August 15, 2014

A Busy Friday Afternoon

August 15, 2014

Often Ron and I discuss the fact that Friday afternoons at the office are very slow and maybe we should just close at noon on Fridays.  This afternoon he was out on jobs and I was swamped!  But we also laugh about how if just one of us is there it gets very busy and if we are both there, it seems slow. 

My day started with the usual morning stuff and then about 20-30 minutes in the yard doing a few little chores.  The little blue Budgie was back.  I think it is a female, but I tend to refer to it as a male - I guess because it is blue.  It seems to be recovering from the injuries I noticed last weekend. 

I stopped to get some pastries at a Mexican bakery on my way to the office, thinking our grandson would be there, but it turned out he didn't come since they have out of town company for about the next week.  Once at the office, I took care of some bookkeeping chores and made up a bank deposit.  Just before noon I took the deposit to the bank and once I got back and had my lunch, Ron left on jobs for most of the rest of the day.

Lately we have been having problems with our mail delivery.  We close at 5:15 and two days last week, the mail did not come at all.  On the next day, it arrived about 5:25 and Ron just happened to still be there working.  This week, the mail had been coming about 5:00 or later.  Today it came about 4:30 and there were several checks, so I made up another deposit and hurried to the bank at 5:00 to deposit them.  It is so frustrating to get mail that late in the day at a business and then that means the outgoing mail is being picked up very late. 

During the afternoon while Ron was out I had my hands full with customers.  They were lined up several deep a couple of times.  One man brought his two sons with him and they were all over the place.  They had to get their hands on everything and see how it worked.  They were not bad kids, just active.  They were noisy and kept drowning out the father's voice so that I could not hear him.  I finally asked one of them to go play somewhere else so I could hear his dad.  There are just some sounds that the sound processor picks up better than others.  That happened to me several times this afternoon.

The first time it happened today, a lady came in and asked if I spoke Spanish.  I told her, "No."  She continued to talk in Spanish.  Another customer came in and she asked him if he spoke Spanish.  He told her, "No."  She continued talking to him, loudly, for probably 15 minutes.  He said a few Spanish words to her.  I was understanding enough of what she said to know we did not do the type of work she was wanting.  She did not like the word, "No" and kept on and kept on.  I gave her phone numbers of 2 other locksmiths in town who do the kind of work she wanted and who speak Spanish.  She wanted us to do the work.

She was so loud that she would drown out any other conversation I would be trying to have with other customers.  Later in the afternoon she returned and did the same thing.  I have no idea what the root of the problem was and neither did the man she talked to for 20 minutes the second time (a different man).  It just gets so frustrating when a conversation I am not involved in drowns out one I am trying to have.  I can use the remote for the Cochlear Sound Processor and bring down the area that I am focused on and that can help, but I don't find it practical to be changing it between customers I am waiting on. 

Remote for first Sound Processor

The remote for the first Sound Processor I got, had a neck cord attached to it and they suggested wearing it all the time.  I don't find that practical.  I already wear an alarm button on a cord around my neck.  The remote is a little large and heavy and bangs around as I move around.  The remotes for the newer Cochlear Sound Processors are smaller and more light weight, but don't have any way to attach them to a neck cord.  Anyway, by late in the afternoon I had a splitting headache and I think it was mostly noise related.

Remote for the second Sound Processor

During the morning, shortly after I had arrived, Ron was waiting on a customer and on the TV monitor in my office I could see a second person out front so I went to offer help to the second one.  It turned out they were together, but the second one was the assistant high school band director when I was in the high school band 50+ years ago.  This was Art Guajardo.  He is an extremely talented man musically and I found today that his mind was as sharp as a tack.  The other man mentioned a few former band members and Mr. Guajardo would remember the maiden names of the girls, the instruments different band members played, where different students went to college,  the music we had played in a particular year, and many details.  The other man was younger, but Mr. Guajardo kept correcting him on details.  I enjoyed the visit and we talked about my hearing loss.  The other man was very interested in the fact that music doesn't sound right to me.

The afternoon customers must have all had a rough week because they were all hard to help.  One man had been in and I told him I needed a particular measurement for the lock he was ordering.  I wrote down on a piece of paper that the measurement would be either 2 3/8" or 2 3/4" and that those were close together, so to please be careful in his measurements.  He took the paper and came back later delighted with himself as he explained to me it was 2 5/8".  I told him that wasn't one of the choices.  He looked surprised and thought a minute and said he guessed it had to be 2 3/4" then.  That was just the way the rest of the afternoon went. I did find some time to sew this afternoon between customers.  I continue to work on the 11 blocks that I started yesterday and I made a lot of progress.

We went to supper with our friends as we do most Friday evenings and tried a new seating arrangement.  The lady sat across from me as suggested by the audiologist.  The sound processor picked up her husband very well, but I asked her to repeat many things.  Oh, well....

When I got home, I spent about 45 minutes working in the yard.  Ron had watered the back yard very well and it was just right for pulling weeds and grass that was in the flower beds.  I got a couple of flower beds weeded and then moved the bricks outlining one of the beds to make the bed a little deeper.  The hibiscus plants in that bed were over hanging the border.  It was unbelievably hot as I worked in the yard at about 7:30 this evening!  In some parts of the yard I could get a nice breeze, but not where I was working, so I was drenched with sweat by the time I gave up and came in for a nice cool bath.   The flower bed looks better with the bricks moved.  Now I need to do the other one tomorrow.  I also hope to put in a new flower bed tomorrow. 

I read for a while this evening and relaxed after a long and busy day.  It is so nice that I am at the end of the work week and will have tomorrow off!