the service. We have a Praise Band in conjunction with the full chorus and that music, which also includes instrumentals is much more familiar to me than are the typical weekly anthem, so I have no problem there.
As long as the reference to “time” has already been mentioned a couple of times, it seems that the noon or midnight time of 12 O’clock is nearly always mentioned with the AM or PM designation. I used to know what the “M” portion was but had to look it up to refresh my memory and recall just what the “M” stood for and meant. I had forgotten the specific terminology.
The main difference between AM and PM is that AM covers the first half of the day from midnight to noon, while PM covers the second half from noon to midnight.
- AM stands for ante meridiem, which is Latin for “before midday”. It runs from 12:00 AM (midnight) to 11:59 AM.
- PM stands for post meridiem, which is Latin for “after midday”. It runs from 12:00 PM (noon) to 11:59 PM.
A little scientific “remembrance” is never harmful. One of the things that makes my Wrambling writings a little more enjoyable is the opportunity to continue learning. When I started my teaching career at Alfred State College, I was immediately immersed in the teaching of subjects that I had little, or no experience with. Therefore, I was forced to learn on the fly. I would learn it or prepare for the topic at hand the night before the class was to be taught. In the beginning I would dutifully take notes the night before to prepare for each day’s lecture. After a few times through a course all I had to do was take a brief look at the material to be covered that day and I could give an entire lecture based on my knowledge of the material. The only need for my lecture notes was to make sure that I addressed all of the pertinent topical components. Much of what I taught was in the still evolving technologies of “automated computer control.” AI, was still but a fledgling and just being introduced. When people ask what I enjoyed most about teaching, I responded that it was two-fold. A) Learning of the information and materials and B) sharing of that knowledge to my students were tied for most enjoyable.
Today’s Wramblings title alludes to some characteristics that seem to be creeping up on me as I age; “gracefully” I hope. The “mumblings” term comes from my wife’s admonition for me to “speak up, you’re mumbling.” To me, I think I’m already speaking loudly and clearly. I am, I guess, considering that I hear myself perfectly well. There is likely some truth to what she says as in the past I have been told when singing, that I could always sing louder if I wanted to, and it wouldn’t be too loud. To me it already sounds loud. The stumbling end of the title refers to the way I walk. There are two characteristics of this aspect of my walking. First is the apparent not lifting my feet very high off the floor when walking. It is not unusual for me to trip or “stumble” as I catch the toe of my shoe on the slightest height variation above any full floor covering. This includes any throw rug or mat on the floor. The other habit is steps stumbling.
What seems to be getting more prevalent lately is stubbing my toe on a step as I begin to access an upward aimed stairway or steps. We have a 5-step stair heading up onto our back deck. Increasingly often lately I have stubbed my toe on one of the steps when I don’t lift my foot far enough, or fast enough, to clear the front edge of the step. This even happens at the lowest level where we have a couple of gravel filled 6” X 6” steps leading from the driveway level up to the stairs themselves. I excuse this saying that my minds eye is quicker than is my bodily movement.
This stumble coming up those steps happens at least once every day it seems. For the past several years as part of any nurses’ pre-doctor visit for any appointment they ask me if I have fallen recently. I reply, “No, but it isn’t because I haven’t tried.” Fortunately, my brain/muscle reaction is still pretty quick, so I am able to catch myself without smacking my head on something.
I believe that I may have made a new friend. The other day my nuisance “new” Motorola Razr phone locked up on me and displayed a possible “Fraud” locking my phone until, or unless I signed up for McAfee protection software. I couldn’t do anything with it despite even trying a “hard re-boot.” I had complained to Spectrum once already and even tried to trade the Razr in for a different phone. Spectrum would not let me do that as I had not owned the phone long enough and would have to wait until December sometime. So, Tuesday I made a quick dash to the Spectrum office again to see if they could unlock my phone. I was fortunate enough to pick a good time as a lady store attendant met me at the door and asked if she could help me. I told her about the phone problem and with seemingly magical hands she took the phone, did some manipulations and cleared everything up. Phone works like new now. Unfortunately, the “New” was still a terrible operation. Whilst she worked, I mentioned that I was glad she could help me so quickly as I had music chorus practice at 6:30 that night. She asked where I sang, and I replied that I sang with the Genesee Valley Chorus in Wellsville. She related that she too was a singer and had done a considerable amount of singing and wished she had known about us earlier. I told her it wasn’t too late to join as we would switch from Holiday music to the Spring/Summer music after the 1st of the year. I had also mentioned my musical writing career with Dave Dunbar, and she was interested in hearing some of my songs. We exchanged email addresses and promised to stay in touch. I will send her a YouTube link to our song Thank You Lord, and maybe one other that has been a very popular high school chorus song “Share My Dreams.”
I’ll start the wrap up with a couple of notes;
* Our mail delivery time has recently changed to late afternoon instead of the former 9 AM. I totally dislike that late delivery, especially on Olean Times Herald publication days.
* If I could I would “hand write” my Wramblings and publish them that way. I love writing.
* Ending on a “sweet note,” but not a singing note, my sweet treat for the past couple of years is the consumption of M & M’s Caramel filled candies. Every once in awhile if I’m not paying attention I will end up with a chocolate filled candy as the bags are the same color. The caramel are the best ever and I eat them by dissolving the candy coating on the outside 1st, then eat the caramel flavored filling.
If you have any comments, cares, questions or concerns email me at IM.Wiserdad@gmail.com
