With the Parents

Well, I've been here with my parents, who are also relatives of D.Duck with low voices and bad colds -- although everyone's beginning to swallow most of the food in their mouths and speak with only a little bit in there, like a piece of gum or candy! :O)

Saturday, my dad took me to Ledo's Pizza, and I clipped my accessory microphone onto my headband up by my right ear -- hoping that it would help me to hear my dad (who sat across from me in the booth) amid all of the background noise by having a microphone on each side of my head. Sure enough, it worked wonderfully! I was able to follow along with our conversation pretty well -- certainly quite a bit better than I could've done with my hearing aides! :O) ... Dad has a slight Swiss accent, too, which made it a little more difficult to understand him at first, but I'm used to it enough now that he's no more difficult for me to understand than anyone else. ... Mom tends to talk a bit fast, so I do better with her when she slows down a bit. ... Their dog Jack barked once, and it sounded pretty much like a bark -- only lower in tone!

Sunday morning I tried clipping the accessory mic up by my right shoulder during Mass at my parents' church -- and it helped there, too! Fr. Steve's voice was a little louder with a bit more bass tone, and it was a wee bit more sharp and clear. ... Makes me wonder if I'd do even better with bilateral cochlear implants?! Something to maybe think about after I'm adjusted to the one I have, anyway. ...

Yesterday afternoon, we went to the mountains for a little hike ... I could hear some birds that sounded like papers(?) rustling, and some crows that actually sounded a lot like crows cawing! :O) ... I also heard an airplane that sounded like a helicopter. ... This morning, I finally recognized the really high-pitched part of the microwave beep (along with the lower-tone I've been hearing). ... Music is still a tremendous challenge, although I can hear some musical instruments occasionally (chimes, some type of guitar, always drums), and a slight fluctuation in tone. Most of the time it's still pretty static-y and monotone, although I can differentiate more if I'm familiar with the song and have the words to follow along with (either lip-reading or closed captioning) -- probably because I know what to expect I'm supposed to hear and what it's supposed to sound like -- just like I do better understanding speech if I know what the person's going to say or can lip-read or read the captions. With most of the music I hear sounds like rap music: I can always hear the drum beat, and sometimes hear what sounds like the record scratching -- and the voices seem to just be talking or yelling instead of singing. :O/ ... Oh, well, I'll keep listening!