Important event notices for Allegany County Veterans
A Weekly Column by Chuck Wiser, I write the words to share what my eyes see and my heart feels
When I returned to bed at 4:30 AM this morning after answering nature’s call, before sleep overcame me, I was running through possible subjects in my head, for this Wrambling. One of my last conscious thoughts was having a topic called “Odds and End” to follow last weeks “Bits and Pieces” theme. Just before I re-awoke at 6:30 I was dreaming that I was giving a presentation to a group of people about dreaming and recited several items under the topic “Odds & Ends.”
One of the participants asked if I had ever been a teacher, or if I had wanted to be. I answered “Yes, and Yes.”
Odd little sayings or word term combinations are laced into our everyday conversations and we are likely repeating what we had heard our parents or grandparents say. There are any number of those very short terms and we all use them subconsciously retrieving them from our long-term memory “bank.” Odds and Ends and Bits and Pieces are two examples. Others include some sayings or admonitions like; “Do as I say, not as I do.” That one was common for me and I will expand on that a little later. Others include: “Tick for tack”; “Leave no stone unturned”; “Do unto Others…”; “Walk a mile in my shoes before…”; “Words unspoken say a lot.” Actually, I just made that one up. Not sure it’s a creation in my own head or if somewhere along the line I had heard it but I hope it was my “moment of wisdom.”
I may have mentioned this in a previous Wrambling, but I’ve often had thoughts of writing a book including just recollections of previous dreams. Telling of those dreams would be a collection of fiction from sub-conscious sources. I have often dreamt of being in a classroom, or before an audience of people, reciting on various topics. In my dream I go through an entire topical lecture as if I was actually presenting it. I guess in a way it is expressing my loss and disappointment in no longer being a teacher/professor. You, the readers, are now my classroom and you probably feel like I’m preaching or teaching to you especially when I expand on the history or details of any particular theme or topic that I present.
In the preceding paragraph I had “Smart check” suggest several places where I had a phrase that could be condensed into just one word. I guess their algorithm steers toward minimally expressive technical comments and brevity as opposed to conversationally composed statements. As you know, I am a “conversationally expressive commentator” with some technical stuff thrown in.
My previously shared list of terms and definitions probably defined “commentator” as if it were a “common tater,” such as Idaho, Russett or Yukon Gold. Sorry! I couldn’t, not, have said that.
Being frugal (or cheap) I don’t like paying the outlandish prices charged for the name brand HP (Hewlett Packard) Printer ink cartridges. One package of “XL” (Extra Life or something like that), can cost upwards toward $100. The same “quality,” printer ink with quality I believe just as good, can be purchased for less than $50 online. My HP printer recognizes that it isn’t an HP manufactured product and typically will display a message but still go ahead and print what I want.
This last refill of nan-branded ink causes a slightly different message stating something like; “The cartridges inserted do not include the proper Hewlett Packard Code Designation and cannot be used in this device. When I clear the message, the printer goes ahead and prints the way it’s supposed to. I see absolutely no difference in the quality. I end up printing out “hard copy” of one of these Wrambling editions at a minimum of three times as I need printed “hard-copy” in hand as I proof and “markup” corrections, and then the final copies after corrections and completion. Each Wrambling will usually generate three pages of text with a fourth added if there is an attached poem. So overall I end up printing about 15 to 20 pages for each subsequent publication.
This past weekend I partnered with grandson Ethan Graves and paired with his dad Thane and his partner Tim Smith, as a foursome in the annual Scio Lions Club Golf Tourney held at Serenity Hills, which is in Friendship, NY. I had gotten permission to use my own cart as I prefer that over the course carts. I agreed to pay the course the same as if I was using one of their carts. Coming back toward the club house ready to “make the turn” to continue our second round my golf cart sputtered and died and would not restart. It would “fire” but wouldn’t continue to run. Using Tim and Thane’s cart to partially push my cart toward the club house to exchange it for one of the course carts got us into a little trouble as the owner wasn’t fond of using their cart to push another. That should not have been a problem. As Tim pointed out, the carts are built with “Push Bumpers” fore and aft (nautical terms for front and back) and that’s what they are made to accommodate. We apologized and continued on with our play.
Upon completion we “trailered” my cart and I took it home. The next day, after doing a little Google Learning on possible problems and checking out costs for a new “Carburetor” (Carb), I was hesitant of spending upwards of $100 for a new part. There was an “inline filter” between the gas tank and the Carb and so I figured I would start small by replacing the filter and hope for the best. I got a new filter for under $10 and installed it. I also replaced the short gas line sections as long as I had it torn apart anyway, and I had some leftover 5/16” gas line hose. Hoses in place, clamps on, I hit the starter, and it fired up right away and ran like a new cart.
I guess the golf (cart) gods were with me.
I had personally, actually, practiced what I often preached to my engineering and design students when teaching at Alfred State College. My admonition to them when designing anything or solving a problem was to start with the simplest solution first and then increase your efforts if that first solution was not adequate. My first thought was I needed a new Carburetor, but I started by replacing an inexpensive filter first.
Going back to when I first awoke and got out of bed this morning, my first task is to get a cup of coffee. As I approached the coffee pot I glanced out the kitchen window that faces onto our back deck and the bird feeders. Our original, large, bird feeder is now caged in with a 21” X 24” post and chicken fenced wire box mounted on a platform on the deck rail. As I gazed upon the feeder, it, and the top rail boards on either side of the box, were covered with birds. There were three mixed groups of Cardinals and Grosbeaks on each side of the box, inside the wire, and three of the same mix of birds lined up on either side of the feeder waiting their turn.
If not exactly a dozen, there were nearly that many there at 6:30 this morning. The caging is Squirrel proofing, unfortunately only about 50% effective.
This illustration from last year shows the wire caged feeder but also our small red feeder was on top of it. The red feeder, small that it is, still attracts multiple birds feeding at or in it as well.
We are always blessed and grateful for these joys. This year especially has been very “fruitful” in supplying an abundance of the Grosbeaks. Our Oriole feeders as well have been a little slow the past week or so but as of this morning attendance at their feeders has stepped it up also.
Last week I submitted two somewhat “size reduced” Wramblings and am very grateful to Owner/Editor Andrew Harris for his willingness and readiness to post them both.
I have been remiss over the past few weeks for not having shared the Allegany County Veterans Agency agenda. I missed the last two events with other commitments but admittedly didn’t think of advertising them despite my non-attendance. This week I can make amends by sharing an upcoming event this coming Saturday and another in August. Once again, we, and all Veterans, family and friends are invited to the Airport for a breakfast.
The next event will be as noted in the second illustration.
If you have any comments, questions or concerns email me at IM.Wiserdad@gmail.com
