Huh?! Can You Hear Me Now?

For quite a while now I have been noticing that when my beautiful wife Karin talks to me from across the room, I have been asking her to repeat at least part of what she just said.  After this had been going on for a pretty long time (like months and months and months!) I decided to avail myself of the VA’s hearing testing program.  Let me tell you that several years ago I had my hearing checked at the main audiology clinic for our health care provider and I was told that I was not a candidate for hearing aids.

Well, to continue my story, after we moved to Lacey I decided to phone the VA near Joint Base Lewis McChord to see if I could get an appointment to be rechecked.  To make a long story longer, in August I went to the VA American Lake campus about a half hour north on I-5.  Turns out that my hearing had deteriorated enough that I qualified for VA-provided hearing aids.  In September I went in for an appointment to have my ears cleaned and then have molds taken so the hearing aids could properly be fitted.  I was told it would be about four to six weeks when they would call me to come back and get them.  I was amazed how easy the process was!

I was surprised to get a phone call about two weeks later to let me know that my new hearing aids had arrive and could I come in on Sunday, September 29th to have them fitted and adjusted.  I was delighted!  The aids were fitted and also adjusted to optimize their how they performed.  I was shown how to clean and generally take care of them.  And, maybe the best part of this is because I’m a veteran, there was No cost to me!

So now when someone asks me if I can hear them now, I can tell them “I CAN hear YOU now!”

1st Aviation Brigade Encounters 50+ Years Later

In May of this year we moved into a brand new house in an active-55 community called Ovation at Oak Tree in Lacey, Washington.  Lacey is about 60 miles south of Seattle just north of the state capitol of Olympia, and just south of Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM).  As you would expect there are lot of military families living in the area (JBLM is the fourth largest military installation by population in the world) and we encounter them everyday at Costco and the other shopping venues in the Olympia area.

This summer I spent a lot of time at our local Home Depot buying this and that as I put in our back yard.  One of the great selling points for moving to this new house (we had been in our “starter” house in Kirkland for nearly 43 years) was that the front yard was mowed weekly and generally taken care of through our home owner’s association dues.  The back yard is small but totally unimproved except for the fence surrounding it.  I’ve put hardware cloth on the bottom of the fence to prevent our two dogs, Mr. Puggles and Penny, from digging out and exploring the neighborhood; we designed and built a low 10’ by 20’ deck; added a raised flower bed with a small manufactured pond and fountain; and finished this summer’s and fall’s exterior projects with spreading nearly ten tons of washed gravel on a path.  I’ve done most of the work myself just to stay in shape.

On my many trips to our neighborhood Home Depot I usually wear a t-shirt with an Army logo of some kind plus the great 1st Aviation Brigade hat that our friend Miguel (Mike) Anza gave me a couple of years ago.  One day a young man stopped me and said “I know that logo!”  (I was wearing a shirt with a large 1st Aviation Brigade patch on it.)  I asked him why he knew it and he told me that he was in a training unit at Fort Rucker; click on this highlighted link for further info on today’s Brigade.

And another time when I was getting ready to check out of Safeway, another man (this time about my age) stopped me and greeted me like a brother because he had been in a helicopter company in the highlands.  We chatted a little while, trading a couple of stories and welcomed each other home!

I frequently hear the unmistakeable throb of rotors and see Blackhawks or Chinooks overhead.  Occasionally we hear the distant booming of artillery or rapid fire of machine guns as troops are practicing at JBLM.  Since we moved to Lacey it’s been fun to be peripherally part of a military community again!