Walk if you want to

Guest post written by Alex Wharton

Exercise is extremely important to me, especially now that I’m retired. I always like to work out early in the morning but it’s dangerous to go walk outside then with morning work traffic so I always go to the mall and walk around instead. At least with that way I don’t have to worry about wearing sunscreen or braving the elements except for my commute there and back.

The other morning I was walking around and saw a sign offering a hearing test. I had never really thought that I need a hearing aid, but it piqued my interest and I went into the center after reading some hearing aid reviews. Ends up I did need one, so I got equipped with one.

Now when I’m walking in the mall I can hear the little sounds I missed before of janitors mopping the bathroom floors, and store employees rolling up their stores’ security gate and lining up their merchandise on the shelves.

I guess mall walking benefitted my health and well-being even more than I originally thought!

Watching the race with Grandpa

Guest post written by Jeff Noble

Racing is something we take seriously in our family. My dad has always followed his favorite drivers religiously, including the Earnhardt family, and weekend afternoons during race season are always spent in front of the living room TV.

I definitely inherited the race gene and my 8-year-old son watches the events with us, asking Grandpa which is “his” driver and how many laps are left to go. But Dad is always happy to answer and tell stories about races he’s been to.

In fact, he’s been to so many races that that’s probably why his hearing has gotten so bad over the years. I guess I started noticing it once he started turning up races so loud on the TV that I couldn’t hear myself think and made him look into digital hearing devices. But now, thankfully, he wears a hearing aid so that I can watch the race with him without having to shout over the hum of the cars like I do when we’re actually at a race. That’s the only part I always hated about racing, how loud those cars are! I sure don’t need for my own hearing to get worse and don’t want to worry about my son’s either.