Barbara J. Hamby

Summer’s Last Stand

Today was a beautiful sunny 72-degree high day—the last of this year the weather forecasters tell us. They’re probably right. I was glad not to have any classes or meetings, but got outside and ran errands instead. While I was out, I got my flu shot. On the way back, I stopped to see if our pool had reopened yet. The building was locked, so I stopped at the clubhouse to see what the opening date would be and was told it opened this afternoon, but apparently they forgot to take the locks off.  So I came home and, after finishing laundry and taking a nap, headed for the pool. I had a great swim/exercise session and my first hot tub session in two weeks. It was wonderful.

I broke down and made an appointment for a hearing evaluation at Kaiser next month. For the last year or two I’ve been noticing problems with comprehending conversation when there is background noise or when soft voices are talking and especially when speakers do not enunciate clearly. In classes or meetings, I need to be near the front and looking at the speaker(s). Most of my life I had exceptionally good hearing and, as a writer, enjoyed eavesdropping in public places to get material for poems or stories. Thus, it’s doubly hard for me to have to adjust to hearing loss. Also, I know from friends’ experiences, that my type of hearing loss is difficult to correct with hearing aids. Loud noises still jar me and I can’t go to a movie theater because the sound is so loud.

Tomorrow will be cloudy and probably ten degrees cooler, so I won’t mind sitting in writing class in the morning and critique group in the afternoon. My homework is done and I’m ready.

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