Ear Ya Go

I've been saying for more than a year that I thought I needed hearing aids.  In fact, I had a hearing test done about 4 years ago and was told that there was hearing loss and I could probably benefit from hearing aids.

But, being me, I didn't do anything about it.  I had my hearing retested a few months ago and there was a slight deterioration from my previous test and, again, I didn't do anything about it.

Part of it was learning how expensive they are.  People told me the best place to get hearing aids at a decent price was Costco and I kept meaning to go and be tested there and get information, but it was one of those things I put off.

But I've been increasingly frustrated with how much everyone mumbles and how no actor knows how to project any more because even sitting in the front row, I lose lots of dialog.  I was tired of driving to and from the theaters in Sacramento and never understanding what my colleague was talking about from the back seat because he mumbled so badly.  I'm always angry with Walt because he mumbles so badly when he, of all people knows how much difficulty I have hearing.

It finally occurred to me that maybe the problem was with me and not everyone around me.

Char told me about a new company, Eargo, that came to "the home" where she lives and gave a talk abut their new hearing aids, supposed to be the top of the line, innovative, and won awards or some such thing.  Sounded intriguing. 

I eventually called them and they offered to send me a sample so I could see what they would feel like inside my ear.  They are weird little new-agey looking things.

The little brushes keep the electronics balanced in your ear and help remove ear wax. The string hanging down is how you remove it.  It's actually quite small.

They sent the samples (2 sizes, so I could see which fit better.  So nice to know that in SOMETHING, even if it is just ear canal, I am "regular" and not "large.")  The salesman said he would call in a week to see what I thought.  He didn't.  It was more like a month before I finally heard from him.  By that time I had given up on the idea of getting them and was back on figuring out when I could get to Costco.

But when he finally called, I made an impulse purchase.  I bought my Eargo.  (Before that, I had heard a Costco ad which talked about how pleased someone was with their hearing aids and the prices was comparable, if not a bit more, than the Eargo, so the cost was starting to be a little less intimidating.)

A couple of days ago, I wrote about the package being delivered while we were at the funeral last week and my trying to go to the UPS desk at the local supermarket to pick it up, as directed, only to find it wasn't there.  I was told they would deliver it to me on Monday, but by 4 p.m., I had not heard anything, so I drove out and there it was.

I opened the package and started to familiarize myself with my new hearing aids  They come in this neat package, which is also the charger (which reminds me of a frog face when opened!)

I put them in my ears and didn't notice a remarkable difference, though Walt pointed out that the TV volume was quite a bit lower than I usually have it.  I spent some time at night watching all the training videos for getting you accustomed to your near Eargo devices.

Today I visited with my mother and didn't have to ask her to repeat anything once, but maybe we didn't talk all that much.  I still wasn't sure that these were what I needed.  We drove to the theater in Sacramento and I understood everything my colleague was saying from the back seat, even over the sound of the tires on the rough patches of the Causeway, and he wasn't mumbling at all.

But the real clincher for me was when I took them out of my ears and back into the charger and noticed that the first thing I needed to do was to raise the volume on the TV again.

So I think I'm going to like them.  And I think I need them more than I thought I did.  This morning a rep from the company is going to all me to see if I have any questions and to help me get all settled with them (nice thing about a start-up company; they still care about customer service!).  I have 45 days to decide whether or not I want to return them.

But, if today is any indication, I think I will keep them.

Today's the Day

I don't have eclipse glasses so I may not be outside at 10:16, when the eclipse is to be at its fullest here.  Char and daughter Tavie are in Oregon. I just love what Tavie wrote on her Facebook timeline before they left.

I have been teaching Astronomy for the last 25+ years. Every year when I teach about eclipses, I show the students a map of the US with the path of totality for the Aug. 21, 2017 eclipse, and I point out the where I plan on being to view the eclipse. After all this time the day has arrived. When I started teaching, Aug. 21 was during summer break, now school has started but I will not miss this opportunity. I have a great lesson plan for the kids, and I will share all my adventures with them on Tuesday.

I am excited for her, after waiting 25 years!  I sure hope that it's all she hopes it will be.

I remember the last eclipse we had here, maybe 40 years ago?  I was here alone and I probably had a pinhole camera.  Like this year, we didn't get totality, but enough that there was a decided diminishing of light for a few minutes.  But it wasn't that it was just darker ... it was different in a way I can't describe. I've never experienced anything like it before and hope to be outside again in the morning to see if I experience it again.  It will be the last chance I will have in this lifetime to experience this phenomenon.

I'm not a big astronomy buff, but I can recognize the Big Dipper (that's the only constellation I know\). I also remember one time seeing a meteor shower.  I don't know if it was Perseids or Leonids, but we were in Yosemite Park with a group of friends from the Newman club at UC Berkeley. We were high up in the mountains where you could see a gazillion stars and it was magic sitting there watching shooting stars for awhile.

As a matter of fact, I didn't know that was a meteor shower until many years later when I was telling young Jeri about the experience and she kept asking me to take her to the "shooting star place," and somehow I found out it had been a meteor shower.

So one meteor shower, one eclipse and maybe another today.  Thus ends my travel through the cosmos.

---

It was a quiet Sunday.  The day before I tried to pick up my hearing aids.  They were being delivered, and sure enough were delivered while we were at the funeral.  I have to sign for them, so there was a note saying where I could pick them up at a UPS office.  I set out to do that on Saturday.  The address was 1260 Lake Blvd, and I drove up and down Lake Blvd without finding that number.  I finally found a teeny number in a dark corner of this strip mall.

I drove around the mall three times and saw no sign of UPS.  I even stopped someone getting out of a car, who said that there was no UPS office there and that the UPS office was downtown.  I parked and got out to ask a clerk in a store who told me "go to the deli counter at the supermarket."  (Did I have to say "Joe sent me?")  I went to the supermarket and sure enough there was an 11x14 sign at the bottom of the front door, right where you can't see it if there is a car parked anywhere!   I went to the deli counter but there was no one there.  I finally found someone who had no key for the UPS storage area.  He went around the store looking for someone who did have a key and eventually came back, opened the door and there was no package for me.  He said I could come back on Sunday and see if it was there then, but the delivery slip said they would try to deliver  it again on Monday, so I decided I'd just stay home and wait for it. 

I was hoping to have a report on my hearing aid experiment, but...not yet.