Spring Sprint

Saturday, March 26, 2011

saturday night

I hope that all are enjoying their weekend ... I am sitting here typing to all of you with music playing in my head from 3 songs that I down loaded to my phone and the instrumental  is so real . It is truly miraculous . 
This is a music weekend . Last night was a friends birthday so the gang met at the Spit Fire Pub in Windsor. There was an awesome band playing called 2 to Midnight .. what a great band and for the first time in many many years I was able to hear the beat of the music and on one song after watching the singer lips and getting the beat I knew what song  was without Rhonda telling me. So I am one very happy camper and feel like I am taking giant leaps in this hearing process !!!! Bring it on !!!!  
Enjoy your Sunday ...
Hugs to all .... Chris 

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Wednesday ....

This program that I am using now is very strong and yesterday I was the chiropractor for my back maintenance and was hooked up to the tens machine ( sp) ..which I get every appointment only yesterday when it shut off I heard it beep for the 1st time !! Very neat then when Lisa came back into the room I was lying face down but I did hear the door open and close ....
Today I had to go back into see Adrienne ... we have been trying to get an  MP 3 player to work on a direct link ear piece ... it is wired direct from MP 3 to Processor and we could not get it working right but today Adrienne made some new changes and when I got home hooked it up and music was blaring in my ear .... MAJOR AWESOME !!!!!! now  when it is hooked up that is all u get but it is very cool and I am happy -- now to down load some music ...
Adrienne upped one other program so now I have all three working and they are all quite loud .... I did another hearing test today between two different programs and there is a slight increase in the louder one but it is very strong so not yet . We also compared the results to one from 6 weeks ago and it is  better -- we still have a ways to go Adrienne says but she is quite happy with my progress. 
Okay , I am off on the  trails with the guys tomorrow so it will be interesting to hear them  and I am going to try the different programs through out the day. 
Have a great evening everyone .......
 

Monday, March 21, 2011

monday

It is one large Monday morning -- that sun is awesome ... and the moon last night ... wow ... it was something ..... well we did fine on St Patty's day ...... and as usual in a crowed group I do not hear well but that is how it is for many folks that have hearing losses. Friday and the weekend were nice and quiet and I think that Rhonda did get  well rested over the break and is now back at school . Yesterday while Rhonda was doing her school work I went to clean up a bit around our property. for the first time I heard the barn doors open , me banging around in the barn --wow I am noisy ---- had to get the extension ladder out to fix something it was quite noisy --- wow I could not get the smile off my face ---- lol ..
when I was down near the road I could hear the cars approach ... I did not hear the car engines I heard the car tires on the road --- that is weird sound and takes me a minute to realize exactly what it is ....
Okay I gotta start and get my domestic duties started for the day ... have a great one ................

Thursday, March 17, 2011

happy St paddy's day to all ..............

hey Hope you all get to enjoy the "Green" today .. we are doing an afternoon with friends and a pub evening so you know it will be fun !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Saturday was my son, Nick, 30th birthday and Lisa his wife had a surprise party ---it was fun --lots of kids and lots of good friends --- large gathering are no good for my hearing but if I can get a one on one I am usually ok but i still just enjoy all the noise ...
This week is March break and so Rhonda and I get to spend lots of time together --- the other day we were out in the car and I beeped the horn and then I laughed and Rhonda said --whats  so funny and I said --- I never heard the horn before ---- she said never --and i said -- why blow horn I could not hear it but now I can .... ok to be honest with you I have blown it about 6 times since and laugh every time ....
Our week has been pretty low key as Rhonda had the flue till Monday and is still not 100%. My big thing right now is working on the Tv and radio .... I am experimenting with volume increases when I am by my self and  and it is very interesting how the volume helps at first then if too loud no help .....
The other night at Nick's I met the first lady that I could not understand at all. Her voice must be very high because I could not get any of it and then because I could not understand here and I was trying so hard I then could not read her lips --- it was very frustrating and I did not tell her so I had to fake it and that was really hard for me .... next time I hope I can understand her if not I will tell her.
Okay folks -- have a great Green day and blog later ................

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Saturday .....

Hey all ... Saturday ...I am so sad at all that is happening in our world .... my heart just goes out to all those people in the Pacific ....... it is such a tragedy. We all need to count our blessing every day and be thankful for each day .
I left you on Tuesday and it was a pretty normal day, except for one thing. I was making some lunch and all of a sudden a heard this noise like -- bing bing bing ,,, what is that and I look around and I had left the fridge door open and it was the warning bell --- I had never heard it before !!! and Tuesday night I went a meeting about our food bank and I sat right up front and I knew what was on the agenda as we have to move because the roof is leaking very badly where we are. There were about 25 people there and at the beginning while they all talked it was difficult for me but once the meeting got going and the fellow that was chairing the meeting speaks in a  very clear low voice I was able to follow what he was saying ----  it was pretty neat ..... Wednesday was food bank day and we worked hard because beside our normal routine we were also packing up all the food getting ready for a move. But no definite location confirmed for us yet, Thursday I was at the computer site at the hospital and it was not very busy but I could hear everyone  as they walked up and down the hall --- just hearing the walking sounds is pretty cool when u have nor heard anything at all for a long time .
Friday , I met my cousin for coffee in Halifax and she is at the stage with her hearing where I was about 15 years ago and so we had a great chat about the implant, about deafness and hearing aids and about frustrations we both felt and also a good chat about tinnitus ,,, Cathy is doing so well and hopefully she will be able to consider a CI at some point in the future ,,,,then I went to see Adrienne to check my CI. Well I had an MP# player and there is a direct hook up to the CI and I really wanted to know if I could get it working but we tried for over 30 minutes and no luck and then we found that my processor was not working on one of my 3 programs so it is gone to California to get checked over and Adrienne loaned me one she had. Then i spent a few hours caching in the city and then a trip to airport to get my son Mark .... I walked into teh airport and imeddiatly hear this announcement being made ... no idea what was said but HEY ,,,, I used to walk around the airport and hear nothing so an announcement was cool ...... Mark is great -- he has a very low voice so I hear him very well but he talks so fast that no one can understand him so we get a number of repeats but it is such a blessing to hear the voices of my sons .....
Okay , have a great weekend ..... and blog next week ..................... 

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Now it is Tuesday .....

Good |Morning .... I am going to try and blog twice a week. So I left you last Thursday and on Friday I had an early breakfast with Nick at Mac D . That was great as Nick and I get some one on one time  which does not happen enough . Then I was off to the hospital fort the computer site for the day where I volunteer. It was neat to be able to understand people and not have to get them to write things down . When they come by my door with the machine that is washing the floor I feel like I am at the airport and standing out on the runway beside a plane . This 3rd program is soo loud I am not missing any sounds and some are sooooooooooo loud . Friday night we went to a friend's 50th birthday party. There were about 30 people there at their home.  Oh it was loud so I had to adjust the volume on the CI as it was just tooo loud . I refuse to turn it off . Even confusing loud sounds are better than not hearing at all . We did enjoy ourselves at the party.
Saturday , we went up the valley. Rhonda had her course in Wolfville and I just relaxed at the coffee shop with my book and then some shopping and home. Saturday night two friends came over and we played cards for the evening and with just the 4 of us I was able to follow all that was going on . It was pretty neat for me . Sunday was school work day and Sunday night we had two friends join us for dinner and the evening. Again with just 4 people and at home i was able to follow all . I was pretty tired on Sunday night after the busy weekend . you know the expression ---- "Great to be popular .... hell to be the Rage " .... LOL just kidding ..
Monday , my sister patsy had to get her car serviced in New Minas so we took a few hours and walked the rails to trails in Kentville and did a few geo caches ... Patsy loved it and at one point she was about 10 feet from me and saw the cache and hollered to me that she found it and I did hear her yell ---- no idea what she said but  I heard her and she was so excited that I heard her yell ... 
Tuesday and a stay at home day to get this house cleaned and laundry done as the rest of the week is busy ..
Untill next time ......... Remember to try and take 5 minutes just to yourself ........ YOU DESERVE IT !!!!!

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Thursday already ..........................

hello Blog ..... I did not forget you I have just been quite busy but I have stored a few things I wanted to share with you ..... Saturday was the morning in New Minas grocery shopping while R did her class in Wolfville . I still get amazed that I can ask a question to a clerk and know if they have replied and many times not ask them to repeat . we were back home for lunch and we got this idea about moving a whole bunch of furniture around in the house . It could not be all on the same floor , too simple . We were moving stuff from the living room upstairs to Rhonda work den and other stuff back down stairs . 5 hours cuz one job led to another to another -- u know .. anyway the neat thing for me was that I could holler upstairs and ask a question of Rhonda and as long as her replies were "Yes" or "NO" ... i could get it , maybe a repeat once or twice but it meant I did not have to run up and down ..... that is pretty neat stuff ....
Sunday home and then Sunday night we went out to dinner with 2 friends of ours . The Port pub in Port Williams is where we went and it was quite busy and so it was very noisy --- 1st time that I have ever adjusted the volume on the CI but i had to turn it down ... that is part of using a CI ... it has 3 programs and you switch between for different environments. I have always left it at a loud setting to get all the noises but now am starting to adjust it manually for different situations and it helps ... Our dinner was great and I was able to get most of the conversations that had on a one to one but with all the background noise some was very difficult to understand. 
Since we moved the furniture around we then decided that Rhonda work den needed to be painted so that is what I have been doing all week and it is almost done and looks great . I did not have any radio on or anything in the room and I had the  door closed so no bird sounds .... it was so quiet except when i moved the ladder and that kind of stuff it was weird to not hear anything --- hard to explain as u would think after 12 years of deafness I would understand quiet but this really different ... I kept going " hello"   "hello" ,,just to hear myself hahhahahhahahah
Tuesday night we went to Nick & Lisa place for supper and Lara was soo cute and I had the CI turned up loud so most times  all I heard was a squeak  when she spoke but when she hollered ,,,, oh man it was loud .... Aidan has a soft voice but I could hear him and understand him when he looked at me ..it will all come with the kids I know and I want them comfortable with Grampy Fry ..
I am using the loudest setting most of the time and this morning I went out to clean off the little bit of snow that fell last night and it was crisp and clear outside and I could hear my feet walking in the snow ,,,, crunch,crunch and hear the snow shovel in the snow --- it was awesome to be there and hear that I cannot explain how something so simple just made me so happy ......
ok part of all the moving was taking down a shelf in the hallway and now that the room is all ready to be put back together I have to go paint the hallway where the shelf was .... 
Sun is out so enjoy this Thursday ... till later