Hearing Aids Report #7 When Acoustics Were Bad, Learned Something New

If you click Hearing Aids Report #6, you'll get the links to all the previous posts about my hearing aids.

I've been wearing hearing aids for a few years already, and it's still a learning process. Today I found myself in a very difficult situation. I was at an event in a hall with terrible acoustics. I had been in the building once before, but it was almost totally empty, so I hadn't noticed anything problematic.

This was an event for senior citizens to let us know about various rights, so I really wanted to stay and listen. I found what was the best noise insulated spot, on a fabric couch by a curtained window. All was fine until they started using a microphone, which was too loud, but I thought I could stay by turning off my hearing aids. Thank Gd for Bluetooth control... however the multiple speakers in the ceiling caused me to hear it echoed.

When a man with a very loud voice started to talk, I let out a scream and some of the staff came to see what was wrong. They took me to a room just off of the hall and gave me a chair in the doorway, hoping that it would be better. I still couldn't hear him clearly enough to understand what he was saying.

Then I decided to play around with streaming, as you can see in the photo. I kept adjusting it until I could both hear and understand what he was saying. The low tones were at maximum and the high tones were off. Once the event was over I returned them to their regular setting. Has any other hearing aid wearer had a similar experience? I'm surprised that I was the only one so uncomfortable at the event filled with senior citizens.

I also guess it's time to revisit the clinic.

Summertime Pool Time

 

One of the wonderful things about living in Shiloh is its swimming pool. The "icing on the cake" is that it's less than five minutes' walk from my house. I just cross the street and walk down a path... and there it is. 

Since Shiloh is a religious community, we only have what's called "separate swimming," different hours for males and females. To make that even better is that we have adult/18+ hours, too. They are the first couple of hours in the morning and the last hour in the evening before it closes for the night. 

The location was really well-planned, besides being a few minutes from my house. It's on the eastern side of the neighborhood, so the strong morning sun is cheerful and warms us up. It's just a summer pool. As you can see, it's in the open, not in a building. Every year we yearningly talk of getting it enclosed... maybe some day... 

I exercise in the pool, hydrotherapy of my own sort. Basically, I dance in the water and do the warmup exercises I learned when younger, including from Alan Wayne.