Listen: there's a hell of a good universe next door, let's go

Despite shelter in place, my workplace is still operating.  We're a manufacturing site and considered essential.  Many individuals are working from home (I haven't, yet - it's really easy for me to drive there, go in, shut my office door and be socially distanced). But all of our meetings are phone meetings now.  This has, for most of my life, sucked deeply.  And on the first Monday when we had a phone meeting first thing I tried the speaker on my regular office phone and indeed.  Sucked. But I have a neckloop, a Bluetooth device that pairs with my cell phone and transmits to the CI telecoil.  And it's clear.  Back when I was listening to audiobooks as rehab I used it quite a lot but it's been in a carrying case in the backpack that I take to work for a while now, hibernating until it was needed. So when I realized that I was probably going to have to give it a try I got it out, charged it up and dialed into the next call and - hey.  I could...

I was scheduled to go to Durham, NC where Med-El has its North American headquarters for the week of March 30th; they conduct research there that supports development of the next generation of cochlear implants and CI recipients go there for a week of testing.  It's a chance to make a contribution as well as a chance to visit the company that gave us our hearing back. My bad luck was to have scheduled my research week during what turned out to be a global pandemic.  Med-El has cancelled all corporate visits for the next month (which is extremely common, my employer has done so as well) and since the research was scheduled out through the end of the year, it's unlikely that I'll be able to do this in 2020. It's deeply disappointing - call me a geek, but I was really looking forward to being able to combine learning more about the technology in my head and paying it forward to new recipients and to Med-El. And yes, I know - if that's the worst thing that happens...