Modeling the effects of sensorineural hearing loss on temporal coding in the auditory nerve

Dave came into town tonight. We fed him at Houlihan’s and on returning home Anne began a conversation with the neighbors. Gracie, the little neighbor girl piped up with the question, “Do you have a baby?” Anne got that grin across her face that I have come to fear, and answered. “Yes Gracie, I do have a baby inside. He is my baby. Do you want to see him?” She didn’t have to ask twice. Gracie was initially nonplussed with Dave, but Anne explained that Dave has a big brother, just like Gracie does, and that made him the baby of the family. She bought this with the exclamation, “He’s a big baby.” Yes Gracie, he sure is. He dwarfs his lilliputian parents. Dave is no baby, but a grown man. He is in town to attend a wedding. On Sunday, he flies to Hong Kong. He will present the poster that he holds in the picture above.

On a less celebratory note, tonight is the vigil of the first anniversary of my mother’s death. This has been a hard year for my father, her life partner, and my brother, who has lived with them for many years. A few weeks ago, my dad and Chris resumed the international travel that my mother and they all enjoyed for many years, before she became too sick to travel. They took a riverboat cruise down the Rhine. As pleasurable as this trip should have been, it was overshadowed by their still all too raw grief.

I just wish that my mom could have seen our two sons now. I think that they would have lifted her spirit. I know it will, my father’s. They are Anne’s and my future, and in part dad’s too. It should be interesting , when we conclave in Monterey later this year.