Disappearing into the abyss

So I dropped off the face of the earth again. Sorry. Partially cause there hasn't been much going on. Partially cause I've been out of town on a few trips lately. First it was New Mexico for an Indian Health Services Audiology conference. Then a few weeks ago it was to anchorage just for fun (and I apparently needed it cause I'd been getting pretty difficult to deal with I've been told) and most recently, right now actually, to Portland for a training workshop called Dangerous Decibels. My goal is to get the program up and running in my region.

My hope is to start locally at the schools and health fairs- way more entertaining to have some of this set up than having literature out about hearing aids and hearing protection. I wanna get the ball rolling and hopefully get some involvement from maybe kids from the high school or a sympathetic elder/community leader to help get people interested and get my foot/feet/booty in the door. Ultimately the class was designed as about an hour long program for 4th-5th graders but is very easily adopted to all age groups- including adults. Feel free to google Dangerous Decibels and check out their online program.

I've been collecting the parts to make a manikin who will help test the kids iPod (or other media player) and see how loud it actually is (ease parental fears) and see how long someone can listen at that volume and be 'safe'. Ultimately it's a really cool tool that will be able to travel with me to schools/sports venues/health fairs and be a real hands on and informative tool. And mom is collecting clothes for it so he's not sitting in the back of my office all naked and stuff.

So that's the poop. If you get a hankering for more info and I'm not delivering... Get ahold of me (email, comments, grapevine) and fuss at me.

Ohhhhh.... I almost forgot. My days ARE getting shorter. And by that I mean it's dawn as I'm waking up and the sun goes down by about 11/midnight. It's still in the 50s so pretty comfortable most of the time. Unfortunately, it's also been raining so the road near my house is super muddy. Ok. Till next time...