The Men’s club information quest led us deeper into the issues of local politics and into a subject that we did not want to (or could not ) hear: a presentation about hearing loss.
President Bill Tally opened both meetings by praising the breakfast teams for starting our day properly with a hearty breakfast.
On July 21, Lisa Bartlett, our 5th District Orange County Board of Supervisors representative, and Vice Chair of the Board was our first guest speaker. Ms. Bartlett gave an extremely informative recap of key projects in our district. First, she addressed water usage and conservation, pointing out that OC currently is reducing water usage by 28%, but we need to continue this effort. She is holding a workshop in the near term to provide guidelines for reducing landscaping water use.
Other projects that she discussed were: the La Plata gap closure that will provide a parkway between San Juan and San Clemente on the east of I-5; the Laguna Hills Mall renovation; and the Dana Point Harbor renovation; and a November 6 Veterans’ summit at Saddleback College (one topic will be Magnetic Resonance treatment for PTSD and autism). This recap was followed by an informative question and answer session.
CW Gruenig, our Vice President, introduced the second speaker, our Dana Point Council Member, Joe Muller. Joe provided a spread sheet that listed his view of the Dana Point General Fund between the years 2007 and 2014. It did not reflect the deficit spending picture that was presented to us by the Dana Point Residents for Responsible Development group who visited us at the last meeting.
Joe was kind enough to answer many questions and to stay past the meeting to clarify current and upcoming issues. Thus, we uncovered the signs of a local city political disagreement—dig deeper and decide! (On Oct. 6, Carlos Olvera, Mayor of Dana Point, will speak about old vs. new Dana Point. That promises be an interesting Q&A session).
Our guest speaker on August 4, Sam Ghasemi, Director of Hearing Aid Dept. for Costco, gave a very informative presentation concerning the benefits of hearing aids, and the current state of the art of these devices.
Wow, now you can adjust the controls of some hearing aids using your IPhone! (There is an app for nearly everything.)
Two big advantages of getting hearing aids are: (1) for safety reasons, and (2) to offset the “loss of touch with others“ that accompanies hearing loss. Sam pointed out that many times hearing loss is of the higher frequencies which distorts the sound and makes the sound garbled and difficult to understand. The newer hearing aids are adjustable over the various frequency channels which makes them more “customizable” to an individual’s needs.
August 18, Dr. Carlos Vazquez a behavioral psychologist and the host of the IHeart Radio—“Whose Mind Is it Anyway? A look at how we make decisions—influenced by the media and candidates.
Upcoming Events:
September 1, Alan Hess, author of numerous books and a career speaker, about California architecture.
September 15, Liese Mosher, speaking about what is happening With the shutdown of the San Onofre
nuclear facility.
October 13, 5-8pm, Men’s Club Fall Party is in the works for members and guest—Tickets at upcoming meetings.
—Jerry Allen
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