Eh? What's That You Say

Well, if I ask you to repeat something you said to me, you can now know that it's because I have a hearing loss.  Nice to have my opinion backed by a competent authority, the Kaiser audiologist.

I presented myself for my 11;45 appointment and she did a series of tests, including having me repeat words she said to me (though many of them could have been one or a sound-alike, so I don't know how well I did on that one), another where she put a microphone behind my ear and read the same words again--this time a bit more difficult to decipher those sound-alikes.  And then the final tests were with ear phones and pressing a button when I heard a sound.

When the tests were over, she showed me the chart that showed my results and -- whaddya know! -- I have hearing loss severe enough to consider hearing aids.  The loss is almost exactly the same in both ears.

Kaiser doesn't cover the cost of hearing aids and so whether I get them or not, it will be me that makes the decision and finds a place locally to investigate.  I haven't decided yet what I'm going to do.

This morning I got up and watched the finale of Last Tango in Halifax which had been recorded the night before and I can honestly say this was the FIRST time since I started watching that show where I had no difficulty understanding it.  It's been so bad the last couple of weeks, I missed most of the dialog and was wishing for closed captioning.  

But with the wad of wax in my left ear gone, suddenly I am hearing much better (except during hearing tests, I guess!) so it makes me wonder if it's time to get a hearing aid or not. It's not that I feel there is some stigma about wearing them.  Heck, they make them so small now you often can't tell a person is wearing them (a friend has worn them for years and she just admitted that to me recently...I never had a clue). 

But my life is pretty uncomplicated and I'm not often in situations where I wish I had some sort of assisted hearing machine.  I will think about it while I'm at Logos this week, since I did have trouble hearing some of the customers last week.  But I expect that post-wax, it will be much easier.  

My biggest fear, as I just admitted to Charlotte, is that I'll get those tiny hearing aids that fit in your ear so surreptitiously and then, being the klutz that I am, I will either lose them, or put them down somewhere and spill something on them.  

Anyway, now I know that there is hearing loss so now I know I have options and I'll where I go with this new information.

And yes, of course I did go to Red Lion for lunch.  I ordered a pound of snow crab legs, which were wonderful.  The last time I went there I had king crab and actually I thought that was what I was ordering, until the plate arrived, but snow crab is delicious, if significantly smaller than king crag.  It's also about $20 cheaper!  I was happy with my lunch.

Then driving home I got very, very sleepy.  I described it as being as if every molecule in my body suddenly was screaming to sleep now.   A few blocks from home, I was stopped at a stoplight, fighting the need for sleep, when I opened my eyes and discovered that the light had changed to green and the cars ahead of me had already gone (fortunately there was nobody behind me).

I came home, flopped on the couch and went right to sleep for an hour or so, enough to get my motor charged again so we could go see Brigadoon in Sacramento.

It was fun sitting in the theater before the show started.   The women behind me were discussing books and I was sure they were discussing Diana Gabaldon's books and eventually they also talkled about the TV series Outlander, which starts on Sunday night and which tells the story of Gabaldon's first (of 8) book.

I decided that with a show about Scotland, and Outlander about to premier, I had to bring Gabaldon into my review somehow--if for me, if nobody else, so the first paragraph reads:

What is set in 18^th century Scotland, is filled with highlanders in kilts with sporrans and swords, has lads and lassies in love with one another, bagpipes, hills of heather, good Scottish whiskey...and was not written by Diana Gabaldon?

I don't know if anybody but me will appreciate it, but I still chuckle about having written it.

Day 37:  Happiness is always a plate piled high with crab legs!