Emotions, Birds, Mr. Goodbar, Wrandom thoughts
By Chuck Wiser, I write the words to share what my eyes see and my heart feels
If you are like me, or at least close to my generation chronologically you often hear and even use some of the old “sages” of language and everyday communication. When trying to encapsulate my feelings during and after the performance with the Genesee Valley Chorus at the Bolivar Pioneer Oil Days celebration yesterday, the term “heartstrings” popped into my head. The most common usage would be in the phrase that something “tugged at your heartstrings.” My often-chronicled intuition told me what that meant, and thus allowed my proper application of it. The more I try to write, the more I enjoy defining those ancient “tomes.” Those nearest my current age have heard most of the terms I use. Their offspring may have heard them from their parents and just shrug in wonder as to what those words really mean.
The term heartstrings, described, means “with feelings of deepest love or compassion.” The technical etymology of that word is: “The nickname heartstrings, remains common in anatomy education, referring to structures within in the heart called the chordae tendineae. Chordae tendineae, which translates from Latin to “tendinous chords,” are exactly what the name suggests: tendinous connections found in two valves of the heart.” I prefer the emotional over the medical.
The emotions triggered yesterday are exactly wherefrom I derived my signature line; “I write to share what my eyes see and my heart feels.” I guess it’s only fitting that I gush my emotions as the oil wells gushed their oil.
Today, similar but different emotions have been triggered and those feelings, and thus re-use of the term, derives from my sitting in our Sun-Bird room this morning watching and listening to the aviary (and other) wildlife traffic. The Baltimore Orioles have fledged (grown to flying size) and are now visiting the feeders. Initially they are brought by the adult birds. Gradually they are weaned and come by themselves. They are not completely weened as when they first venture out alone, they still sit at the feeder chirping and teasing for an adult to feed them. Eventually they give up whining and learn to pick up the food themselves. As far as aviary fledglings are concerned, I think the Orioles have it made, as all they need do is learn how to slurp up the jelly. The poor Grosbeaks and Cardinals must learn how to open the shell of a Sunflower seed to get the meat out. That doesn’t seem to be an easy task.
Over the last half hour as I started to write this, I have had to pause to watch; two Catbirds, two Grey Squirrels, male and female adult Orioles, male and female Grosbeaks and fledged juveniles of both aviary species. The flock of Grosbeaks seem to have flourished more than any of the other species but there are also plenty of new Orioles as well.
Oh! I should also mention the appearance of a stray (or strange) cat which looks to be between the kitten and adult stage of development. I’m not sure where it came from as I didn’t notice it until it was walking across our deck. Maybe scoping out the aviary traffic.
As I continue to watch in between my writings, I just observed a juvenile Cardinal which was brought to the feeder and left there as the adult left. Our sunflower feeder “boxes” are covered with chicken wire to try and discourage the unwanted squirrels and larger birds like Bluejays. It may be discriminatory, but the Bluejays are not welcome. They are raucous, greedy, and bullies, as they dominate the food sources and/or chase other welcome visitors away. They can’t read my “Not Welcome” sign. The Cardinal fledgling is trying to figure out what to do with the seed that it managed to pick up. “Mom didn’t teach me this,” they seem to think as they struggle. It is entertaining to watch two fledglings, each of a different species sitting together, each fluttering as they expect the other to feed them. Not significant regarding the fledglings, but we’re pretty sure that some of the Orioles and Grosbeaks winter in the same location, even using the same “hosts” as they are nested near each other here, and travel to and from the feeders in pairs, together.
I have often stated another of my pet phrases: “If you ask for something seemingly odd or outlandish, you may be laughed at. But, if you don’t ask, you cannot be told Yes.” That happened again recently. I have developed a fondness for the Mr. Goodbar candies. My preference is the little bite size “minis.” When I started this craving that “flavor” came packaged, mixed, along with other popular Hershey’s Mini Bar flavors in a “family sized bag. The downside of that is that I only wanted the Mr. Goodbar variety. A couple of years ago I found a source where a 3-pound bag of strictly Mr. Goodbar’s were available ordered through an online Candy distributor. I started buying those and a bag lasts a couple of months. My most recent purchase arrived in a Styrofoam “cooler” shipping container. Typically, they are shipped sealed, with an ice pack in the container. At some point in the order/ship process the ice pack had split and its contents leaked out. The candy is packaged separately so I was pretty sure that the contents had not been contaminated.
I wanted to let the vendor/shipper know that there might be a problem so I sent an email to the vendor explaining the damage and included a picture of the torn icepack. I advised I would be in touch if there was a problem with the product itself. Two days later I received notice that my PayPal purchase price had been credited back and an apologetic note from the vendor stating that they were returning my payment. No mention was made of returning the order. The “free” candy is fine as it turns out. “If you don’t ask…”
I don’t recall exactly where the phrase regarding “Things that go bump in the night” came from but a couple of times in the early (for some) morning, a car goes by at 4:00 AM and honks its horn. I must chuckle to myself at the awkward previous sentence, as it makes it sound like the car is who or what is responsible for the honking. Not exactly sure who is sending out the honked greeting but at least I was already awake, so it didn’t wake me. I’m not sure why my metabolism lets me stay awake till 2:30 in the morning but then wakes me at 6:00 AM.
In my younger “working days” it was not rare for me to stop by for a beverage after bowling or some other such nocturnal weekday night activity, hit the sack at 3:00 AM and then get up at 6:30 to get ready to go to work. Now I often have a hard time getting to, or staying a-sleep, often getting back out of bed and reading for a couple of hours, and taking a Benadryl as a sleeping aid, then going back to bed at one or two O’clock. The luxury of being retired and usually not having a fixed waking time lets me sleep in till 7 or 7:30.
For the past few months, I have had the occasion to visit a health care provider. URMC (University of Rochester Medical Center) is the universal or at least common medical entity in our area. URMC has a patient portal called MyChart, which allows you to monitor the communications between you and your provider. After I have had a medical situation “visit” I typically look into MyChart to review the notes that the provider, usually the nurse, has added. I have noticed, with a little concern, that the specific details as I recall them don’t get put into the notes “exactly” as they transpired. This is not completely surprising as the nurse doesn’t typically write down everything I say verbatim, and are going by their recollection of what was said, or that had transpired. These “annotated” recollections as entered in MyChart aren’t typically major, but they sometimes put a twist or slant on exactly what I said, or I was told, and which is not 100% accurate. I have in the past made note of the discrepancies. I can, and do, send a communicating message to the Nurse back through MyChart. But, the fact that they exist does concern me somewhat.
Going back to “the things that go bump in the night” theme, it could also be said as “things that trigger the light in the night.” We have a couple of motion detector video recording lights set up, mostly to allow us to see what kinds of nocturnal visitors we get. If I happen to still be up or have gotten back up, I have been puzzled a few times by the activation of said motion detector device. Often, one or two deer will cross the lawn on the run which triggers the light but doesn’t allow ample time to get a clear picture of what it was. We have one motion detector light attached to our “Orchard Fence” and recently I was puzzled by it’s being activated with nothing showing up on the adjacent motion detector camera. A couple of weeks ago I was still up and noticed the light coming on. After a couple of minutes the light would go out, only to be re-triggered just moments later. I watched this cycle 3 or 4 times, puzzled, but finally figured it out. The motion detector was being triggered by “moths drawn to the light,” of an adjacent light, thus triggering the motion detector light.
I will wrap this up with one more Backyard livestock observation. My aviary friends have terrific air brakes. They will fly to, or toward, the feeders at full speed and pull up to land within mere feet of their targeted landing zone. I am amazed that they can come to such an abrupt stop in such a short distance. I guess the mental “flaps up” command is instantaneously interpreted and acted upon.
If you have questions, concerns or suggested topics email me at IM.Wiserdad@gmail.com.
