Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT Bob Heine's Auto Emporium

[drivesitfar]

I’m talking to our friend and wishing you the best for a speedy recovery.

AND Liane too!!

 

[Grizz1963]

I am sorry (not sorry) Bob.

Steak and Kidney, and a Chicken Pie.

 

[rharman]

< snip >

Roger, thanks for the encouragement. I wish I could do something to reduce Liane's anxiety. She starts worrying long before test results come back, worries about the additional tests and then worries about the actual event. Rarely in any sequence. At the same time she worries about me.

< /snip >

Sounds like your doctor has been keeping tabs on it, so that's a point in her favor.

I get it. It's hard to not worry.

I had my 2-year follow-up scan yesterday and, even though all the others have been clear and my labs good, I'm still sweating it. Already checked the portal to see if the radiology report is done!

She worries about you, you worry about her. That's a good thing...

 

[Squankum]

In the past two weeks, including tomorrow, Liane and I have had 14 doctor/dentist/hospital appointments. In addition to the 4 weekend days off we've had 3 appointment-free days. Probably involved 20 miles of driving as well.

I just realized I have no idea if assisted living is more efficient because the doctors are closer.

Now I'm wondering if there are any ALF's with maker spaces.

Last month I spent a few vacation days with a 92 y/o woman who was trying some $8,000ish Phonak hearing aids, as an upgrade to her lower-tech hearing aids that hadn't been working. (Turns out ear wax in the holes is problem #1 that had gone overlooked...) Well, these new hearing aids slice! They dice! There's an app for your smartphone! So many settings! Pair them to the hearing aids via Bluetooth! OMG she wandered off from the room the phone was in and everything turned to ****! Now she can't hear, for the app has reverted to baseline settings.

I've heard wonderful things from younger friends about modern hearing aids, one, a Vietnam veteran who can stream music directly to them, play the banjo*, etc etc, and another one in his 50's who likes having the navigation app on his phone talk only to his hearing aid. But these hearing aids are not a good match for a non-techie 92-going-on-93 year old patient.

A 92 y/o Bob? Very likely! A 92 y/o Liane? Not at all.

More context: this was the last ditch hearing aid effort -- they wanted to try the best hearing aids possible before a cochlear implant surgery was considered. She'd rather not do that.


______
* Say what you will about how this benefits society, it is a benefit for him.

 

[Ford52PU]

good luck to you both on the procedures.

 

[Bob Heine]

I’m talking to our friend and wishing you the best for a speedy recovery.

AND Liane too!!

Thank you Drives!

I am sorry (not sorry) Bob.

Steak and Kidney, and a Chicken Pie.

Rian, sometimes it's good that we can't send smell through the Internet because I understand drooling on cheap keyboard is a bad thing. My birthday is a month away and I'm going to have Amazon deliver two Fray Bentos 'Classic' Steak & Kidney pies as my birthday treat (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Y2WY4ZE/?tag=atomicindus08-20). The dentist will be installing a soft liner in my denture on 31 August so I expect to be able to gnaw down trees by my birthday.

Sounds like your doctor has been keeping tabs on it, so that's a point in her favor.

I get it. It's hard to not worry.

I had my 2-year follow-up scan yesterday and, even though all the others have been clear and my labs good, I'm still sweating it. Already checked the portal to see if the radiology report is done!

She worries about you, you worry about her. That's a good thing...

Roger, our primary care doctor has been a true life saver. He diagnosed my Afib two weeks after my cardiologist missed it. Because he prescribes low-dose CT scans instead of chest X-rays of her lungs, the radiologist found the tumor in her kidney.

I just realized I have no idea if assisted living is more efficient because the doctors are closer.

Now I'm wondering if there are any ALF's with maker spaces.

Last month I spent a few vacation days with a 92 y/o woman who was trying some $8,000ish Phonak hearing aids, as an upgrade to her lower-tech hearing aids that hadn't been working. (Turns out ear wax in the holes is problem #1 that had gone overlooked...) Well, these new hearing aids slice! They dice! There's an app for your smartphone! So many settings! Pair them to the hearing aids via Bluetooth! OMG she wandered off from the room the phone was in and everything turned to ****! Now she can't hear, for the app has reverted to baseline settings.

I've heard wonderful things from younger friends about modern hearing aids, one, a Vietnam veteran who can stream music directly to them, play the banjo*, etc etc, and another one in his 50's who likes having the navigation app on his phone talk only to his hearing aid. But these hearing aids are not a good match for a non-techie 92-going-on-93 year old patient.

A 92 y/o Bob? Very likely! A 92 y/o Liane? Not at all.

More context: this was the last ditch hearing aid effort -- they wanted to try the best hearing aids possible before a cochlear implant surgery was considered. She'd rather not do that.


______
* Say what you will about how this benefits society, it is a benefit for him.

@Squankum, assisted living facilities are designed to move you out of this life as quickly and efficiently as possible (without breaking any of the BIG laws). Some will drive you to your doctor and pick you up the same day. Some have doctors who visit the facility and determine who is alive and who is not. As much as I hate time payments, I've been making them to John Hancock's Long Term Care insurance policies for both of us. If we need help, someone will come to us and climb over the hoard.

Pretty sure the LTC maker spaces have paint and brushes and basket weaving supplies but I doubt they have welding equipment or power tools.

I feel for the lady you spent time with. I don't have a lot of apps on my phone and almost none of them make my life better. So many of them have WTF names that keep me from deleting them. I don't understand the obsession with phone apps. Everything in life seems to have a QR code that my phone can recognize and humans can't. I am constantly asked to scan them, even on TV shows. I know the instant I scan the code someone has collected my location, what kind of phone I'm using and who knows what else.

I suffered a punctured right eardrum in the accident and I learned to love it. Before it healed, putting the left side of my head on a pillow or an airplane seat back meant 75% of the noise in the environment went quiet. When it isn't rude or a safety issue, I would be fine spending my days wearing earplugs.

Liane's biggest worry is surviving me. I've set up all our finances to run themselves with the exception of writing two checks each year. One for the dog's tag and one for our primary care physician. Unfortunately, automated finances don't catch fraudulent charges so a few thousand spent on Uber trips in San Francisco, using a phony 'wallet,' gets paid automatically if you're not watching. I also do one or two repairs, bring the TVs back to life and maintain the cars. She realized she has never put gas in the car so we had a training session last month. It didn't go as well as I had hoped so the next time it needs a fill-up she'll try again. At least she knew which side of the car the cap was on (she knows about the pump icon).

 

[Bob Heine]

good luck to you both on the procedures.

Thanks Dennis. Liane had her colonoscopy today and everything is fine -- the Cologuard result was a false positive. So far, two family members have used Cologuard and both tests came back positive for colon cancer. Both triggered a colonoscopy and neither had any sign of cancer.

 

[Squankum]

@Squankum,

I feel for the lady you spent time with. I don't have a lot of apps on my phone and almost none of them make my life better. So many of them have WTF names that keep me from deleting them. I don't understand the obsession with phone apps. Everything in life seems to have a QR code that my phone can recognize and humans can't. I am constantly asked to scan them, even on TV shows. I know the instant I scan the code someone has collected my location, what kind of phone I'm using and who knows what else.

Bob, earlier this afternoon I was somewhere else on the internet wasting time when I should have been on GJ, and there I learned that in some fancier towns, restaurants are forgoing menus and expecting you to point the smartphone (they assume you own) at the QR code on your table.

What in tarnation?

 

[legenddc]

Bob, earlier this afternoon I was somewhere else on the internet wasting time when I should have been on GJ, and there I learned that in some fancier towns, restaurants are forgoing menus and expecting you to point the smartphone (they assume you own) at the QR code on your table.

What in tarnation?

It gets worse. Some make you order from it.

 

[Squankum]

It gets worse. Some make you order from it.

Why not just put a hole in the wall and let me yell at the kitchen staff? That cuts out the wait staff expense, too!

 

[madison069]

I just realized I have no idea if assisted living is more efficient because the doctors are closer.

Now I'm wondering if there are any ALF's with maker spaces.

Last month I spent a few vacation days with a 92 y/o woman who was trying some $8,000ish Phonak hearing aids, as an upgrade to her lower-tech hearing aids that hadn't been working. (Turns out ear wax in the holes is problem #1 that had gone overlooked...) Well, these new hearing aids slice! They dice! There's an app for your smartphone! So many settings! Pair them to the hearing aids via Bluetooth! OMG she wandered off from the room the phone was in and everything turned to ****! Now she can't hear, for the app has reverted to baseline settings.

I've heard wonderful things from younger friends about modern hearing aids, one, a Vietnam veteran who can stream music directly to them, play the banjo*, etc etc, and another one in his 50's who likes having the navigation app on his phone talk only to his hearing aid. But these hearing aids are not a good match for a non-techie 92-going-on-93 year old patient.

A 92 y/o Bob? Very likely! A 92 y/o Liane? Not at all.

More context: this was the last ditch hearing aid effort -- they wanted to try the best hearing aids possible before a cochlear implant surgery was considered. She'd rather not do that.


______
* Say what you will about how this benefits society, it is a benefit for him.

I was born deaf and I have what’s called Profound hearing lost. I currently wear two different models of hearing aids, a phonak and a Beltone. Phonak is a little below the all bells and whistle model so I don’t have a app for it. But the Beltone on the other hand has an app and it’s a nice tool. But, I’ve never experienced what your 92 yrs old friend had gone through where the hearing aid reverts back to basic setting. I wonder if she is supposed to confirm the setting she has picked and she just didn’t confirm it? Beltone just change the hearing aids to what ever setting I pick and changes it. So I am curious about the phonak app.

These days I’ve been wearing the Beltone primarily while the phonak are the backup in see something happens to the Beltone.

 

[Finallygotit]

Liane had her colonoscopy today and everything is fine -- the Cologuard result was a false positive. So far, two family members have used Cologuard and both tests came back positive for colon cancer. Both triggered a colonoscopy and neither had any sign of cancer.

Me thinks there is a conspiracy at work here. Let's make proctologists wealthier......NOT!

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

Thanks Dennis. Liane had her colonoscopy today and everything is fine -- the Cologuard result was a false positive. So far, two family members have used Cologuard and both tests came back positive for colon cancer. Both triggered a colonoscopy and neither had any sign of cancer.

Better safe than sorry.

 

[rharman]

Thanks Dennis. Liane had her colonoscopy today and everything is fine -- the Cologuard result was a false positive. So far, two family members have used Cologuard and both tests came back positive for colon cancer. Both triggered a colonoscopy and neither had any sign of cancer.

I don't want to be a curmudgeon but those Cologuard tests just irk me when they push it as an alternative to colonoscopy. I get that the DNA type testing can pick things up that may not be visible but it seems that the colonoscopy is going to be way more effective. Maybe there needs to be a combo pack.

Getting that false positive would be nerve wracking. Getting a false negative could be life threatening.

 

[Squankum]

I was born deaf and I have what’s called Profound hearing lost. I currently wear two different models of hearing aids, a phonak and a Beltone. Phonak is a little below the all bells and whistle model so I don’t have a app for it. But the Beltone on the other hand has an app and it’s a nice tool. But, I’ve never experienced what your 92 yrs old friend had gone through where the hearing aid reverts back to basic setting. I wonder if she is supposed to confirm the setting she has picked and she just didn’t confirm it? Beltone just change the hearing aids to what ever setting I pick and changes it. So I am curious about the phonak app.

These days I’ve been wearing the Beltone primarily while the phonak are the backup in see something happens to the Beltone.

I was only observing from a distance as her 60-something children (one of them technologically adept) sat down with her several times a day and re-did all of the settings that had been lost. Maybe they're missing something with the app, too! They did reboot the phone (another thing not quite in ma's skill set) and "download the newest version of the app", if and when that becomes necessary, is far beyond her skill set, too.

So, something's off in this situation, and I don't know what it is, but they tried for the several days I was there to figure it out.

 

[Bob Heine]

Bob, earlier this afternoon I was somewhere else on the internet wasting time when I should have been on GJ, and there I learned that in some fancier towns, restaurants are forgoing menus and expecting you to point the smartphone (they assume you own) at the QR code on your table.

What in tarnation?

@Squankum, it was bad enough when help lines provide no help, just telling me to go to the website. Very frustrating when I'm calling about my internet connection. Doubly frustrating when I'm wandering around the front yard trying to get a signal on my cellphone so I can talk to a robot, which asks me for my account number. If I go in the house to get the account number from an ancient parchment invoice, I lose the signal and have to start my signal seeking walk. The moment a business asks me to use my phone to interact, I walk out.

It gets worse. Some make you order from it.

Derek, NHI (No Humans Involved) used to refer to “misdemeanor murders” and “prostitute murders” to minimize the killing of women. More and more that acronym is describing everyday people living everyday lives and interacting with nothing but phones. I start conversations in waiting rooms and some are shocked, realizing I'm talking to them rather than my phone.

Why not just put a hole in the wall and let me yell at the kitchen staff? That cuts out the wait staff expense, too!

Whenever I see a hole in the wall in any part of an eating establishment, I leave.

I was born deaf and I have what’s called Profound hearing lost. I currently wear two different models of hearing aids, a phonak and a Beltone. Phonak is a little below the all bells and whistle model so I don’t have a app for it. But the Beltone on the other hand has an app and it’s a nice tool. But, I’ve never experienced what your 92 yrs old friend had gone through where the hearing aid reverts back to basic setting. I wonder if she is supposed to confirm the setting she has picked and she just didn’t confirm it? Beltone just change the hearing aids to what ever setting I pick and changes it. So I am curious about the phonak app.

These days I’ve been wearing the Beltone primarily while the phonak are the backup in see something happens to the Beltone.

Cody, I either forgot or had no idea you were deaf but I've mastered the 'and dumb' part. You're one of the lucky ones who can flip a switch to ignore grandpa Bob when he's repeating his stupid stories in person. My grandchildren are not so lucky.

You have reminded me how fortunate I am to have an upper limb shortage. I don't rely on my artificial arm for 99% of my activities but a missing lower limb means reliance on an assistive device like an artificial leg, crutch or wheelchair. It would seem your hearing aids are critical to your quality of life among the clueless, even though I'm certain you can manage without them.

Me thinks there is a conspiracy at work here. Let's make proctologists wealthier......NOT!

Dan, I watched the Cologuard commercials with no emotion but now they piss me off. Jackson Hospital reports that "Cologuard is better at detecting cancer than FIT (92% versus 74% for FIT), but the false positive rate is higher. Cologuard has a 13% false-positive rate, and that rate increases as people age. False positives increase anxiety about colorectal cancer."

It doesn't help that we watched Painkiller. Now every drug commercial's list of side effects is making me nuts. If it didn't have such a high probability of killing me or giving me permanent twitches, I would take one of those psychiatric drugs they advertise.

Better safe than sorry.

Dan, I'm not wasting time or money on Cologuard. My ********* test is scheduled for 9/25/23. That gives me time to study.

I don't want to be a curmudgeon but those Cologuard tests just irk me when they push it as an alternative to colonoscopy. I get that the DNA type testing can pick things up that may not be visible but it seems that the colonoscopy is going to be way more effective. Maybe there needs to be a combo pack.

Getting that false positive would be nerve wracking. Getting a false negative could be life threatening.

Roger, as a fellow curmudgeon, Cologuard is supposed to be for low risk patients 45+. I don't recall any mention of it being less reliable the older you get but it's best case ability to detect large polyps is 42% compared to a colonoscopy's 95%. It detects 'altered' DNA and blood in the stool so anyone with a hemorrhoid would likely test positive. Although I've been called a perfect ******* many times, my ****** is far from perfect.

I was only observing from a distance as her 60-something children (one of them technologically adept) sat down with her several times a day and re-did all of the settings that had been lost. Maybe they're missing something with the app, too! They did reboot the phone (another thing not quite in ma's skill set) and "download the newest version of the app", if and when that becomes necessary, is far beyond her skill set, too.

So, something's off in this situation, and I don't know what it is, but they tried for the several days I was there to figure it out.

@Squankum, I'm aware the technology train left without me but it's getting worse. I've lost track of how many personal computers I've built or upgraded in the last 40 years along with even more operating system installs/upgrades. I am failing miserably with my latest task. Swapped an old Pentium motherboard out for a new[ish] Intel i7 motherboard and installed a fancy SAMSUNG 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD. Windows doesn't recognize the motherboard network adapter (or the PCIE network adapter) and when I try to re-install Windows 10 Pro to detect the adapters, I get a message telling me the NVMe M.2 drive is a flash drive -- even though that's what the current install is running on. I also can't get the system to recognize the USB drive where Ubuntu is ready to install.

 

[Wiz02]

@Bob Heine your problem is that you are trying to subvert an innocent Windows OS and overwrite it with evil Ubuntu and it's fighting back

 

[kaymccampbell]

@Bob Heine your problem is that you are trying to subvert an innocent Windows OS and overwrite it with evil Ubuntu and it's fighting back

There's nothing innocent about Windblows.

 

[GeddyT]

Derek, NHI (No Humans Involved) used to refer to “misdemeanor murders” and “prostitute murders” to minimize the killing of women. More and more that acronym is describing everyday people living everyday lives and interacting with nothing but phones. I start conversations in waiting rooms and some are shocked, realizing I'm talking to them rather than my phone.

Whenever I see a hole in the wall in any part of an eating establishment, I leave.

Oh come on, Bob, don't be such a prude. That's why penicillin was invented!

As for the zombie phone conversations, I just finished training an operator at work. Really smart guy, but it was such a challenge. I also suffer from hearing loss, and it's focused mostly in the vocal range. Makes understanding what people are saying when they don't speak clearly and loudly really challenging. This guy I was training was a triple-threat of a voice in the perfect pitch to maximize my difficulties, a slurred southern drawl, and church mouse decibel levels when speaking. After the hundredth time I gave him the ol' "HUH?", he still refused to speak up or enunciate.

As if that wasn't hard enough, this guy lives his life 100% of the time with bluetooth earbuds in his ears. By about midway through our training, I started getting a little passive aggressive about his lack of response to my requests for higher volume, so when he'd mumble, I'd just ignore it. If it were important, he'd speak up. This started to get really confusing because it was weeks before I realized that some of the times that I thought he was trying to mumble something at me, he was actually on the phone!

There was one time that I heard him mumbling, ignored him, heard him mumble a second time, and I thought, "Okay, that's twice, so he's really trying to ask me something." So I ask him to repeat what he was saying, and he just mumbles again. So I ask him to repeat it again, and he just mumbles again. This goes back and forth some time, me getting increasingly louder, when he notices I'm talking to him, points to his earbud, and asks, "Did you want something?"

AAAAAAAAAAGH!

Anyway, yeah, I'm right there with you on that subject.

 

[kaymccampbell]

Oh come on, Bob, don't be such a prude. That's why penicillin was invented!

As for the zombie phone conversations, I just finished training an operator at work. Really smart guy, but it was such a challenge. I also suffer from hearing loss, and it's focused mostly in the vocal range. Makes understanding what people are saying when they don't speak clearly and loudly really challenging. This guy I was training was a triple-thread of a voice in the perfect pitch to maximize my difficulties, a slurred southern drawl, and an church mouse decibel levels when speaking. After the hundredth time I gave him the ol' "HUH?", he still refused to speak up or enunciate.

As if that wasn't hard enough, this guy lives his life 100% of the time with bluetooth earbuds in his ears. By about midway through our training, I started getting a little passive aggressive about his lack of response to my requests for higher volume, so when he'd mumble, I'd just ignore it. If it were important, he'd speak up. This started to get really confusing because it was weeks before I realized that some of the times that I thought he was trying to mumble something at me, he was actually on the phone!

There was one time that I heard him mumbling, ignored him, heard him mumble a second time, and I thought, "Okay, that's twice, so he's really trying to ask me something." So I ask him to repeat what he was saying, and he just mumbles again. So I ask him to repeat it again, and he just mumbles again. This goes back and forth some time, me getting increasingly louder, when he notices I'm talking to him, points to his earbud, and asks, "Did you want something?"

AAAAAAAAAAGH!

Anyway, yeah, I'm right there with you on that subject.

Anybody with earbuds in their head, knew to whip em out when I walked in the room. Anyone who spoke in lower tones, learned to yell. Anyone who wouldn't comply, found themselves on the ****** end of the stick.

 

[Squankum]

 

[madison069]

Cody, I either forgot or had no idea you were deaf but I've mastered the 'and dumb' part. You're one of the lucky ones who can flip a switch to ignore grandpa Bob when he's repeating his stupid stories in person. My grandchildren are not so lucky.

You have reminded me how fortunate I am to have an upper limb shortage. I don't rely on my artificial arm for 99% of my activities but a missing lower limb means reliance on an assistive device like an artificial leg, crutch or wheelchair. It would seem your hearing aids are critical to your quality of life among the clueless, even though I'm certain you can manage without them.

Hey Bob, when i was being developed in the womb, for some reason the nerves between my ears and brain didn't develop 100%. This is what I was told by my mom and it's what I still believe since I've never gotten it checked out again. I do remember having to get a CT Scan and MRI, i think as I got to slide in a tube with nothing but a white wall to stare out. I don't recall hearing anything so it's possible it was loud. Only reason I remember this is because I woke up during the test. I guess the sleeping med wasn't strong enough to keep my 1.5 yrs. old self asleep, so the moment was engraved in my memory. I got my first pair of hearing aids by the time I was 2 years old and was put in hard of hearing school in a city 50 miles from where my parents lived. So, I rode the short bus from Kermit to Odessa for school till I was transferred to regular school in third grade and was able to study in Kermit. This is where I went on to graduate in the top 10% of my class and got my college degree later on. Just don't criticize my writing too much as I know it's lacking.

My Dad was a firm believer in making me talk and I also did a lot of speech therapy during my school years. Luckily, I am able to speak well, and I can interact with people as long as they work with me on hearing them. People always inquire about my accent, and I just tell them it's a mixture of Alabama (my mother accent was a very strong Alabama accent), living in Texas, and my hearing all played a role in my accent development. My mother-in-law was unable to understand my conversation with my parents at the dinner table one time. She felt so out of place as she watched us talking and cutting jokes back and forth, but then again, she's a yankee with a strong accent herself. My wife says she can only understand 60% of my conversation so sometime that plays to my favor in certain situation, but again she's a yankee and she's not fluent in the southern drawl accent that I have.

I don't normally talk about it unless something comes up such as problems with a hearing aid by someone. So, it's possible I just never told you. Heck, I didn't tell my wife when we first met online, and we didn't talk about it till the second date. Later she said she was shocked that I didn't tell her but then realized I didn't have to tell anyone I'm deaf if I didn't want to. But, I just don't think about it since it's always been a part of my life and I just don't let it affect me if possible.

As you stated, there's pros to having hearing aids, but turning them off when the wife is arguing is not a good idea. Con is I can't hear much of anything without the hearing aids unless it's really loud and low frequency like bass in music. Pro is I sleep a lot better since my wife snores, but it's very confusing when being abruptly woken up due to the wife heard a noise in the house when I was just in the middle of a nice dream.

Sadly, I'm losing what hearing I have and there's not much I can do about it, profound hearing lost requires really strong hearing aids that kills what hearing I do have. Luckily the rate of lost is slow so hopefully I got another 20 years or so before hearing aids won't do the job and then I can really get into the best technology for the newest implant hearing devices. Another perk is I can read lips so as long as I can see the person's face and hearing them somewhat, I can catch about 40-60% of the conversation and fill in the missing words pretty well. If I really know you well, I can just read your lips across the room which is a big plus in a noisy bar.

As for being deaf, I don't think of it as a handicap even though it does limit me in some of the things I would like to do, but more as challenge I have to overcome and hopefully it just makes me a stronger and more resilient person in the end. I think that's pretty much what all of us "handicap" people can do. But I technically do qualify for a handicap tag, and I'm told it comes with some perks for some prime fishing spots around Pennsylvania that most non-handicap folks can't access!

 

[madison069]

Well hell Bob, I didn’t mean to stop your thread.

How’s it going?

 

[Bob Heine]

@Bob Heine your problem is that you are trying to subvert an innocent Windows OS and overwrite it with evil Ubuntu and it's fighting back

@Wiz02, I have never liked Windows but I invested too much money in hardware and software to abandon it. When I was running both Intel/Windows and Apple Mac machines I got a taste of what expensive was. I couldn't upgrade the hardware on my Mac and it seemed every piece of software was way more expensive than the Windows version. I did install a Virtual Windows machine on the Mac but it was pretty slow.

There's nothing innocent about Windblows.

Kay, Windows was designed and implemented by hackers. When a Windows hacker moved on to another company no one understood the code they developed. Every iteration was a patchwork of the previous one and now the vast majority of Windows applications don't run on version 10 (no idea about 11).

Oh come on, Bob, don't be such a prude. That's why penicillin was invented!

As for the zombie phone conversations, I just finished training an operator at work. Really smart guy, but it was such a challenge. I also suffer from hearing loss, and it's focused mostly in the vocal range. Makes understanding what people are saying when they don't speak clearly and loudly really challenging. This guy I was training was a triple-threat of a voice in the perfect pitch to maximize my difficulties, a slurred southern drawl, and church mouse decibel levels when speaking. After the hundredth time I gave him the ol' "HUH?", he still refused to speak up or enunciate.

As if that wasn't hard enough, this guy lives his life 100% of the time with bluetooth earbuds in his ears. By about midway through our training, I started getting a little passive aggressive about his lack of response to my requests for higher volume, so when he'd mumble, I'd just ignore it. If it were important, he'd speak up. This started to get really confusing because it was weeks before I realized that some of the times that I thought he was trying to mumble something at me, he was actually on the phone!

There was one time that I heard him mumbling, ignored him, heard him mumble a second time, and I thought, "Okay, that's twice, so he's really trying to ask me something." So I ask him to repeat what he was saying, and he just mumbles again. So I ask him to repeat it again, and he just mumbles again. This goes back and forth some time, me getting increasingly louder, when he notices I'm talking to him, points to his earbud, and asks, "Did you want something?"

AAAAAAAAAAGH!

Anyway, yeah, I'm right there with you on that subject.

Tom, I'm happy to eat chicken feet in black bean sauce, lamb brains in gravy or kidneys over noodles in dark gravy but I gave up eating food passed through a hole long ago. Unless it's a Horn & Hardart. I trusted those automats with my health and survival in Manhattan.

By Horn &amp; Hardart/Lumitone Photography, New York - eBay itemcard frontcard back, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17465152
Around 1992 IBM gave the key players on the OS/2 team Motorola cellphones. More than once I witnessed a call placed in a large conference room answered at the other end of the table. I used my missing elbow as an excuse not to have one (post IBM I did buy a Motorola flip phone so I could call home during the limo ride from the airport).

Anybody with earbuds in their head, knew to whip em out when I walked in the room. Anyone who spoke in lower tones, learned to yell. Anyone who wouldn't comply, found themselves on the ****** end of the stick.

Kay, my oldest grandson was gifted an iPod when he was about 12. All Christmas day he walked around with it in his hand with the earbuds on. I asked what he was listening to and he replied "Nothing grandpa, I haven't put any songs on it."

Hey Bob, when i was being developed in the womb, for some reason the nerves between my ears and brain didn't develop 100%. This is what I was told by my mom and it's what I still believe since I've never gotten it checked out again. I do remember having to get a CT Scan and MRI, i think as I got to slide in a tube with nothing but a white wall to stare out. I don't recall hearing anything so it's possible it was loud. Only reason I remember this is because I woke up during the test. I guess the sleeping med wasn't strong enough to keep my 1.5 yrs. old self asleep, so the moment was engraved in my memory. I got my first pair of hearing aids by the time I was 2 years old and was put in hard of hearing school in a city 50 miles from where my parents lived. So, I rode the short bus from Kermit to Odessa for school till I was transferred to regular school in third grade and was able to study in Kermit. This is where I went on to graduate in the top 10% of my class and got my college degree later on. Just don't criticize my writing too much as I know it's lacking.

My Dad was a firm believer in making me talk and I also did a lot of speech therapy during my school years. Luckily, I am able to speak well, and I can interact with people as long as they work with me on hearing them. People always inquire about my accent, and I just tell them it's a mixture of Alabama (my mother accent was a very strong Alabama accent), living in Texas, and my hearing all played a role in my accent development. My mother-in-law was unable to understand my conversation with my parents at the dinner table one time. She felt so out of place as she watched us talking and cutting jokes back and forth, but then again, she's a yankee with a strong accent herself. My wife says she can only understand 60% of my conversation so sometime that plays to my favor in certain situation, but again she's a yankee and she's not fluent in the southern drawl accent that I have.

I don't normally talk about it unless something comes up such as problems with a hearing aid by someone. So, it's possible I just never told you. Heck, I didn't tell my wife when we first met online, and we didn't talk about it till the second date. Later she said she was shocked that I didn't tell her but then realized I didn't have to tell anyone I'm deaf if I didn't want to. But, I just don't think about it since it's always been a part of my life and I just don't let it affect me if possible.

As you stated, there's pros to having hearing aids, but turning them off when the wife is arguing is not a good idea. Con is I can't hear much of anything without the hearing aids unless it's really loud and low frequency like bass in music. Pro is I sleep a lot better since my wife snores, but it's very confusing when being abruptly woken up due to the wife heard a noise in the house when I was just in the middle of a nice dream.

Sadly, I'm losing what hearing I have and there's not much I can do about it, profound hearing lost requires really strong hearing aids that kills what hearing I do have. Luckily the rate of lost is slow so hopefully I got another 20 years or so before hearing aids won't do the job and then I can really get into the best technology for the newest implant hearing devices. Another perk is I can read lips so as long as I can see the person's face and hearing them somewhat, I can catch about 40-60% of the conversation and fill in the missing words pretty well. If I really know you well, I can just read your lips across the room which is a big plus in a noisy bar.

As for being deaf, I don't think of it as a handicap even though it does limit me in some of the things I would like to do, but more as challenge I have to overcome and hopefully it just makes me a stronger and more resilient person in the end. I think that's pretty much what all of us "handicap" people can do. But I technically do qualify for a handicap tag, and I'm told it comes with some perks for some prime fishing spots around Pennsylvania that most non-handicap folks can't access!

Cody, I love that you have adapted and overcome and your limitation is no more of a handicap than my lame attempt at clapping (thigh slapping in my world).

Well hell Bob, I didn’t mean to stop your thread.

How’s it going?

Cody, no worries and I appreciate the concern. At the moment all is well. All the tests and procedures on the two of us have Liane worried. My followup PSA test was an ultrasensitive one and I discovered the results on our hospital's patient portal. It's an 8.34 ng/mL so the first one wasn't a false positive test. The skull to thigh PET CT scan came back with a solitary bony metastasis in the right posterior ischial bone. I meet with the Oncology team this coming Thursday (8/31/23) to go over my treatment options. One of the options is hormone therapy so it's good I'm old -- Florida law prohibit non-birth gender care in minors.

 

[madison069]

Hmm, not a good result in your rest but I take it that it’s not as bad as it can be.

Hopefully they get you squared away soon.

 

[hewey]

Best of luck for both of you Bob.

 

[LeonardY]

Bob, earlier this afternoon I was somewhere else on the internet wasting time when I should have been on GJ, and there I learned that in some fancier towns, restaurants are forgoing menus and expecting you to point the smartphone (they assume you own) at the QR code on your table.

What in tarnation?

I found that if I show them my Motorola flip phone, I get a menu. I knew I would find a use for that thing.

 

[kaymccampbell]

I found that if I show them my Motorola flip phone, I get a menu. I knew I would find a use for that thing.

I flash them my shattered screen screensaver.

 

[PugetDude]

My neighbor always shows his old flip phone when asked for an ID for a Senior Discount. Usually gets a laugh.

 

[Bob Heine]

Hmm, not a good result in your rest but I take it that it’s not as bad as it can be.

Hopefully they get you squared away soon.

Cody, I'm in favor of doctors treating my ailments. I gave up self-medicating 20 years ago.

Best of luck for both of you Bob.

Thank you Hewey, I appreciate the good wishes.

I found that if I show them my Motorola flip phone, I get a menu. I knew I would find a use for that thing.

Leonard, I keep Liane's flip phone in the glove compartment of the PT Cruiser. If they ask me to point my smartphone at the blob, I'll go out and get it. I don't bring my Samsung A12 phone with me unless we go well beyond walking distance from home.

I flash them my shattered screen screensaver.

Kay, you always have the most creative solutions! I love it!

 

[Bob Heine]

My neighbor always shows his old flip phone when asked for an ID for a Senior Discount. Usually gets a laugh.

Scott, I give them my AOL screen name. Same result!

 

[driftpin]

Some feeder band rainstorms from the Gulf of Mexico depression (Idalia) coming thru. It had been nice & sunny, then the sky went really-dark, and the rain began. It's still raining, but let up a bit. The weather reports say north of Tampa is gonna get hit. Cedar Key was mentioned and Tallahassee. Another day in paradise.

I just read up on your last few pages. I hope your oral surgery continues to heal. I'm glad Liane's false + Cologard was not another issue. And now at the end, I see you have some bone mass. Best wishes to overcome more health issues.

It's funny to read about your mass of old data electronics. I recall when Pentium was hot news, and the model numbers were just-over halfway to 100 (P-60, P-75). Before that, my brother who is a psychologist, bought an Osborne when they first came out. Keyboard in the base, and a small screen, but it was Hot Stuff.

When I was working fire-rescue here in southeast Florida, we were given Motorola 'bricks' (phones) to contact the E.R. at the hospital. We also had before that a 'strap-on' phone modem for our Motorola APCOR telemetry boxes. The technology got better, and our Lifepack EKG and defibrillation/cardioversion machines made some dramatic reductions in size and weight, going from the size of a woman's below-knee-length boot box filled with bricks, to something about the size of a thick briefcase. Fewer bricks.

I recall those 12" movie optical discs, great resolution, if you had a high-end screen to watch it on. I used to haunt some Ft. Lauderdale area thrift stores and would occasionally see the discs in inventory, as someone donated their old equipment.

One of my motorsikle-ridin' buddies lives off Big Blue Trace in Wellington (FL) and I understand that's a tribute to the IBM involvement in Palm Beach Co., and all the employees who lived here.

Wow the local tv stations are showing dramatic 'when Idalia hits' simulations, showing a 9 ft water rise in a residential neighborhood, and all that's showing are roofs on the 1-story ranch-style homes. Sarasota and Tallahassee airports are closing. Guess we're lucky to dodge another one, Bob.

 

[sawduststeve]

Bob, earlier this afternoon I was somewhere else on the internet wasting time when I should have been on GJ, and there I learned that in some fancier towns, restaurants are forgoing menus and expecting you to point the smartphone (they assume you own) at the QR code on your table.

What in tarnation?

This has been going on for awhile now, over here. It started when we went finally allowed out after covid. We just get the 13yr old to order on her phone. We mostly get three Capri-Sun drinks, with straws, and a pile of pancakes.
Beats starving, just.

Take care of yourselves Bob.
Steve

 

[loganb]

Best wishes to you tomorrow when you meet with the treatment team tomorrow sir!

 

[Grizz1963]

I am closer to you than you ever realised.

 

[Geoff289]

Like all GJ'ers I'm thinking of you Bob. I presume the hurricane left you alone as it hit land well away from BR.

 

[TimeWarpF100]

Speedy recovery to you!

We currently have 8 grandkids with another due in a couple weeks and another in March. Oldest daughter lost one at birth back in 2019.

 

[bugnut]

Bob, thoughts and prayers today.

 

[shortykorte]

All the best Bob.


Side bar.
On the hearing aids, shop around. I was paying $5k from the Audiologist, at Costco half of that price and they have the same features.

 

[PugetDude]

Bob, you're in my thoughts today. Good luck.