The Mickey Donahue Irish Scramble, Daylight Savings Time, Lost and Found, Grammar Groans, Flattery
A COLUMN by Chuck Wiser, I write the words to share what my eyes see and my heart feels
This coming Saturday the Wellsville and Hornell Sun(s) will be represented in a golf tournament recently rescheduled from an earlier date. The Mickey Donahue Irish Scramble, in which I’ve placed a team sponsored by the Sun(s) will be played once again at the Bath Golf Club having been postponed and relocated from its original scheduling for a September date originally planned for the Twin Hickory Golf Club in Hornell. I’ve had the honor of “captaining” a team for several years in a row now and having placed in the top 5 finishers nearly every year. This is my favorite golf tourney every year as the Donahue family organizers do an excellent job organizing and running this “Scramble” golf tourney. The event closing awards and “Steak Dinner” are the best. We have been subsidized by the Sun nearly every year. My team is led by Chase Robbins and his dad (Gary) or wife Laura. This year the team will also include my eldest son, Todd.
The other Title “subject” alludes to the soon to arrive frosty mornings. This year we managed to make it all the way past September without “a frost.” The adage “The Frost is on The Pumpkin” can now hold off as long as it wishes. I anticipate getting our last lawn mowing and pool usage in before October “something or other”. Early October was on one occasion the last swimming event.
Once again, it is now approaching the time when the question of Daylight Savings Time worms its way into discussion and debate. The only way I can remember which way to adjust the clocks is by another adage, that being “Spring forward, Fall back.” This has been a controversial debate ever since the practice of adjusting the time to account for getting more exposure to daylight hours having been adjusted.
Key Milestones in Daylight Saving Time
1784: Benjamin Franklin published a satirical essay suggesting Parisians could economize candles by waking up earlier; 1895: George Vernon Hudson proposed a modern two-hour seasonal time shift in New Zealand;1905: William Willett independently invented and advocated for British summer clock-changing to preserve daylight;1908: Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay), Ontario, became the First Implementation of DST globally on July 1;1916: Germany and Austria officially adopted DST during World War I to conserve fuel, quickly followed by the UK and France;1918: The United States enacted its first federal DST system during WWI, which was deeply unpopular with farmers and repealed shortly after;1942–1945: The U.S. instituted year-round “War Time” during World War II; 1966:Congress passed the Uniform Time Act to organize chaotic state-by-state schedules, setting a uniform framework (though allowing states to opt-out like Arizona and Hawaii);1974–1975: The U.S. observed year-round DST during an energy crisis, but reversed it early due to public pushback over dark winter mornings;1987: A law shifted the start of DST forward to the first Sunday in April;2007: The Energy Policy Act of 2005 took effect, expanding DST to run from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November.
Present: Federal proposals like the Sunshine Protection Act continue to stall.
My nocturnal challenges don’t have a problem adjusting my internal clock to orient myself.
Lately my sleeping and awakening time get easily messed up in, and of, itself. Last night for example, I retired in the evening at 10:00 PM or so and then awoke fully at 2:00 AM this morning. I have been awake ever since. Instead of starting to write my Wrambling at that hour I finished reading Revenge Prey, another of the John Sanford “Prey” series books.
I have publicized my frequent visits to the “Reservation” for the cheapest gas, especially on a Wednesday when the gasoline price is cutback another nickel. I did find out however that we, as state citizens, are getting “ripped off.” Despite the Native American gas price reduction benefitted by not being subject to all the taxes that other surrounding fuel outlets have to pay and thus add to their cost of gasoline, the reduced price of $4.19 per gallon is exactly the same as non-reservation prices, notably here in Scio, NY. I will not be making any more detoured stops there supposedly to get the price break.
Lost and Found: A few weeks ago, I couldn’t find my glasses, which are worn when I don’t have my contacts in. My recall was that I had taken them with me at a Golf tournament at Wellsville Country Club (WCC). I looked high and low, in and out of my truck, and in my golf-club bag where I thought I had put them. Several times I ransacked my golf bag and all its many pockets to no avail. Thinking that perhaps I had left them in the golf cart we were using I called the Pro-shop at WCC, told them the cart number, and asked if they had any turned in and/or if they could look in that cart. They checked and nothing was there. Fast forward to yesterday. When I go on a golf outing, I generally take a small cooler with me into which I could add beverages to have available. Noticing yesterday that I had not brought the cooler back into the house from my truck, I decided to take it out of my truck and bring it into the house. The “soft” cooler has a small net pocket attached on each end. When I picked the cooler up I checked out those pockets, and can you guess what I found. Yep, therein was my glasses case that I had been searching for, for several weeks. I hadn’t been without my glasses as I had a brand new pair that I had picked up to have as a spare.
My “go to” snacks now consist of the miniature “Baby Ruth” and Hershey Mini W/Almond snack bars. For some reason, I believe, as I’ve read somewhere, that due to a “source-lack” of almonds they were no longer making those Mini bars. Going through candy withdrawal I did my famous (or infamous) Google Search to see if I could procure those candy bars on-line. I did find one source and so I ordered 6 “Family Size” bags at a high, but reasonable, price. The bars I found were actually sold “online” by Walmart. I ordered them. Upon their receipt I opened the box they came in, and subsequently the 1st of the 6 bags. When I opened the wrapper on the first bar it was obvious that the bars were mis-shaped due to their having been exposed to too much heat, most likely occurring during shipping. I contacted the seller online and obtained a return shipment label and packing slip. The directions for shipment included dropping them off at my local Walmart store. I took them with me when I went to Olean a couple of days ago. I was advised that my refund would be sent out by the “seller” which was not actually Walmart, but actually a 3rd party entity.
My Grammar Groan for today’s Wrambling includes the “Auto-defect” indication that the “their” highlighted in the paragraph above should be properly spelled as “There” instead of what I had written. My Grammar Gut tells me that my word variation is the correct one.
By definition, “There” is an adverb used in attracting someone’s attention or calling attention to someone or something, or used to indicate the fact or existence of something: My usage of their describes an object or objects.
Along with my usual sign-off invitation for “comments, questions or concerns” please feel welcome to share your opinion as to my diagnosis by contact via IM.Wiserdad@gmail.com
Once again, I was flattered when, after giving someone my age, I was told that I didn’t even come close to looking like I was 80 years old. On that note I will add a slightly related note regarding the number of prescribed medicines or my self-selection of “Over the Counter” supplements such as Vitamin C, Vitamin E, or Vitamin B12 etc. I ingest (when I remember) several medicines or supplements split between morning doses and evening doses. I wonder if I could combine all of those pills/capsules into one large “cookie shaped” source of my daily intake.
The other day a friend and acquaintance Kathleen Martell, a Training Coordinator met during my Industrial Training days, reached out to me having read a “shared Facebook post” regarding a prominent political individual. When traveling overseas recently she was receiving mixed non-acceptance from those locals, until they found out that she was not a supporter of that particular political entity. I guess that was an indicator of the rest of the world’s opinions on our political leadership. Enough said!
A column or two ago I tried to share a picture of a Monarch Butterfly, but the quality was too poor to publish well so it was left out. Hopefully these two pictures will be of better quality so as to include them with this Wrambling. These pictures were taken just moments before and after the Monarch had emerged from the cocoon that is visible still attached to the underside of the plant leaf. If you look closely, you can see the wings of the Monarch still inside the Cocoon in the picture on the left.
Here’s a couple of other Grammar Groan terms taken from the current book I just finished last night/early morning. The first is “Jonesing” which means having an intense craving or strong, restless desire for something. It is a feeling that is more powerful than a casual want. It describes an urgent, can’t-stop-thinking-about-it urge. The second is the term “Smitten.) Smitten means being deeply in love, infatuated, or strongly struck by a sudden feeling of attraction for someone or something. I wonder if “smit” or “to smit” is the root word and usage 😉
