March 12, 2014

Sometimes, Not Hearing, Is OK

Wednesday March 12, 2014

Yesterday was another busy day.  There seem to be a lot of those lately.  I had left a list on a sticky tag on my computer the afternoon before to remind me of a number of chores that I really needed to complete.  I got all but one done, and there is no deadline on that one, I just need to get it done.

Ron was out of the office almost all morning and it was a foggy, gray, drippy day.  That meant that there weren't a lot of customers coming in.  People here don't like damp days for running errands.  I did a little cleaning and that wasn't even on my list.  While Ron was out of the office, I got the showroom mopped!  Yea!  I had bought some new key rings while in Dallas spent a little time photographing them for inventory purposes.

Once Ron got to the office, I ate my lunch and got back to work on my list of chores.  Finally mid-afternoon the sun came out and so did the customers.  I had hoped to leave at 3:00 and it was well after 4:00 before I got out the door and I still needed to go to the bank, the post office, and the grocery store.  All of those errands no longer make me apprehensive from the standpoint of my hearing abilities.  I can hear well enough to manage and only occasionally have to ask for clerks to repeat things.

When I got home I spent a few minutes in the yard before getting to work to get the house straightened.  It was Tuesday and our quilt group was meeting at our house and we were celebrating the birthday of one of the group members.  We meet at 7:00 and about 6:00 it became obvious that the next door neighbors were having a birthday party that evening.  The music started loudly at 6:00.  They had parked cars in the area in front of my house and normally that wouldn't really matter because the space across the street was unused, but there is one lady in our group who is in a wheelchair.  It is hard enough to manage the wheelchair without having to maneuver it across the street, too.

I kept trying to decide what to do and finally went next door and rang the bell.  Most of the party was in the back yard, but as I suspected, someone was in the house.  My neighbor answered the door in a sequined dress that reminded me of party time in New Orleans.  She very kindly responded to my request and soon the car right by the sidewalk leading up to my front door had been moved.  Then it turned out that my friend in the wheelchair didn't come.  Isn't it always that way.

The quilters had a good time going through boxes of fabric that had been given to me by a man in Dallas whose wife had passed away leaving lots of fabric.  They selected pieces they could use in the quilt ministry that they have where they make quilts and lap quilts for people they know of who have health problems or for other special situations.  The rest will be donated to a lady from our church to pass on to people in need in Mexico and in our area.  Then we had our party.  Ours was much quieter than the one next door.

Once my friends left, I was able to take off my sound processor and the party sounds were a thing of the past for me.  Not so for my husband.  He could hear them and he ended up on the couch in the far end of the house from the party.  My world was quickly silenced, his wasn't.  I saw my neighbor as I left for the office this morning.  She looked tired.  I thanked her for getting the car moved.  She said she was exhausted from the party which ended at midnight.  I was asleep well before that in a quiet bedroom.

In fact, it was so quiet in my bedroom, I overslept!  When I did get up, I opened the curtains in my sewing room and had a welcoming committee of Black-bellied Tree Ducks!  They were everywhere!

I went out to fill the feeders and saw that they have broken one of them.  If any of you know how to get them to go away while I still can enjoy the other birds, please let me know.

On my way to the office this morning, after my brief chat with the neighbor, I went by our son's home and saw the grandchildren and our daughter-in-law.  I had some things I needed to deliver to her.  I am so glad I can hear my grand children.  If I had stayed deaf, I would have adapted, but I would have missed so much!  I am thankful to God and to medical science for allowing me again to be able to hear much of what is going on around me.

Once at the office, my husband and I caught up on some things we had not had time to discuss.  Also, he had done some cleaning!  That is not a common occurrence with him.  So I did sweeping where he had moved things and dusted and got spider webs down.  Then I went to the church to return a key I had borrowed for the Winter Texan Banquet.  Our music minister and I talked (carried on a normal conversation) for a while about the banquet - the good and the bad.  There was very little bad, except for the sound system in the gym where we had the banquet.  In order for the singer to hear the music, it had to be louder than the people liked.  And still I had not been able to hear it well enough to know what songs were being sung.  I do love music.  I miss it.  Maybe someday they will make improvements that will allow me to again enjoy the music.