{"id":1947,"date":"2021-06-17T13:50:23","date_gmt":"2021-06-17T18:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=1947"},"modified":"2021-06-17T15:20:18","modified_gmt":"2021-06-17T20:20:18","slug":"whats-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=1947","title":{"rendered":"What’s That?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Several years ago, I underwent a hearing test at the VA Central Iowa Health Care Center, better known as the VA Hospital and Clinics.\u00a0 The results of the test determined that my hearing was normal.\u00a0 I know that\u2019s a crock of crap, but I had a hearing test at Farmland Foods (now known as Smithfield Foods) in Denison, Iowa, back in the late 1980s.\u00a0 At that time, my hearing was also normal.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t hear well then; I can\u2019t hear well now.<\/p>\n

Our mother couldn\u2019t hear very well.\u00a0 Of course, the Ryan kids suspected that mom had selective hearing.\u00a0 I may have inherited that trait.\u00a0 However, now that I\u2019m as old as I am, I\u2019m going to defend her.\u00a0 It\u2019s my belief that mom was inflicted with ADD and OCD (not going to spell them out).\u00a0 \u201cWhat?\u201d becomes a habit.<\/p>\n

But really, I am having a difficult time hearing Stephanie, the television, and the dryer buzzer, and many other sounds I want to hear, many of them existing in nature.\u00a0 Earlier this week, I thought of scheduling a new hearing test at the VA.\u00a0 After a few minutes, I thought to myself: \u2018I should wait.\u00a0 Why would I want to hear firecrackers, fireworks, Harleys, and obnoxious music from people peddling bicycles on the trail?\u2019<\/p>\n

It\u2019s that time of the year again in which the process of going to sleep becomes more labored than any other time of the year.<\/p>\n

In Iowa, you can legally shoot off fireworks from 9:00 am until 10:00 pm from June 1st<\/sup> through July 8th<\/sup>.\u00a0 The hours are extended on weekends to 11:00 pm.\u00a0 That\u2019s the legal limitations.\u00a0 People in our neighborhood must be on a west coast time zone.<\/p>\n

When fireworks were illegal in Iowa, residents of the apartments on the south end of the block seemed to be the only neighbors who set them off.\u00a0 Now that it\u2019s legal to blow your hand off, residents on all sides of us get into the action, especially on the nights of July 3rd<\/sup> and 4th<\/sup>.\u00a0 The past two years have produced bad-air warnings in Des Moines.\u00a0 You can see the thick fog of smoke early in the morning \u2013 and late in the morning.<\/p>\n

My opinion on fireworks has vacillated throughout my life.\u00a0 First, I like them; then, I didn\u2019t.\u00a0 When I was younger, if you gave me some firecrackers, cherry bombs, or M80s, I would explode them.\u00a0 Mostly, placing one under a can, lighting a fuse, and running away to see how far the can would go in the air.<\/p>\n

It seems to me that buying something that disappears immediately upon using it is a waste of money.\u00a0 The older I get, the more I see that most of the fireworks around me are set off by those least able to afford them.\u00a0 But that\u2019s not the total case.\u00a0 My neighbors to the north and to the west have the financial resources to purchase them and set them off and that\u2019s what they do, it\u2019s just not as consistent as the neighbors to the south.\u00a0 I have no idea what it\u2019s like in other neighborhoods, but I must assume that shooting off personal fireworks is not limited to the less fortunate neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

As for Harleys, they come and go.\u00a0 The full minute of listening to one-hundred decibels is no worse than the meat grinder I operated for ten to twelve hours a day when I was a sausage maker.\u00a0 It ran constantly at ninety decibels.\u00a0 In the final two years of operating that equipment, the company provided us with earplugs.\u00a0 Then, they gave us a hearing test.\u00a0 Everything was normal.<\/p>\n

Bicyclists on the trail with the music turned up as loud as possible baffle me.\u00a0 One day last week I heard a bicyclist go by listening to George Thurgood.\u00a0 Actually, I heard him coming from over a quarter of a mile away.\u00a0 Later, I saw a commercial with a guy riding a Harley, and he was listening to the worst 1960s teeny-bopper music \u2013 Build Me Up Buttercup.<\/em>\u00a0 Role reversal?<\/p>\n

Stephanie and I walk every day we can, which is most days, including the winter.\u00a0 Listening to the birds and watching wildlife move around the trail is one of our treats.\u00a0 George Thurgood, Toby Keith, and Iron Maiden seem not to blend with nature.\u00a0 I would like to say that in late fall, we\u2019ll have the trail to ourselves and the eagles, turkey buzzards, cardinals, red-winged blackbirds, and deer.\u00a0 However, at that time the buzzards have migrated, as well as the red-winged blackbirds.\u00a0 The cardinals are sparse, and several other species are beginning hibernation.\u00a0 The deer will be with us, and so will a pair of eagles and their young (if we ever get introduced to them).<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the time to make an appointment to get my hearing tested.\u00a0 I\u2019m willing to bet that my hearing is normal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several years ago, I underwent a hearing test at the VA Central Iowa Health Care Center, better known as the VA Hospital and Clinics.\u00a0 The results of the test determined that my hearing was normal.\u00a0 I know that\u2019s a crock … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[863,861,860,862,865,864,859],"class_list":["post-1947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-build-me-up-buttercup","tag-firecrackers","tag-fireworks","tag-george-thurgood","tag-iron-maiden","tag-toby-keith","tag-va-iowa-central-health-care-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1947"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1949,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1947\/revisions\/1949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}