Charley horses, pet peeves, grammer groans, September birthdays
By Chuck Wiser, I write the words to share what my eyes see and my heart feels
My apologies to any readers that looked for my Wrambling on the typical Thursday publication day. I had a home working project that I started yesterday and wanted to finish whilst the weather was still favorable.
After writing that opening paragraph, almost too short to be considered a paragraph, I had to take a quick break and to try and stand up to relax a leg cramp. Working for an extended time, especially with repetitious body parts movement like walking, or hammering or sawing, often results in muscle cramping and/or what most call a “Charley Horse.” The worst occurrence of those sometimes comes in the middle of the night when I am awakened from a sound sleep, with the cramping. If you’ve never experienced them, it’s difficult to explain the sensation in that it’s a combination of pain and immobilizing “cramping.” I had a couple of mild ones last night and just experienced a “double” episode. As I typed on my laptop keyboard my hands started cramping. As I started to get up to get my medicine one leg and one hip “simultudinously” (my word) cramped up on me. After I managed to get my medicine, this bottle lists the active ingredients as “Lactose”, “Magnesium Stearate”, and “Microcrystalline Cellulose.” For the first time ever, I read the dosage instructions and was somewhat amazed to read the dosing instructions that advised to; “Swallow 1-2 caplets with water every 4 hours. If the initial dosage isn’t providing relief, swallow 1-2 caplets with water every 15 minutes, for up to 6 doses.” Wow! Well, I am one dose in.
As the days get shorter and sometimes cooler, and the nights more often bring fog, I have many memories, some even fondly, of my earlier days of September. Growing up, Labor Day was always marked with the last hurrah of summer and was typically spent at the Rushford fairgrounds, usually preceding a racing event. Some of the less than fond memories included the going back to school. It isn’t that I disliked school, but rather that I liked not having to go to school. Even as an adult, initially, Labor Day was still a much-celebrated holiday. In our camping days of the 70’s and early 80’s the Labor Day weekend was for all, the most memorable end of summer camping experience at the Deer Run Campground. Nearly all the friends we had made over our years of camping would gather at the campground for that last special get together. October would bring one last seasonal outing at the campground but due to the chillier weather, and especially the cold nights, not all were hearty enough to want to brave the “Pumpkin Hunt” weekend at Deer Run.
Today’s Grammar Groan includes the pronunciation challenges offered by the prefix “Omni.” At first glance, or attempt to pronounce a word starting with that prefix, you might have the tendency, as did/do I, to pronounce it as “Om-ni” where the “ni” sounds like “nee” or “nigh.” The first word that I finally got in the habit of pronouncing properly was “Omnipotent” (Ahm-Nih-Potent). Some others that I’m not familiar with and/or can’t decide how to pronounce include: Omnibus, Omnidirectional, Omnibenevolence, and Omnicompetences.
We are still blessed with a few Grosbeaks. Most recently a pair of very juvenile fledged male Grosbeaks are here. They are pretty ugly. This is late in the year and especially for some so young.
Some people on Facebook have questioned if they are hearty enough to stand the cold weather. I’m not 100% certain as to the correct answer but I do know that I have seen pictures and puzzles showing male Grosbeaks sitting on bird feeders in the snow. What I am wondering is how the lingerers are going to find their way to the wintering grounds if they are the only ones still here. It was suggested that they have an instinctiveness for it, but never having flown that direction before, how would they?
We live in Scio on the west side of the Genesee River, and by association the same relative location regarding the railroad tracks. With the delivery of rapid transit rail cars manufactured at Alstom in Hornell we are occasionally now blessed with the nostalgic sound of a freight train as it approaches the crossings of the roads in Scio. It’s hard not to feel that pleasant tingle upon hearing that “mournful” whistle blowing. Like Johnny Cash sang; 🎶🎶🎶”I hear the train a coming…”
I think age besets us in our senior years as both my wife and I sometimes struggle to hear or understand each other. What used to be: “Did you hear me?” has now become a pre-emptive “Can you hear me?” That seems somewhat helpful to prevent wasted words or having to repeat long strings of questions or answers between us.
I put the word “besets” above in a bold font, after the fact, as it pleases me when I can befuddle the built in “autodefect” grammar checker that MS Word uses. I can’t believe that I know (and use) words that the knowledge experts at Microsoft don’t know.
I’m not sure if it’s me, or our geographic location relative to that aforementioned Genesee River but the gnats are absolutely terrible this year. The screened windows don’t even help as they seem to be even smaller than the mesh opening of the screen mesh. I wonder who decided to use a word spelled “gnats” to describe the “nats.” Maybe it was the Gnomes.
Pet Peeve of the week. Socks with threads that get caught between your toes are a real pain. I have large feet and have worn size 13 shoes since I was 12 years old. I used to take pride in the fact that my two longest toes were longer than my sister’s fingers. My feet, specifically the toes, are banned from public display by most of my family members. As a result of the long toes, they are prone to seek out any errant thread that comes loose inside my socks. It’s hard to describe the muscle coordination required to “clench” your toes just to keep those threads from getting between them.
My recent bout with Occipital Neuralgia has been complicated by some fluctuations with my blood pressure so I have to check it occasionally to keep track of it. The other day I happened to notice the label on the Blood pressure monitoring device that suggested resting 15 minutes before taking the reading. Now that makes no sense to me at all. If my blood pressure is going to be a problem, it’s going to manifest itself in my normal daily routines. Sitting and resting isn’t when I’m going to be in jeopardy.
There is a new business soon to open in Wellsville and that’s great news. The other at least questionable feature of this new enterprise is the large political sign in front of the business promoting or supporting a controversial politician for the upcoming Presidential race. If you want to discourage about half of your prospective customer base, then all the power in the world to you. Don’t expect or look forward to my business. Good Luck to you though.
A recent conversation I had regarding personalities and characteristics of people led to my recollection of a comment made to me by one of the old school faculty at Alfred State College while I was a still “wet behind the ears” faculty member. He said, and I quote; “As soon as you think you know all there is to know about something, you do know all that you will ever know.” That makes sense in a lot of ways. A conversation at choir practice at Grace United Church Wednesday evening hinged on trying to listen to our director whilst someone else was talking. It reminded me of an admonition that I frequently used when students were talking, quietly to each other, while I was actively presenting my lecture. I used to tell the students, with comments directed toward the talkers, that; “it is impossible to hear and talk at the same time.” My “made up” scientific backing for that was to explain that within your head there was a physiological reaction that “As soon as you open your mouth your ears close up preventing you from hearing. It was interesting to notice the few that would actually open and close their mouth as I continued to lecture. Getting no physiological occurrence they look at me with a knowing smirk. Therein I use todays Wiser’s Wrambling Word of the Week as “Physiological” a word that means: “the way in which a living organism or bodily part functions.” The mythological “physiology of the brain regarding speech” then is what I implied.
BTW…Whenever I made something up, and especially if it was ironic or sarcastic I always gave the students a “heads up” that I have done so. As a side note I had a whole word thesaurus list of words that I made up or twisted the meaning of. At some point in time I will share it in a future Wrambling.
Scanner News: 8:30 PM the other night in a local neighboring town, Emergency Dispatch had been called by a parent who had a 5 year old acting up and they couldn’t handle him/her.
When I wrote of “Fly’s Up or Down” last week I didn’t distinguish as to whether it was the old fashioned standard length zipper or the cost cutting shorter zipper that barely gains access to or from the location of interest.
September is the month of birth for my mother (RIP) and my oldest, the first-born son. In honor of them, I share with you now my latest poem, written early this morning.
If you have any cares or concerns regarding my Wrambling, or anything for that matter, I can be reached at IM.Wiserdad@gmail.com.
Hoping you have a great sun-filled unseasonably warm weekend. Thank you for reading.
