Summer Descent
** I started this post on July 31st **
Yesterday, when I woke up, I said to Eileen, “Amets Txurruka,” and she replied, “posturography.” Honest to God. Those were the first words we said to each other.
Let me explain.
Every summer, Eileen and I watch the Tour de France with the fervor of a Nascar fan, and we often play this little game where in I mention a name of a cyclist and Eileen replies with the name of a different cyclist. Many of them have foreign names that are a lot of fun to say, like Haimar Zubeldia and Yaroslav Popovych. Even the English-speaking guys have fun names, like Levi and Cadel. Cadel? Have you ever heard that name before? I love it.
We go back and forth until one of us can no longer name anyone else. Then the game is over and a winner is declared.
Well, this summer, my pattern has been to wake up and start watching the Tour; Eileen goes off to work; I write or read news on the internet or go hiking with my friends; and then when Eileen gets home, she watches the rebroadcast of the Tour, and I often watch with her. So, bottom line: my Tour-watching this year was off the charts. So I had a lot of cyclists’ names running through my head.
Meanwhile, Eileen was immersed in her Audiological jargon for eight hours a day. So last night, she was dreaming of how one might solve the dilemma of having a patient undergoing Rotational Chair Testing while wearing wired goggles or electrodes. I’m sure you can all see how such a sitution might be a predicament. What happens to the wires when the chair starts spinning?
Posturography is also a diagnostic test for balance disorders, so when she woke up, Eileen had such things on her mind.
On my mind was still the Tour de France, which recently ended. Amets Txurruka, whose name kinda sounds like a balance disorder, won the Most Combatative Rider award.
So there you have it. The summer experiences of Tim and Eileen summed up in one small, three-word dialogue.
