Thursday night

The meeting was to start at 7 but it was already standing room only by about a quarter til. Judge Buddy V. was the guest tonight at our BACA (Bike Advocacy of Central Arkansas) meeting. Monty was sick so Ron conducted the meeting. He did a good job. Judge Buddy V. spoke about the Big Dam Bridge opening and all the festivities that will happen. One of the cool things was that they are going to tr and get all the big boats to come and dock in the area. Lots of us signed up to volunteer for at least one part of the celebration. I'm going to ride the BDB100 but I'll be helping with events prior to such as the reception and such. Someone told the head lady I was the life of the party and so I got put in on the Thursday night party. Hey no prob! There will be food!

As I was heading over to the meeting I had to cross Broadway bridge and spotted JMar, JBar and Robb with 2 B's heading over. I was wondering where the rest were. Keith and Will got to the meeting just before it started and said there were about 20 or so out there riding tonight. I missed being out there but figured I should be at the BACA meeting since I missed the last one.

Hearing aid story: Ok, so I go over there and Steve as going to hook me up and they had a child that missed up their appointment and needed the room. No prob there at all. I was glad to give it up but I did get to see it and hold it. very small compared to my hearing aid I have now and very very lightweight (Yep, bike buds...it was carbon!). So I go back over this afternoon when they called and I put it on and everything is echoing. Sound mechanical. The aid is in my ear but also hooked to a computer to program it at the same time. Very cool. I can hear the fan in the computer. I can hear people talking in the hall. I could hear someone walking... on carpet. I could hear a child crying. It was very strange to hear what "normal" people hear. We went for a walk down the halls to get into some real environment. I voiced my fear of crowded noisy rooms and not being able to hear but I could. We walked to the front of the hospital and I could hear the expresso machine from far away. It was really funny because I was asking Steve about certain sounds and trying to figure out what they were. I told him the sound was much like the first time I put a hearing aid on when I was in the first grade. It was sort of one of those "Ohhhh!" moments. You just don't realize the gift of hearing until it's given back to you. Steve had this tupperware box and said pick your color. I really like the carbon colored one mainly because it has a bluetooth look rather than a hearing aid look. There was also purple, royal blue, browns, blacks, flesh and tanned flesh shells. It was funny. We got back to the office and Steve said he wanted to do a hearing test with the aid one just to see. The results, not bad but we could do better. We ordered another model. I was bummed but I kept telling myself that I could have a 1977 Pinto or I could wait a couple more days and have a Porsche. At my age, if I'm going to buy something, it's going to be one of the best.

One of my neices (Britney) had a healthy little baby boy today! Congrats and welcome to the family little guy.

Several of us will be riding our de Oink Saturday morning. It's just a 40 mile ride in Morrilton but it's a lot of riders and it's fun. We are considering riding it 2x for 80 miles as a training ride. There is also a 20 mile family loop and what we might do is ride the 40 then jump on the 20.

The inlaws are coming back up from FL next week or the week after and I told Terri the borders are closed unless they bring fresh seafood. They will probably come right about the time Hurricane Chris plows into the gulf coast, if it does. I hope not so bad. Those folks just can't take anymore. Stll recovering from the last ones. I mean the Navarre Beach road to P'cola is still closed. They are just now rebuilding the dunes.

My nephew Jim has made it out to Fresno, CA to the new church he will be preaching at. He sounds excited on his blog but at the same time you could read he misses his wife and 2 daughters. They will move out there soon.

Nothing much else going on... catch you later