Deflection

It was overcast about all day, with rain later in the afternoon. The high was like 81 degrees. With this cold front going through this afternoon, it is to be colder tomorrow.

I had an interesting day at tie Mayo Clinic. I was scheduled to get a pneumonia shot at 1:20, but I got to the eighteenth floor at 9:30, and I check to see if they could get me in early. Since they had enough nurses on the floor, I got right in get the shot, and I found out that the shot covers more health items than I was expecting. But it covers ear infections, sinus infections, meningitis, and of course pneumonia. Considering the number of sinus infections that I have had over the years, this seems like I will benefit for the shot. And, it is one shot for life. I cannot beat this vaccination and it was worth spending more time at the clinic.

When I contacted my doctor for an appointment, I asked for a hearing test, since I feel that I am not hearing like I was with my left ear, but the appointment was for September 1. So, I when to the twelfth floor and asked if there was any openings for today and there was none. Per the clinic’s policy, I told them that I would wait until 11:15 to see if there was nay openings. Then about a half and hour later, they informed me that they had an opening a 2:15. (Going back to Whitewater today went out the window.) The audiologist had a great personality. (So, did the nurse that gave me the pneumonia shot.). I do have more hearing loss since my ears were checked two years ago. The audiologist showed me the progression of the hearing lost since I was diagnosed with acoustic neuroma. As for my left ear is concern, it is to the point that I can go with or without a hearing aid, but the time is coming. As for my hearing aid, since I have moved, I need to find a local audiologist to have it serviced and them may be I will a hearing aid in the left ear. Since the audiologist stated that I have a 30 day trail period, it would not hurt to try a hearing aid. But it is so nice to have staff that will spend all the time that you to explain everyone in detail and answer all of your questions. Also, with today’s technology, I can contact them with follow up questions.

Since it became clear that it would be will into the evening before I got back to Whitewater, I rented a hotel room on point in LaCrosse. So, I drove down on US 52 to the Root River. Since this area is so scenic, I followed the Root River to the Mississippi River. Adjacent to river is an old railroad track that has been converted to a trail. In the past, have biked and snow showed the trail. In one way it feels like home, since the area was settled by Norwegians, like my great grand mother.

I did bring my bicycle with me. If today was going be nice, I was think about bicycling the Root River Trail, but that did not work. So, if things work out tomorrow, I might try to bicycle the Elroy Sparta trail. Since I will probably have extra time, it would be nice to look at the geology around the tunnels, since I feel that the soil is sand stone. This would make for easy digging, but, if I remember correctly, they used vertical shafts to remove the soil. I feel that this would be fun. But I will have to see what tomorrow brings.

Since my doctor like my exercise program of over 30 minutes per day, I guess that I need to keep it going. Except for two days when I had pneumonia, I have been able to get the 30 minutes in since I have retired. Hopefully, by get back into the woods this fall, I will get more minutes in at that time.

By being in a hotel room, it looks like I have more time to type.

Enjoy,

Roger