Sports, hunting season, Spectrum, and “Thank You Lord”
A Column by Chuck Wiser, I write the words to share what my eyes see and my heart feels
Thanksgiving isn’t today, but rather next week. I don’t plan on being a part of any family celebration as ours has spread out and we no longer get together for a family dinner. I’m going to share my thanks this week as many readers may be otherwise occupied next week. Tryptophan may kick in by the time I publish, and I don’t want you to doze until reading my Wrambling as it’s my job to put you to sleep with my “blitherings.” Blitherings isn’t a word as such, but I made it my new word of the week by turning what is normally an adjective into a noun. I have been described (under one’s breath) as being a “blithering idiot” at times.
The guy at the pumps at the Cuba reservation gas station yesterday had a few other descriptive terms for me as he took a full 20 minutes of fiddling around prior to, and then by actually starting to put gas in his car. I guess my mumblings were loud enough to hear and he took exception. One descriptive phrase was something along the lines of “I ain’t no f’n know it all like you.” That puzzled me a little until I realized he probably had taken note of my “IM-Wiser” license plate. I have had to explain before that it reflects my name, not my knowledge. After he finally filled his truck, his little mower gas can and sat in the truck another 5 minutes he finally left. I then proceeded to fill my cans and gas up my vehicle. To avoid undue longevity on my part, if I have gas cans to fill, I get them ready before I get to the pump while waiting for the car in front of me. I pull my cans back to the tail gate and remove the caps ready for filling the gas cans. When it’s my turn, I fill them first then switch the hose nozzle to my truck refill tube, resume the “gas fill”, lock the pump nozzle “on” then go and put the caps back on my gas cans. It cuts down any unnecessary waiting time for those behind me. As my truck was filling yesterday, I walked back to the guy behind me and said I was afraid the burly guy ahead of us might want to “kick my arse.” He said he was about to honk his horn at the guy himself. I’m glad he didn’t as the “dallier” might have thought it was me honking. I was at the pump for less than 5 or 6 minutes all told.
I didn’t really expand much on any Halloween Wramblings at the end of October but surely would have had my camping buddy Neil Green sent me this picture via Facebook. At first, I didn’t recognize it as being a picture of me until I recalled having a sport coat of that color at one time and also noticed the 13-dollar MacGregor sneakers. I asked Neil if that was me and he said, “It certainly is.” In the “hey-day” of our camping adventures the end of October was often our last camping weekend of the year at Deer Run Campground. Many of our camping families would come in that weekend to winterize their campers. This was likely my feeble attempt at terrorizing some of our fellow camping friends. Those days were, and still are, precious to us. The friends we made there are life-long friends, now even lacking shared camping.
Since I am on “memory lane” I may as well continue. I am not a frequent sports event in person participant, but “in the day”, I’ve had the honor of having witnessed some pretty historic sporting activities. Currently, an occasional St. Bonaventure University basketball game is about all I can muster. In the days of my youth, however, I was extremely lucky to see what I did, albeit to only a few activities or events.
The first, and earliest, of the most memorable events occurred when, as an employee at The Air Preheater Co. in Wellsville, NY I met a gentleman named Dick Clothier. For the life of me I can’t remember if he was a fellow employee or a representative of a company that I dealt with in my Contract Administrator days. In any event, Dick had tickets to a college football game featuring Colgate University. I’m not sure if he was aware of the significance of that game beforehand, but we were fortunate to witness the football game when Ed Marinaro set the all-time collegiate football rushing yardage record as noted in the News headline that follows.
ITHACA, N.Y. — Ed Marinaro established a major college rushing record of 4,132 yards today when he ran 272 yards and scored two touchdowns in leading undefeated Cornell to a 24-21 thriller over Columbia on the Poly-Turf of old Schoellkopf Field.
Marinaro was 2nd in the Heisman Trophy voting that year and was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings. After his professional football career, he became a TV actor in several movies and series, most notably Hill Street Blues. Marinaro, later on, was a unanimous selection into the Football Hall of Fame.
My next fortunate visit was to a football game in snowy Buffalo as the Bills played the Joe Namath led New York Jets (from New Jersey). On that day, in that blustering snowstorm, Namath set the all-time career passing record, becoming the first NFL quarterback to throw for over 4,000 yards. Per Google “Namath shattered the record books in 1967. He showed off his strong arm and threw for a record-breaking 4,007 yards and 26 touchdowns. He became the first quarterback to pass for over 4,000 yards and the only quarterback to do so in a 14-game season.”
I was there and I still remember the thrill and the chill of the snowstorm. I was also fortunate enough to see one of the OJ Simpson career achievement games, but my memory fails me and I can’t remember what the event was.
No wonder my short-term memory is so challenged. It can’t seem to squeeze into my head “benext to” all of those other wonderful memories. I need to thank my daughter Kristin Kincaid for the phrase “benext to” that I often use. It is singularly more descriptive than those it takes the place of.
Hunting season is once again upon us. Were it not so, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity of hearing the “15 Gun Salute” that drifted down, or I guess it would be up, the Genesee River valley. I was in the backyard conducting the annual swimming pool de-commissioning the other day and heard the telltale shots. What caught my attention was the echoing sound pattern as first there were six shots in rapid succession. My mind’s eye pictured a rapidly running deer being chased by a six-shot succession of shotgun (or rifle) shots. That was followed by 3 more shots a few seconds later. That series of shots must have missed as well, as a minute or so later I heard another rapid succession of 6 more shots. If it wasn’t target practice, it turned into it eventually.
I’m not sure which is worse, or at least most challenging. It’s probably a tie between christening a new computer and/or activating a new phone. Our Spectrum Internet-TV and Cable contract bill had ballooned to nearly $200 recently. Calling Spectrum and finally talking to a human customer service representative, in and of itself being a challenge, eventually led to changing my Spectrum package plan. Since I was an existing customer, I didn’t qualify for any of the currently advertised promotional plans. However, if I changed my plan and bundled my T-Mobile cell phone service plan therein, I would qualify for a significant reduction in my monthly billing. The only hitch(es) in that plan was/were that I needed to get a new phone, as my current model wasn’t compatible. And, I had to switch my phone plan from T-Mobile to Spectrum. Easier said than done.
Fast forward a couple of days and my new phone arrived via Fed Ex. In my earlier conversation with Spectrum, the customer service agent said I could activate the new phone myself, or I could visit the local Spectrum office, which happens to be in the Olean/Allegany mini-mall. I decided to follow that route. After a 15-minute wait in line at Spectrum, I told the store employee why I was there. He immediately told me that I would need my T-Mobile account number (which I had) but also needed a T-Mobile Number Transfer PIN. I asked if he could help me with that as the Spectrum representative had suggested that it could be done by Spectrum. Nope! He said, you’ll need to do it yourself. Saying I was “pissed off” is a mild description of my feelings as I stormed out of the store in a huff, saying I ought to switch everything to T-Mobile instead of Spectrum. Note: I live an hour and a half away from the store, and as a side note to the side note, I had already tried to do the above by visiting a store in Wellsville that advertises itself as being a Spectrum service site but pretty much only allows bill paying there.
After stewing and cooling down in my car I went online (with my old phone) and got a number for T-Mobile. After finally explaining to, and somehow understanding, the Non-English, English speaking representative I managed to get my account number verified and received the needed PIN.
Back into the Spectrum store I went, and after another long wait I was finally called over to a different agent than the one on my first visit, and who was VERY helpful getting my new phone activated and the new account set up. On the way out of the store I paused in front of the desk of the first agent and said “I apologize for my earlier angry departure. My new phone is now operational and, as somewhat of a “new item,” it has a learning curve. Despite the Spectrum agents “porting” my contacts list to the new phone not all my contacts seemed to have made it. I have had to re-enter several of the contacts information into the new phone.
Somewhere above I used the phrase “in and of itself.” I must give credit to former Alfred State College colleague Ernie Winterhalter for that phrase, which was one of many I learned from him.
As an intro to the end of this piece with the lyrics of my song Thank You Lord, I would welcome anyone wanting to hear this song in person to visit this week’s Sunday service at the Grace United Church in Wellsville. The church choir will be performing Thank You Lord as our Anthem.
Thank You Lord
Thank You Lord for giving us the wonder of your love
And for teaching us to share it with guidance from above
Thank you for the birds on high that float upon the wind,
And for the children’s laughter that bubbles from within
We Thank You Lord for moments so peaceful to reflect
Upon the joy of living a life without regret
Thank you for the bounty you’ve blessed upon this land
And for nourishment life giving touched only by your hand
Thank You Lord!
