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

How did that happen?  In some ways it feels as though things have been just sort of normal, I go to work, I come home.  I listen to music in the car and in general it's getting better but there are odd changes in what sounds good, so that something that was sounding really pretty good all of a suddens sounds odd again.  My brain can't do a damn thing in a linear fashion, or so it seems sometimes. Just your normal, average summer, I guess.  I go to work, I come home.  Well, there was that one week where, on Wednesday we went Jet-skiing on Lake Minnetonka, which scared the hell out of me before we went, but I put the waterwear on my processors and wore a scarf tied around them to make sure they didn't fall into the lake when I was jumping wakes at 30 mph.  And they didn't, and we had fun.  I've never really liked motor sports, but jet skis and waterskiing are my guilty pleasures, and it was a fun day.  And then the day after that, we bought anot...

My trip to DeKalb went well.  It was a productive meeting and a really interesting opportunity to see the distribution center, which is four huge buildings - and they were able to lay them out the way they wanted to, for efficiency and organization rather than just shoving things in where they fit, which is true in a surprising number of cases. And other than that it's been just going to work, and coming home, the usual cycle of the working person.  We are buying a house out closer to the plant, so that's been going on, and I've been walking on weekends, even though I usually don't like to walk wooded trails in summer because the combination of heat, humidity and stinging insects is really pretty miserable. But I'm going to miss the Arboretum and Carver Park, so I'm going anyway.  And on Saturday when I was walking at Carver Park I was on a trail that goes around a lake (poor planning when one considers that standing water is prime mosquito habitat) and in t...

Next week I am going on my first business trip since being implanted.  It's a short trip - driving distance and just two nights, but still, I'll be in a hotel room by myself, so I requested an accessible room for the deaf.  And got it.  I don't know that I really worry that much about hotel fires or any of the other reasons why I'd need to have an accessible alarm, but I'll admit that if there were to be a fire, it would be nice to survive. So that's good. And on the other end of the spectrum I managed, for the first time since implantation, to forget my battery wallet today so when my rechargeables died I had to put in disposable batteries.  They work, and I was glad I had them, but man, I really prefer to use the rechargeables.  I don't like having to throw out (or recycle if possible) batteries every few days.  Note to self:  do NOT forget the damn batteries anymore. And on a completely unrelated note, I had cause to learn just how LOUD heavy ...

I'll take "Things I Hardly Ever Say Anymore" for $500, Alex. I mean, I used to say that all the time.  "Sorry?  What was that?"  And I happened to have to say it again yesterday and I realized that it was the first time in a long, long time.  It's just generally not a problem anymore. Even at work, where the machines are loud - employees are required to wear hearing protection in some areas, and when you start to get evaluated to make sure you're provided with the best kind for your own ears.  Except for me, of course, I have no hearing to protect. But even so, I'm hearing better than ever and hardly ever have to ask people to repeat things. I just love this kind of realization.

Well, another month-long gap between posts.  I guess I've been a bit busy.  This year Memorial Day weekend was four days, so naturally R and I both caught a bug that's been going around - he thinks he caught it on the plane and gave it to me, but the day after Memorial Day I went to work and about five other people had it so I suspect the contagion field may be a tad wider that one 787. It made my hearing sound a little off - at least, once the sinus congestion set in.  It was a bit odd having the echoes seem amplified, but it's tapered off now that the congestion cleared up. Then I started a new job - and after two weeks, it's still new, though I'm starting to be able to find things in the plant without a map.  This is the company's largest domestic manufacturing site and going by my Fitbit I walked about three and a half miles just going to three different meetings yesterday.  It's a BIG place. But it's going well and people are nice.  No one has...

We just got back from vacation - eleven days in France, during which I didn't do any of my normal listening - no TV while on the treadmill, no meetings at work (oh, sob) - lots of talking to my husband but not so much with other people. Except you do, of course.  We talked to people in restaurants and in museums.  And neither of us speaks French, but I heard enough even in a week and a half to start putting some credence in the immersion method of learning a language.  On the way back I went into the restroom at the airport and a woman came out of a stall and turned to me and said something.  It took a minute to sink in but I actually realized that she was telling me that the stall was out of paper. Pretty cool for me.  I'd bet anything, a year ago I wouldn't even have heard her, let alone understood and certainly not understood in French.   And now I'm back home, have worked a couple of days.  Today I went out to run some errands (actually ...

I'm within a week of being one year from my first activation.  I'm also very close to being six months from my second one.  The second CI complicated things.  Having two makes your brain start over with rehab, and it's kind of frustrated doing the same thing twice in the same year.   But you know, it works.  So yesterday I had the last of my scheduled audiology appointments - from now on I have to request an appointment when I want one.  I'll probably go in later this summer, and soon I'll be just checking in annually. But yesterday we did some testing, and I learned what I already knew:  that despite the frustration and the imperfect sound, things are going really well.  So to recap my last hearing test and add yesterday's results, I give you this:   Prior to implantation, with two hearing aids:          19% comprehension Three months after right side implanted:      ...