saving ourselves

i never thought too much about it before the past few years, but considering it now, i want to be able to hear when i get "old". so when i hear people listening to headphones so loudly that i can hear what they are listening to across the room, i have to wonder. have they already damaged their hearing so they have to listen to it that loudly to even hear it at all? have they been to too many rock concerts? or do they just really like their music LOUD? now, when i help with firewood chopping or mowing the lawn or watching a movie or going to a concert / show or working with loud equipment, i always wear ear protection.

i have always been a big proponent of eye protection as well, but this just seems logical. helmets also seem logical, as far as headgear is concerned on a bicycle, but it has taken me some time to come around to them (never wore one until about 3 years ago). though i have always, always worn my seatbelt in the car (unless there wasn't one, and then i just wrapped anything i could find around myself to hold me in).

but cell phones and ipods and all this stuff that has us using our ears so much...it scares me that the next generation (my generation) won't be suffering from arthritis or cancer until late in their lives, but they will be deaf before they even have their mid life crises...

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gym report:

i went to get new goggles, swim cap, wax earplugs, etc today at the store. there are so many choices of goggles i just didn't know what to get. i got ones with neoprene gaskets, thinking they'd be softer on my face. the truth of the matter is that they didn't keep the water out. now it could be that they'd been packaging for so long that they had divets, that might work themselves out in a day or 2. but if they don't look like they're going back to a shape where i can get water proof protection out of them, i'm going to return them and get ones with rubber gaskets. so i didn't do any face-in-the-water strokes today (sigh) but did have a good 1/2 hour swim.`

16 laps (32 lengths)

4 breast stroke
4 backstroke
4 sidestroke
4 elementary backstroke

need to get:
better goggles
flip flops / crocs?

weight: 167.1 (weighed wet and with clothes on)

stomper: saw her in the locker room.