Nashville Zoo!!

As we begin to post on a more regular basis, the topics covered here will inevitably shift from highlights of the last few months to things we did this last week. Of course, the big things will still be blogged, but we will be throwing in a bit more narrative on our weekly happenings and thoughts. I have really appreciated the feedback in these last few weeks. It's really great to know that people are enjoying reading this blog! We are happy to write it as long as people are wanting to read it!


Yesterday, we FINALLY made it to the Nashville Zoo! It's hard to believe that it took us three years to make the 15-minute trip to the Zoo. Better late than never!

If we had to give a grade to the Zoo, it would be a solid B. Aka, good, not great. Taking into account the fact that this zoo is in a city the size of Nashville, I think they are doing a pretty good job! There were definitely more good than bad things about it. Here's a short summary of what we thought:
Pros:

• Parking - Plenty of it and not too much of a walk to the entrance
• Value - It took us around two hours to walk through the whole thing. Admission is $15 per person with $5 for parking. By the time we finished, our feet were ready to be done, and we felt like we got our money's worth
• Animals - This may go in both columns. Some of the animals were fantastic - Gibbon monkeys, giraffes, zebras, and flamingos.
• Layout - There were restrooms, garbage cans, and food/drink vendors placed very conveniently around the park. They also did a great job of keep the park clean. I saw a good handful of employees picking up stray trash throughout the day. In my opinion, paying attention to these seemingly small things can make a huge difference in how the park feels. This is one area where I think Disney parks really excel. Not noticing empty cups, wrappers, and cigarette buds laying around allows you to focus on the real attractions of the park. This zoo is designated as smoke-free, which I personally appreciate. 

Cons:

• There were two main areas that featured large animals (elephants in one, and zebras and an ostrich in the other). Indeed some animals need expansive areas in which to roam, so the designers should create viewing areas to both encourage the animals to hang out close to the people, and give people multiple opportunities to get a good look at the animals. I believe this zoo falls short on both of those. For the elephants, there are only two areas where you can see them. The area where the elephants enter the field is in the far back, which is probably 150 yards from the first viewing site. Even though the elephants are magnificently large, it's still quite a distance away for the naked eye. The other viewing site, where the two pictures above were taken, allows you to get a bit closer to them, but it is nothing more than a small clearing in the bushes, so people have to pack into a tiny area and you feel rushed by the people coming in behind you. For the zebra enclosure, there was only one area where you could really see them. We had a great view of these animals, but I feel that we were a bit lucky because they happened to be grazing right in front of us. 
• In a few other exhibits, we felt that viewing was still an obstacle. In the cougar exhibit, for example, there is no dedicated viewing area. In fact, you are just supposed to stop on a little bridge and look out. Well, look up is more like it. The exhibit is on a fairly steep hill and unfortunately, the walkway is at the bottom. This in and of itself isn't terrible, but the slope works against you. There is a deep landing at the top of the hill where the cougars like to sleep (out of view). 

Meerkat Manor (Nashville)

Storks are much bigger than I thought! I got an opportunity to tell a little kid that that is where babies come from... (hehe!)

Zebras + lone ostrich

I discovered on this trip that the camera on my new phone (Samsung Galaxy S3) is really great in photos where I don't need to zoom. Unfortunately, despite the 8MP sensor, the 10X digital zoom really kills the clarity of photos. I know, I know, that's the nature of digital zoom, but I think this camera deals with it worse than others. Perhaps others have interpolation algorithms that this doesn't? Not sure, but I think in the future if I'm anticipating needing to take distance photos, I'll stick to our regular Canon camera.

Toucan Sam!

This picture is dedicated to Tyler

Here's a short video of the monkeys. It was really cool to see how smoothly they could swing through the trees!

Also, we noticed one flamingo in particular that seemed to have a bad case of the spins (insert corny Audiologist joke here... Don't worry. I did.)

Getting in the Groove

Here we go again! Now that the 4th Year Funnies are out of the way, it's time to fill y'all in on the other things we've been up to this week. As I mentioned on the other post today, Heather and I were both really busy this week so we didn't do a whole lot after work. But, we did do a few fun things this weekend and last! Let's get started.

From Easter on till about 10 days ago, Nashville got about 5.5 inches of rain. Those of you in Walla Walla may not be aware that Nashville averages over 50 inches of rain per year! So to get 5.5 inches in about 75 days is pretty rough. You have probably heard about the drought conditions in many parts of this country that have started to affect corn and other crops. Nashville is definitely a part of that. It was getting to the point where there was very little green grass anywhere in the county. Even shaded areas were dead and the dirt was completely dry. Well averages being what they are, we eventually got our rain!

We ended up getting slightly more rain in one week than the 5.5 inches we got in the 75 days preceding it! I never would have believed that the grass would turn around so quickly, but it did! After just 4 wet days or so, the grass began to come back to life. Unfortunately, our little plants haven't been quite so resilient. We have a hanging plant that is pretty much toast. It's amazing. There are quite a few leaves on our tomato plant that literally look like someone took a torch and burnt the leaves. Suffice is to say that our little garden is still on the mend from the heat.

Last weekend Heather and I took our friend Sol to a Nashville Sounds baseball game. The Sounds are a AAA team owned by the Milwaukee Brewers. These games aren't quite as fun to go to as the Vandy games, but we still love spending an afternoon at the ballpark! A good time was had by all and we won with a walk-off home run. Gotta love that scoreboard! Pure Nashville.

This weekend, Heather and I explored another of Nashville's many farmer's markets. This one is small but is nice and close to our apartment. We always love a good farmers market!

Now that is a BIG tomato!!

Lastly, Heather has been crafting up a storm this weekend. She took on a little project for a friend at work who asked for help making something to hold small jewelry, buttons, and other nick nacks. She's made something like this for herself before but not quite this big. What do you think? I think she's got some mad skills, but I may or may not be slightly biased.

Of course after finishing that project, Heather hadn't had enough. So she thought she would do another craft! She's been interested lately in art that finds letters using bits and pieces of nature to form words. She's been trying to find all the right pieces to make Davis but hasn't quite made it. So she thought, "why not just make something myself"? And she did! She bought a wood "D" at the craft store and a bottle of glue. The rest, well, check it out!!!

So that's pretty much the news from us! Tomorrow is a new day certainly filled with new challenges. I'm looking forward to making it through them and blogging about them next weekend! For now, I think I'll just aim for a once-weekly blog. If I happen to post during the week, consider it a bonus! That is, if you like these things. And I assume if you've made it to the bottom of this post, you do! I'll continue to post on Facebook to let you all know when a new post is ready for readin'. As always, we hope this blog finds you all well.

-Tim & Heather

4th Year Funnies!

Hello again!

So my plan was to bring you a funny post mid way through this last week. As it turns out, mid-week blogging requires a decent amount of creativity and energy that I just didn't have this time around. This last week was very busy at work for both Heather and me. But, the weekend is nice and wide open! So with NASCAR on in the background on this lazy Sunday, I bring you a double blot post. Enjoy!


I've been wanting to bring you a few stories of some of the more entertaining patients I've seen so far in clinic. A couple of them have to do with "Southern-isms" and one is a story that is just plain odd. So without further ado, let us begin what may become a periodic series on this blog. Lets call it "4th Year Funnies"!


The sound booths we use have big doors that swing wide into the main walkway. One door in particular, in the open position, blocks the TV we use to monitor the waiting room.

A clinician spoke up and said, "Hey Tim, would you mind pushing that door to"? I knew that I heard her clearly, but I couldn't figure it out... I thought to myself for a moment.

"Push it to what"? I asked.

"Push it to. Ya know, push the door to. I can't see the TV with the door open."

Ooooh. "You mean close the door. Right"?

"Yeah", she said. "Haven't you heard that before? Push the door to"?

Umm, no. So I had to ask my classmate, Adrian, who is from South Carolina and is a bonafide Southern gal. She said that she was familiar with the term but it was more like something her grandmother might say. Southernism!

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In our clinic, we hear all types of stories about how Veteran's have lost or broken their hearing aids. Some people step on their hearing aids, some run over them with cars and golf carts, some people's grandchildren throw them in the bushes, while other's dogs eat them. It's not unusual for someone to bring in a hearing aid in 3-15 pieces hoping we can just glue it back together (ya, not so much). But one time, I had a very nice and rather large gentleman bring with him a story that I was absolutely not expecting.

"So how can I help you today sir"?

"Well, I have my hearing aid here and it's in a few pieces."

"No problem. What happened to it"?

"Well, I was eatin' a bowl of M&Ms, and it must have slipped in there. Cause next thing I knew, I was bitin'

into the thing."

Keep in mind that this hearing aid was about the size of a quarter. I just thought to myself, that guy must have REALLY been enjoying those M&Ms!!


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The last story is from just a couple weeks ago. A Veteran and his son came to me on a busy walk-in day. The Veteran sat down and after being asked what I can do for him he began (insert super heavy Southern accent here...) I"ll spell the key word phonetically for starters.

"I have a RAH-zin in my ear and I can't hear out of it. I've got these hearing aids but they don't do me no good with this thing in my ear."

I don't usually take guesses at words when I'm not sure exactly what they said, so I asked him to repeat.

" A RAH-zin. I have a RAH-zin in my ear."

I looked over at his son who was completely straight-faced. So I knew this wasn't a joke or anything. I'm just an ignorant yankee that has no idea what they're talking about. I considered a few possibilities in my head... either this guy is saying he has a Verizon, or a raisin in his ear. I guess I'm hoping for a raisin at this point! At least I can fix that one. Although it would probably be way cooler to get 4G in your ear.

His son offered some help. "He has a RAH-zin. Ya know, a swellin'"?

AHHHHH. Relief for me. He's saying he has a rising / risin' in his ear. So I took a look in his ear and sure enough, he had a little blister way down in his ear canal. Again, I had to ask around the clinic to see if other people would have known what he was talking about. Only two out of 8 or so would have known. Southernism!


I'll save the actual updates from this week for a separate post. 

                                        Cute!

  

               

Well hello!

It appears that we haven't posted on this blog in a few days... err months. What can I say? We're just not that into blogging. I know I know. Every time I post I say something along the lines of, "we're not that great at this, but we're trying to get better"! Ready for some honesty? We're not really trying to get better. The truth is we just don't think to blog very often! Granted, our lives are not nearly as exciting as my sisters' who both have little kids running/crawling around these days. But even though it's just us, we still have notable things going on! Right now I'm sitting at my desk on a rainy Saturday and I happened upon our blog and realized it has been, oh I don't know, 9 months since our last post. Allow me to fill you in on some of the major events of the last few months!

Let us start where the last few posts left off. I mentioned a while ago that I got a spot for my 4th year externship at the VA Medical Center in Nashville. I officially became a federal employee at the beginning of June and have been working full time since then. This externship is a very important time for me because I am still trying to decide whether or not to pursue a Ph.D. in Audiology/Hearing Science. Applications will be due this coming winter so I have about 6 months to work in the clinic before I must apply. Frankly, I'm quite torn between the two. I vividly recall the words that came out of my mouth when leaving Bellingham and Walla Walla to drive to Nashville for my Au.D.. I said, "it's OK guys, we'll just be gone for 3 years and then we'll move back to the Northwest". Well, we're entering our 4th year in Nashville. What can I say? Things came up! Since we moved to Nashville, I've been steadily busy in both Au.D. work and a few different research labs. I've definitely enjoyed the research and have been told by several professors that I'd do well as a Ph.D. and would find it very rewarding and more stimulating than staying with the Au.D.. If only it were as easy as figuring out if I'd rather be a clinician or professor. I won't bore you with the details of my thoughts. Suffice is to say that I'm really torn between the two. We both miss the Northwest quite a bit and it would be a bit of a sacrifice to stay away for 3-4 more years. On the other hand, it is a great privilege to have a spot in the Ph.D. program at Vanderbilt if I want it. It would be an honor to earn two professional degrees from the top school in the country for Audiology. Vanderbilt has great labs, very nice faculty, and I know I would be trained to be a good researcher and teacher. The bottom line is that I'm trying to give myself until mid September before making a decision on if I will apply for the Ph.D. or not. So stay tuned! Seriously. More posts WILL be coming later this summer and fall!

While I got to stay in Nashville for my externship, most of my classmates left town for theirs. Of course when I say my classmates, I might as well be saying "Heather and my best friends". Seven of them, in fact. It's definitely been an adjustment not having our whole big group together anymore. In case you didn't know, Heather and I have been incredible close with all 10 of my classmates the entire 3 years we were together. We were both truly blessed to have such an incredible group of classmates to share in this experience. We all supported each other along the way which really made the entire experience one I'll never forget. They are dearly missed and Friday happy hours simply aren't the same without them. We are all planning on making it to our profession's annual conference where ever it may be. Can't wait to see everyone this April in Anaheim!


A couple of my favorite pictures of my class. The first is from our 3rd-year banquet, and the other is possibly a holiday party from a year or two ago!

Though most have left, new friends have arrived! I have one fellow extern at the VA named Sol. She is from Ohio and we have had such a great time getting to know her! We all went out to happy hour yesterday and I'm looking forward to including her in many of our shenanigans throughout the next year. And of course there is the incoming Au.D. class that is just now beginning to arrive in town. Though, I suspect with me being exclusively at the VA, I don't imagine I'll have many chances to get to know them. Ahh, how things change.

Heather is still working at Zander Insurance here in town. She's been there for three years now and has been promoted yet again to case manager. Not bad!! She'll likely stick it out there until we leave Nashville.

In other news, we've decided to make a trip to Bellingham in October!!! The flip side of this is that this trip will be in lieu of a trip to Walla Walla over the holidays. Heather and I have missed Bellingham every since we left, and we figured this would be a great time to go! Bellingham is a nice place to vacation because it is not too tough for family and friends back home to join us for a few days. Also, since many of you (I assume most of you reading this are family...) are planning on coming to Nashville for my graduation, a trip near home will break up the next year quite nicely.

Well, Heather is telling me it's dinner time and I bet you are all pretty tired of reading this thing. So here ya go! Our first blog post in way too long. Hope it tastes good going down.

Just because...  :-)