Plenty of grammar groaning, looking back at family pets, and Dan Jordan comes to Wellsville this Friday
By Chuck Wiser, I write the words to share what my eyes see and my heart feels
I plan to end this week’s Wrambling with an invitation to visit Bird Land so rather than starting out with the main topic and then Wrambling into the mundane, I will reverse the order. It’s quite possible that many don’t recognize that the normal pattern of this column pretty much specializes in Wrambling anyway. This won’t see light of day until my typical Thursday time slot, but I have started it as a tag on my Tuesday Facebook 4 AM Club, When, as often I am, I’m awake at 4 AM, and reach out to see how many others are up and about at this time. Those that “sleep in” until 6 AM would be surprised to know just how many of us are “up and about” at this time. Although not a “Facebooker,” my Alfred State mentor Professor Robert “Bob” Stahlman was usually up and active around 3 or 4 AM. When I was confronted with difficult “adult night school” homework problems, I would typically retire fairly early the night before and get up to do my homework or studying in the pre-dawn hours. It is amazing how sharp and alert your mind can be at this early beginning of the day as opposed to the early or late evening. When preparing a day’s lessons when I finally became a college teacher, I could get a half day’s work done in an hour of pre-dawn time.
Starting with my, and oddly many of the Wrambling Wreaders favorite topic, Grammar Groans, the word “Used,” as small as it is, often makes me scratch my head.
“Use” is a verb that describes the act of utilizing or employing something.” Used” as a noun refers to something’s function or purpose. “Used” is the past tense and past participle form of the verb “use.” The word “used” is utilized as an adjective to characterize something that has been owned or used previously. Clear as mud? You should be used to me by now. Or, is it “use to me?” 😉
The phrase “used to” can mean either of two things. It can mean “utilized to do something” or, “at one time, it was utilized to do something. The key would be the word used to precede the phrase. If preceded by a “possessive” noun or pronoun such as I, we, they or Bob; it means it was something done in the past. “I used to want to be a writer;” or, “They used to be friends.”
As a verb the phrase would mean “to apply action to something,” such as; my pen was used to write this article.
I guess the red neck phraseology such as “I usta” clarified which form of used was intended as does “I useda.” Now you see why I call them Grammar Groans.
The topic of the next subject, family pets, was planted in my mind the other day when I was attempting to explain the source of my closing topic to my wife.
Every once in a while, I will see a Facebook posting announcing the acquisition or loss of a pet. It isn’t difficult to attach so emotionally to a pet that its loss is akin to the passing of a human family member or a close friend. We currently don’t have any pets and likely won’t again, as the loss of our last one, our Golden Retriever, was too heartbreaking to want to go through that again.
We started out in traditional fashion with a cat, raised from a kitten. Thanks to “her,” that eventually led to “kittens,” and the daunting task of distributing them among friends to rid ourselves of them.
Next up was the acquisition of a puppy. We haven’t had many canine pets over our 5 decades plus of pets but the few we’ve had were very close, almost human family like, and losing any of them was never easy. Over the years our menagerie included: Cats, Dogs, Birds, Fish, Turtles, and Spiders. The most memorable highlights of some or all species would include:
- Cats: I think the “long haired” were our favorites. One in particular surprised us one day, as she was acting strangely, and we noticed a tiny red tongue flicking out of her mouth. Seems that she had caught a hummingbird, and it was nearly all the way in her mouth. We managed to free the hummingbird thus denying our cat that delicacy. We discovered that kittens licking a car battery stored in the same basement room with them is not good for their health.
- Dogs: These, over the years, led to heartbreak more than once. Despite my College Psychology professor once evaluating my personality traits proclaiming that I “lacked sympathy,” I was in tears more than once over the loss of a dog. Sitting in the lawn holding the head of a dying pet dog as it takes its last breath at least comes close to the pain of the loss of any other family member.
- Fish: There was a several years stretch, where we had several aquariums and housed a variety of fish. Two memorable accountings of that time were when we had a power loss and the aerating pumps “back siphoned” water out of the tank causing it to leak through the floor to the family room below destroying several ceiling tiles. Secondly, our humongous, 60 gallon I believe, showcase “Shark Tank,” housed a couple of Iridescent Sharks each over a foot long.
- Spider: Our camping family friendships developed through our Deer Run camping days, introduced us to an executive member of Wards Scientific, a biological classroom school supplies outlet in Rochester, NY. Our son was surprised one day when a mail delivery blessed us with the ownership of a large Tarantula Spider for a pet. That became quite the conversation piece. I dare say our most memorable, or at least notorious, pet.
- Painted Turtle: What can you say about a turtle? Most boring “pet” we ever had. I do believe that it is still alive somewhere among the grandkids. Our only excitement with that came when our cat jumped up onto the dish washer and then the refrigerator to get hold of the turtle.
- Birds: I saved birds until last as our ownership of pet birds included a parakeet inherited second hand from Mark McGee during our camping days. That led to our ownership of a series of Cockatiels. One of the cockatiels had a coloration, or lack thereof, that was said to be Piebald. When describing a bird, which will be featured in my closing segment I mentioned to my wife that I was going to write about a Leucistic Bird. When describing that term to her, I mentioned a similarity between it and a piebald animal. Hearing the term described, the light went on, and she reminded me that one of our Cockatiels was a piebald.
Once again, I learned something new. When researching animal coloration, or lack thereof, to be able to discuss piebald versus Leucistic, I learned that there was another term closely related to piebald and that was Skewbald. Piebald and Skewbald, while somewhat different than Leucistic, are forms of Leucism as technically defined. The three are differentiated by the area of, or lack of, pigmentation and the colors, and the color orientation. Another similar unique coloration of all animal species but technically different is Albinism. A completely white Leucistic bird or animal, such as the one illustrating my poem is often thought to be Albino, but it isn’t.
While Albinism is a genetic mutation that causes complete lack of pigmentation and typically pink eyes, leucism is only partial loss of pigment in various amounts and is an issue at the pigment cellular level. Leucism can occur in almost any kind of animal, and although perhaps most often noticed locally among the deer population, it is said to be most common in birds.
Speaking of leucism among the aviary family species, Dan Jordan, owner of Jordan Photography and Consulting, recently shared a picture of a very rare Leucistic Hawk. Dan’s photo, and its setting, inspired me once again to pen a few words of rhyme, and which poem adorned with his photographic illustration of a leucistic hawk is shared to close out this writing.
If you are interested in Dan’s photography as illustrated in many of the Sun family of online publications or interested in looking into the local “birders club” he has been invited to present his “Bird Program”specifically, with the Allegany County Bird Club, 6:00 PM Friday April 5th at the Grace United Church at 289 North Main St. in Wellsville, NY.
Dan Jordan is a skilled professional wildlife photographer, demonstrating a specific passion for capturing the majestic beauty of bald eagles. Since retiring from wedding and studio portrait photography as well as his primary job in the electronics field, he has dedicated his “free time” to traveling the country for wildlife photo ops. He is in the “wild” nearly every day to capture images of eagles and wildlife in their natural settings. Not settling for the routine or mundane, he usually captures captivating images showing the various species in their quest for survival.
Following is the poem White on White, Blue on Blue inspired by Dan Jordan’s photograph of a rare Leucistic Hawk in flight emerging from the clouds into a sky of blue.
If you have any questions, concerns or comments please contact me at IM.Wiserdad@gmail.com
Read more about Lucy from Dan Jordan….
