Noisy Shop, But Peaceful Setting.

As I mentioned before, the shop where the Mountain Vista Mural is being painted is a machine shop, yet as clean as any hospital. The ceiling has many skylights, which bring a soft, naturalistic light into the workspace below. The HVAC system is state of the art and very comfortable. And of course, our mural adds beauty to the otherwise stark white corporate looking walls. All of Novatek's buildings are designed to inspire creativity. The Novatek business model follows a Thomas Edison like approach and workspace set up. During Edison's productive lifetime, he patented a little over 1,000 inventions. Novatek has been in operation since the early 1950's and they already have over 500 patents. The lions share of Novatek's patents have been in the last ten years or so. It has been said that the company CEO makes more trips to the patent office than the average person goes to the grocery store. The past few years, Novatek has basically held the record for the most inventions cranked out of their Utah company, when compared to several other productive Utah based firms.

I officially learned about twelve years ago, that I was born with a severe hearing impairment in my left ear. I had suspected this for many years, but didn't go in to get my hearing officially checked out until I was in my early Forties. At first, it was just my left ear with nerve damage, then my right ear had been effected mostly by loud noise damage. This could only be corrected with two hearing aids and I received my first pair with my first visit. My hearing aids (new three years ago), have served me well, yet the past few weeks, I had noticed that I wasn't hearing well in my left ear. At first, I thought my ear was plugged with wax, which happens quite a lot. After I realized my ears were void of earwax, I figured an adjustment in my hearing aid would be needed. Today I paid my audiologist a visit and learned that my hearing device is fine, but the hearing in my left ear had gotten worse. Perhaps in a few years, I may be nearly or completely deaf. I guess I better get a head start on learning some American Sign Language or I may go around annoying everyone with my, "Eh? Eh? What? Would you repeat that sonny?"

The shop where I'm working is noisy. Perhaps the noise exposure has contributed to my loss? If I wear ear plugs, I may as well be completely deaf. I'm already half deaf. Oh well. As long as I don't go blind or loose my left hand (last December I almost lost a few fingers on the left hand with a table saw). Better be careful.