Doing my part

 Here I am again - seems like this is my CI summer.  Today I drove into Minneapolis again - I got an email from K at the university, where they're doing studies to learn more about how cochlear implant recipients hear and understand with their devices.  Basically, it's the interface between the implant and the, er, wetware inside the head.

Although it was a bit last-minute, I thought, well, why not?  I'm retired and don't have a schedule to speak of.  The only accommodation needed was for us to do our Costco run to St. Cloud yesterday so I could go to the U today. 

And the only real drawback was that summertime in Minnesota is when they do highway construction.  Lots and lots of highway construction.  In the area around Shevlin Hall (where the hearing labs are) there are two roads closed for construction, overburdening University Ave, Washington Ave, and Oak St., which are all main arteries on campus.  So I tried to avoid it by going around.

Bad idea.  My "going around" involved going a bit farther north than I needed to, on Hwy 55, and then across the river on Central and down University as far as I could.  But!  As it turns out, Hwy 55 is not just under construction, it's completely closed off in both directions from Dahlberg to Theodore Wirth Parkway, which I got around by turning on my phone maps and following the frontage road (local traffic only, my ass) and then into the city.  

Where I ended up on the west side of Target Field, and guess what?  The Twins are at home this week and it was an afternoon game, so there was a lot of traffic, particularly around the ramps that have event parking. So I crawled through that, got on 4th St (Positively 4th St, as Bob used to call it) and crossed the river on Washington, which wasn't all that slow at 11:30am, luckily.  Then up Pleasant St to Pillsbury, and voila.  It only took two hours.

But here's the thing: this is a thing that I am really committed to doing.  No, not challenging the traffic in downtown Minneapolis on Twins game days. Participation in these studies has become something that I find extremely gratifying - and particularly so when the researchers make such a point of their gratitude, when, actually, I think I should be grateful to them.  They're running studies that may eventually help me, and if not me, other hearing impaired and deaf people like me.  The idea that I can contribute to this - whether it's at the University studying the way the brain interacts with the cochlear implants, or at MedEl, participating in the research they do to improve the devices themselves, is incredibly gratifying.  

So, yes, I always go when they call, and if it means I spend three and a half hours in the car, that's the deal.  (Going home turned out to be a piece of cake, I turned on my GPS and followed it - back across the river on Washington and up to 94 to 394, and hardly any traffic at all).  So yeah, I don't mind the drive - I like driving my car, and I have a good sound system and I have new CI processors that let me listen to my music and it sounds great.

And if that's largely because of people like the team at the U studying how people understand with their CIs, then I will absolutely give them the time and my focus when it they need it.    

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