wave

My New Toy

Fandango25 Comments

Before I tell you about my new toy, I first have to set the stage. About two and a half years ago I had to have surgery on my left ear to remove a non-cancerous growth in my middle ear. The growth was successfully removed. However, by the time the damn think was excised, it had consumed the tiny little bones inside my middle ear that connect my eardrum to my inner ear, therein rendering me profoundly deaf in that ear.

My inability to hear out of my left ear created a problem for my wife. First of all, she had to speak very loudly when she was talking to me so that I could hear her and not be constantly saying “what?” But also, whenever we would watch TV together, which is almost every night, I had to turn the volume way up in order to hear the dialogue. Plus, I’d turn closed captions on. Neither the high volume nor the closed captions pleased my wife.

So I bought noise canceling Bluetooth headphones that I could don when watching TV, and they worked great for me. But any time my wife wanted to say something to me, she had to wave or shout at me to get my attention, since I couldn’t hear her when wearing my headphones.

Earlier this year, the hearing in my right ear started to deteriorate a bit, and my ear doctor suggested that it was time to consider hearing aids. Three months ago, I did, in fact, get hearing aids, as I described in this post, and they helped with my hearing in general. But when watching TV, it was still a bit challenging to make out dialogue. So I would turn down the volume on my hearing aids inside my ears and place my headphones over my ears.

A few weeks ago, when I had a follow up appointment with my audiologist to check my hearing aids, I mentioned that I was wearing headphones over my hearing aids while watching TV. That’s when he told me about a TV adapter device specifically made for my hearing aids.

My new toy

The device connects to my TV’s audio output and wirelessly sends the audio signals to my hearing aids, and it works great. The dialogue is crystal clear, as it’s being pumped directly into my ears. I can adjust the volume for each ear from an app on my iPhone and I can even hear some sounds from my left ear.

And best of all, my wife doesn’t have to wave or shout at me if she wants to get my attention. Win-win!

Mission Impossible

Fandango8 Comments

As Jimmy passed through the gate, he had this disconcerting thought that he might never return. He was warned that this mission would be a delicate one, but he was assured that they were confident, as they waved goodbye, that he had the capacity to pull it off.

Jimmy was having second thoughts as he cautiously proceeded. Did they gaslight him into believing that he had the goods to succeed? Or was their intent to humiliate him if he failed? Clearly they were a bunch of barracudas gleefully sending him on a mission impossible.

After all, Jimmy had never before played the Nest of Vipers video game.5E912056-E1E3-429E-9813-568961EFF142

Written for Paula Light’s Three Things Challenge, where the three things are “wave,” “gaslight,” and “barracuda.” Also for these daily prompts: The Daily Spur (gate), Ragtag Daily Prompt (return), Word of the Day Challenge (delicate), Daily Addictions (capacity), Your Daily Word Prompt (humiliate), and Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (nest).

In Other Words — The Blue Wave

Fandango11 Comments

 

46C78B12-BBAB-45D0-A617-3D88E564EF9AIn the two years since Trump was elected, a lot of damage has been done.

The President, his Cabinet, and the Republicans in Congress (and Vladimir Putin) have been fiddling while our nation is burning.

Like me, many voters are fed up and angry, and in less than three months Americans will go to the polls.

We will be sending an important message.

A big blue wave is coming.

2E64CDA9-9659-4EFF-AA52-38290AED6E9FThis post is written for the “In Other Words” prompt from Patricia’s Place. Today’s word is “wave,” and the rules are to write a story or poem of five lines or less using the word “wave.”

This is the first time I’ve participated in Patricia’s In Other Words challenge, but when I saw what the word was, I couldn’t stop myself.