Protecting the Precious Gift of Hearing

I'm a high school music teacher and musician; my hearing is not only a gift, but a vital part of my job. Hearing loss for me is a serious matter (as it should be for anyone) that not only would affect my lifestyle, but my livelihood.

For years I have worked in high volume environments; band and orchestra rehearsals and concerts, jazz band sessions, and teaching wind and percussion players on all instruments. There was a study a few years back that found the noise level of a marching band in an enclosed room was the equivalent of a 747 jet engine. No one would subject their ears to a jet engine unless they had to as part of their job, yet as a teacher and performer I have done that for years unwittingly.

Yes, I have used earplugs. There are some decent ones on the market, yet most are uncomfortable and I have found that they actually block sounds that I need to hear. And some don't block enough sound. Unfortunately I have therefore worn them indifferently, using them only as an afterthought. The toll on my hearing has been measurable.

About two months ago I noticed static white noise in both my ears, which grew louder as my environment became softer. This noise is full-time and constant. I self-diagnosed Tinnitus after doing online research, becoming dismayed at the prospect of cure (there is none, in reality). Armed with this background information I sought the medical advise of a doctor, and I was administered a comprehensive hearing exam very recently.

The Tinnitus in my ears is caused by the loss of signal between my ears and my brain. I have about a 35% loss of hearing in one ear in the low frequencies and 25% in the other in the high frequencies. I find that I sometimes miss the beginnings and or ends of conversations, when our voices naturally tail off in volume. I'll soon be fitted with a hearing aid to hopefully correct this deficit.

I am actually amazed at the new technology that is available to correct hearing now. Gone are those clunky devices that look like you are growing a third ear in the back of your head! In their place are sleek digital devices that filter, amplify and enhance the hearing experience. Many are even Blue Tooth enabled, opening connectivity possibilities with all sorts of other devices, including phones, pads and audio players.

With these new features of course comes cost, which is considerable, and most health insurances don't automatically cover them. Price range is anywhere from $1100 to $4000. depending on the make, features and how it is worn. The bottom line for everyone is simply this; we are subject in our everyday lives to so much noise pollution - loud TV's, sound systems, car stereos and personal audio devices. Everyone needs to become aware of the potential damage that could be done to our ears, and to make sure they get annual hearing checks. I didn't do this and so now I have to deal with the added expense of buying a hearing aid and hope that I don't suffer any significant additional hearing loss. Lesson learned.

Mexicali Pork Chops

I found a really good recipe on Allrecipes.com the other day and was thinking about it this weekend, when my better half, reading my mind, came home from the store with four pork cutlets. The recipe looked good but looked fairly bland for our tastes, so I notched up the heat and spice a little with the Anaheim peppers, chipotle powder and cumin (highlighted ingredient list), turning it into something indeed very tasty. Of course the dish will be fine with just the salt and pepper if you are not fond of those spices. I didn't have any today, but a finishing the dish with a few sprigs of cilantro would also be wonderful!

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 Hatch or Anaheim chili, chopped
• 1 can diced tomatoes with green chile peppers
• 1 cup whole kernel corn
• ½ tsp chipotle chili powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 4 thick cut butterflied pork chops
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter or margarine in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, green bell pepper, red bell pepper, Anaheim pepper, and season with salt, pepper and cumin. Sauté the vegetables for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and corn and continue to sauté for 5 more minutes. Pour this mixture into a 9x9 inch baking dish.

3. Melt the remaining butter or margarine in the same skillet over medium heat. Season and add the pork chops and sauté for 2 minutes per side, then place the chops in the baking dish over the vegetable mixture and cover with aluminum foil.

4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 12 to 15 minutes, or until internal pork temperature reaches 145 degrees F (63 degrees C).

Camp Chili

I’ve posted chili recipes before, but this one, excerpted from a website selling cast iron cookware, was a little different because it did not make use of tomato sauce, beans or green peppers. It’s meant to be prepared in a cast iron Dutch oven out of doors, but heck folks, it was just too hot and humid for that today, so I used an electric cooktop and a hard anodized aluminum pot rather than cast iron. The result was still phenomenal. Oh and I used ground beef, as called for as an option.

“Chili is great for parties-whether it’s cool outside or not. You can always freeze leftovers in various sized bags to pop in a microwave oven for a quick meal. Coarsely chopping your own steak makes a heartier chili; you can always substitute hamburger meat.

Ingredients

7 to 8 pounds round steak, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 pound thick-sliced bacon, chopped
4 cups diced onions
¼ cup flour
2 tablespoons kosher or sea salt
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
8 cloves garlic, crushed
4 large tomatoes, chopped
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons paprika
8 poblano peppers, roasted, peeled and chopped
4 cups beef stock

Preparation Directions

1. Brown bacon in large cast iron dutch oven over medium heat. Add onions before bacon is done and continue browning until onions are soft. Dip bacon and onions out.

2. Dredge meat in flour, salt and pepper. Place in Dutch oven, stirring continuously until beef is browned. Return cooked bacon and onions to pan; add garlic. Stir and brown 2 to 3 minutes.

3. Add ground cumin, paprika, peppers, tomatoes, beef stock and enough water to cover completely. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer from 2 ½ hours or until tender, stirring occasionally, adding a little water as needed.”

Excerpted from BBB, Biscuits & Beans by Bill Cauble and Cliff Teinart – bright sky press

Mars Science Laboratory

At 10:31 PDT on August 5th the latest unmanned rover, Curiosity, will land in Gale Crater on Mars after a nine-month voyage to the Red Planet. Following a harrowing, complicated seven minute ride to the surface (Google the NASA video "Seven Minutes of Hell", Curiosity will join a family of other rovers that are investigating Mars for the possibility of life on the planet, past and present. What makes Gale, a crater more than ninety miles across and has a central peak three miles high, interesting is that there are vast areas within the crater in which it appears that sub-layers have been exposed by wind and probably water at some time. This vehicle, the size of a car, is a hardy device that is hoped will be successful in traversing and some rugged and chaotic terrain while carrying out many scientific experiments and procedures.

I have always been fascinated by space; I can recall the later Mercury manned flights (Scott Carpenter and Gordon Cooper) and nearly all of the Gemini program flights. I followed all of the Apollo missions and the later unmanned flights to Mars and beyond. As a kid I would look up at the stars at night and wonder who was doing the same thing around all those countless stars. So with that said you know where to find me on Sunday night - online and viewing the video NASA will stream. I for one wish that "Seven Minutes of Hell" turns into a joyous celebration when Curiosity sends back that much awaited signal - "I'm OK!", or whatever the signal is that NASA is expecting!

An Open Letter to Jalapeno Peppers

Dear jalapeno pepper, what has happened to your spice? There was a time when you were the pepper of choice for the adventurous in all of us; the mere thought of a bite on a ring of your fire would send us crashing through the refrigerator for a glass of milk to quench your rage.

You were the star of so many great Mexican and Tex Mex dishes too; tacos, chili, burgers, salads, salsa, chips, for the more conventional, to ice cream for the more unconventional of us. It was all enough to get us reaching from our Tums to be sure! But sadly, you seem to have lost your touch, your ability to terrify. More often than not a bite out of you these days hardly has enough sting to remind us that you are a jalapeno and not the ubiquitous green pepper.

So who do we turn to now in order to satisfy our cravings for heat? Serrano peppers are the easy choice, but they don’t seem to quite have your flavor, despite packing a little more wallop. Of course you have cousins in Hatch peppers, Anchos and the like too. There are all kinds of Asian peppers too that can easily surpass the heat index requirement, if not the taste. And the same can be said for the Scotch Bonnet pepper; but again it’s heat without your flavor.

So what shall we do? I suppose the best bet, until you come to your senses and start showing your true nature, is to mix you with Serranos, to get their punch and your distinct flavor. Is that a deal?

*** UPDATE ***

Vegetable Chili

I wanted a variation of our favorite beef chili, a little lighter and without a trace of animal product. I came up with this simple recipe that tastes so good! The only thing that I would add (and did) would be cold beer and cheesy biscuits!





Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2 jalapenos, chopped (you can seed them, but I leave them in)
2 zucchinis, quartered, skin on
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon chipotle chile powder
1 tablespoon cumin
11/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 bottle of beer
2 cups vegetable stock
2 14 oz cans low sodium beans, any variety
2 14 oz cans crushed tomatoes, low sodium
dash and pepper to taste

Directions

Heat the oil over medium heat. Add the chopped vegetables and saute until the onions are clear. Salt and pepper. Pour in the broth, beans, crushed tomatoes, and beer. Add the spices and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for at least 30 minutes. Serve with shredded cheese and piping hot biscuits.

Health Care Debate is No Debate When It Hits Home

With the Supreme Court decision due this week on "ObamaCare" everyone has an opinion as to whether the law will stand, be modified, gutted or overturned. And because it's a presidential election year it's a hot button. My goal here is not to enter the argument, because nothing that I say will change anyone's mind one way or another. And I have no desire to do thst. You'll have your own opinion, just like I have mine.

I simply wish to relay a recent anecdotal personal experience which convinces me that provisions of the law are working for my family in a way that we could not have foreseen just a week ago. The story involves my son, a young man of 25 who, like many young people today, is gainfully, but under employed in a retail job while working toward his dream of becoming a recording/film industry sound engineer. That career involves specialized training that is very time consuming and expensive, but it's where he wants to be in his life in five years. Of course we support that goal and have done what we can as parents to see that he reaches his goal.

He's been laid off from time to time in this economic environment and we have had no problem with him moving back home as he saves for the education that he will need. Because of the new law we were able to extend our own healthcare coverage to include him to age 26, even through he is no longer a dependent. We never thought that he would need that insurance because he's healthy and young - until last week.

We noticed a swelling under his right temple about three weeks ago that became pronounced and appeared to involve his eye. We urged him to have this checked out at Urgent Care, which he did last Thursday night after work. He was hospitalized immediately because of high blood pressure, which he never knew he had, and the alarming appearance of this swelling. MRI and CT Scan imaging revealed a tumor which is very likely a sarcoma of some type under the temporalis muscle and involving his skull. To date we are awaiting a pathology report based upon a biopsy to determine the next steps, which obviously must involve surgical removal of the mass and follow-up treatments for the surgery and hypertension.

My point in relating this story is that my son was not under any healthcare coverage because he could not afford it - until "ObamaCare" enabled us to include him on our policy. That extension is valid until he turns 26 in October. The cost of this current hospitalization, and required surgery will be well over $100K by the time he is restored to full health. Since our state has changed its laws on public health care, he would have been either denied any medical services or placed into a debt situation that would have changed forever his career plans.

People can say what they want, but our family is grateful that the law allowed us to do what we could to help. People are often against things politically until it impacts them or their families positively or negatively. I am certainly not one who likes the ideas of mandates, more taxes, or government regulations, but some things are just too important to ignore and leave to the status quo. If you are in a position to write $100,000 health checks at a pop like some politicians are that's great. We are not in that tax bracket.

***Update***

So the Affordable Care Act is now the law of the land. Let the spin on both sides of the issue begin, and my are they spinning! After a time all of this becomes white noise to me because the talking heads have their talking points, few of which have anything to do with the real world and what affects me and my family.

What I know is that we have already benefited from provisions of ACA and at least for the next few months will continue to do so, until our son turns age 26 in October. Until then he is covered under our insurance and will have his medical situation handled under that policy. As a side-note he has been diagnosed with a form of Valley Fever; we are extremely relieved that this lesion is now considered an inflammation and not a tumor. Any damage caused by the inflammation will heal with the administration of the proper medication.

There are some six million young people, college students to young working adults, who are positively impacted by this provision. I won't argue the "tax" implications of this law because the politicians will do that. We will always be taxed in this country. That's the price of freedom. If taxes were levied fairly we wouldn't be having these arguments. And as far as big government is concerned we all complain about it - until we truly need big government.