Aw, ok then.... you can stay here. But behave.
Oh my! I think you may have a bit of a wait for your answer, Osso. I think old Gus is out in the barn getting, er, some milk.
Now that kind of reminds me of the guy that had flat tires to rent.
Anyway, this guy comes into the office a few years back and asks if we ever use flat tires. Defensively, I've gotta tell you, he was not the clearest speaker to ever walk in that door, but anyway. . . . I tell him we sometimes have flat tires, but I wasn't sure we really used them all that much. He took this as encouragement, and went into some long spiel about having one of the best inventories of flat tires in town, and indeed, I was fairly sure he didn't have a lot of competition. After a while, he ran down, and I promised to leave a message for the owner. Swell. He left me a business card.
LIGHT TOWERS! He had a line of portable generators with light towers attached that he rented to construction companies, and the like. We're a daylight operation and don't use many more light towers than we do flat tires, but I passed the card along.
Roger
Roger, another great story you've hidden away from us just waiting for the perfect moment to tell it.
BBB
Thanks. I like that one because it's completely true.
Southern accent? I can see how a certain "lahht" could look very "flat".
hearing aids are on my wish list should I ever in my life have discretionary money again... after 30 years of rock and metal, you can imagine my hearing. It's really annoying to squinney and the cubs. The least bit of background noise and I can't hear a damn thing anyone is saying to me and the tv and stereo is deafening to the rest of the family half the time.
Roger
Roger, that sounds likea French Latte from Starbucks.
BBB
Sorry to hear you share our problem, Bear, even if it is predictable, given your background. Until you can afford hearing aids, just console yourself with the thought that a lot of the sounds you can't hear are noise you wouldn't want to hear anyway. It's true.
I remember being "up north" and ordering Iced Tea in a restaurant and having them bring me a glass of Asti Spumante. Took me forever to get that straightened out.
My husband, the Texan, still smoked then, and every time he tried to buy a pack of Camel Lights, clerks would look at him in confusion and say, "Camelots?"
Sheesh, Yankees.....
Hey, Roger...now that you've had them for about a week, how's it going?
Roger, Eva has been talking to you. Are you there and can you hear?
This is interesting since I too am in need of some help in hearing. Roger, you are soooo right about mumblers--they are infuriating. I will go to extremes to ennunciate just trying to give them the idea that they need to move their lips while talking.
Did I tell you about my cousin and I having two different but parallel conversations? We had been talking for a minute when I mentioned a two bedroom condo. She said, "What? A two bedroom condo?!"
Discretionary income, that's the ticket. I think I'd rather go roaming around the southwest with Dys than hear all the crap that surrounds all of us everyday. I know the people who's company I like and I don't have a problem asking them to repeat themselves and they know me well enough to not be irritated. Besides, I'm old enough to be a cranky old lady with those young whipper snappers who don't know the meaning of enunciation.
This is a little off-topic, but the enunciating et al reminded me:
I went to the dentist's office yesterday and had to make an appointment for a follow-up. Receptionist was nice, but very young and mumbly/ wouldn't look away from the computer. I was following along, if barely, and then specified that I wanted an ASL interpreter next time. She looked at me full-on for the first time and signed "OK." I said hey, what was that? Do you know sign? And she proceeded to sign away (quite well!) that her best friend in high school had been deaf, and so she learned sign language, but it was more towards signed English than true ASL, and... So we had a quite nice little conversation. It was very cool.
Thanks for the wakeup, Diane. I've really set for email updates, but more wishful thinking there than updates.
Ah, I guess it's going pretty well. I ended up with a sore ear (outer ear, I mean) and started unplugging it in the evenings. Seems to help.
Overall, it's working well. I'm due to have it reprogrammed on Monday. That should turn up the volumn on the primary program. Now, the audiologist was talking about using the second program for over amplification, since I've only got one ear to work with. I think I'll keep it somewhat muted for the time being.
Conversation is much better already, but the extranneous noises are maddening. Keys clicking on the keyboard, the rustle of a piece of paper sounds like a piece of chain sliding down a sheetmetal chute, and a cat working over a scratching post sounds like an energetic drummer whacking away - on the rims. If I don't get used to it soon, I'm going to see if the very highest response can be attenuated, if not completely killed off. I think I'm getting a lot of noise above the conversational spectrum, and it's distracting. As a matter of fact, it makes me nervous. I would drop back to the lower program, but I am trying to adapt as soon as possible.
What are those called, Diane? Mondgreens, or something, when you hear something perfectly normal, and completely wrong? I read a story called "A Maiden's Grave", which was a misunderstanding of "Amazing Grace."
Jon Carroll on mondegreens
If you go to sfgate.com and look up jon carroll mondegreens and select from full archive, you'll find a whole bunch of his columns on them. I picked the one above since it explains the origin of the word fairly soon in the article.
This one, then.
Ye highlands and ye lowlands/Oh where hae you been/They hae slay the Earl of Murray/And Lady Mondegreen.''
Sylvia Wright identified with Lady Mondegreen, the faithful friend of the Earl of Murray. She died for her liege in the approved manner of courtly heartbreak. How romantic! How exquisite! How tragic!
It was some years later that she learned that the last two lines of the stanza were really, ``They hae slay the Earl of Murray/And laid him on the green.''
I'm sure that's one of the Child's Ballads.
Oooooh! There is a truly wondrous thing from Aa on Mondogreens in an Abuzz Digression thread. Prolyy "Gladly My Crosseyed Bear."
I'll have a look later. It was great fun.
