A Challenging Day, Listening is Hard Work

Today started with a bang when my laptop stopped charging the battery and died. So off to the office at 0630 to swap out a hard drive and try to stay on schedule. 2 hours later, I was on my way to the customer's office when the Streamer battery gave it's 30 min warning. I had charged it Sunday night, I think. I carry a charger with so I only had to live without it for a couple of hours. I spent a couple of hours on the land line with a poor connection talking to a tech who talked like he had marbles in his mouth. He also liked to talk FAST. Arrgh! Half way through the call, disconnected and dial tone. Call tech support and start all over, twice. I think I heard every other word. About this time, the customer's PC decided it was Monday and time to give us a blue screen of death. Time for lunch in Elgin.

After lunch, the Streamer was charged and all I had to deal with was very poor call quality. About 4pm, all three systems were updated and lessons learned.

1. Hearing a phone conversation with both ears is much better than one ear. The Streamer is not a just a gadget, it's become essential to my hearing.

2. Turning up the HA volume did not help. Turning off the hearing aid speakers does make it easier to focus on the conversation.

3. Asking the the guy on the other end of the call to slow down and pause between sentences did help.

4. Sometimes, listening is hard work.