Wish granted.

EldestSon was born deaf. We've been through scores of hearing aids, ear molds, accessories, etc, etc. I remember when I saw my first non-discreetly colored ear mold. Whaaaaat???? Yep. The kids, not having any shame (nor should they) thought, Oooooh, those look cool! and so they got whatever colors tickled their fancy. I've seen neon colors, sparkly glittery ones, sports team colors, swirly, etc. etc. They very obvious when not completely hidden by the hair.

You could definitely do something like that.

Also, "Excuse me, what did you say?" until they look at you while they're talking... don't give up.

There's nothing like that over here, more's the pity.


Sent by thought transference

All my love to Mr Limey - that's shows great perseverance.
I hope we'll both see less of eachother in June!

Which is also to say, my tickets have arrived at Mum's.
she's going to post them to me after the weekend.
I might ask her not to, until closer in the day. Less time to lose them...
But I fear I need to hhave them in my hot little hands before I believe it's actually real. How long have I been saying I'll come to yours in the Summer.

Carruthers - I think what I will do is report the place I put the tickets on here. And promise sincerely not to move them without writing it here. If I keep them all together in the original envelope they arrive in I should be okay?

Poor Carruthers is the one who gets the panicked texts when I lose this and that and bits and bobs, only to find them again within hours... Luckily he's used to being held responsible for everything that happens in his own house, so he is capable of being calm in a crisis which is not of his making.

I will chant the mantra - no platforms, no wedges, no booze (actually I'd like a glass of wine on my birthday), no lost tickets. And in deference to Mr Limey, no tempting sweet treats.
I can't control blisters, the weather, train delays or the ferry crossing. But if I manage the first list I can cope with the second.

As Limey says, I've not seen those here either (ie mainland England).
The real change I saw as an adult was the children who wore patches on their glasses to train/ correct their eyesight. Back when I was a kid it was something akin to masking tape on really ugly NHS glasses. But I never once heard the term "speccy" or "four eyes" when I worked in school - glasses were too cool. And the patches were temporary pieces of felt in all sorts of bold, bright and beautiful designs. Including the ubiquituous Disney Princesses, but you can't have it both ways.
See, that's okay on a one-to-one, or especially if someone is being rude. But in a group situation it's not always right or enjoyable to force yourself into the centre of every conversation. My hearing doesn't test poorly enough to rate a hearing aid. Yet. Although it was borderline when I was a child, and I have hearing problems on both sides of my family.
So as a teen/ in my early twenties I hated noisy bars, being chatted up in nightclubs and fast food restaurants. I think that's why I married comparitively young, so we could do country pubs without music, decent restaurants and I could cook big meals for my friends in my own kitchen. Everyone had to defer to me there, or they wouldn't get fed.
In hindsight, I wish I'd qualified for a hearing aid!

Congratulations to Limey and Mr. Limey! Fabulous! :cheerldr:

Re hearing impairment and asking someone to repeat ... at some point you have to give up. Sometimes a person can repeat him/herself more than three times and my brain just won't interpret, even though I know he/she is making noises. It's much easier when people look at me but lip-reading isn't perfect either. Noisy places are impossible. Hearing aids aren't a lot of help in those situations, because they amplify noise across the frequency spectrum but don't help with speech discrimination.

If hearing aids were cheaper, I'd look into some of those colorful ones though - they'd be fun to wear on weekends! Or maybe I'll just get a colorful pair anyway when my current ones bite the dust. At $5000/pair I can't have a wardrobe of them.

A friend went to be tested and buy her first hearing aids. They were throwing around numbers like $5,000 to $7,000 EACH. Bandit bastards.

Whoa! Time to do some comparison shopping. The damned things aren't particularly technologically advanced, which adds insult to injury.

There's an engineer out there (I'm lousy at posting links - I suspect some astute dwellar has likely already posted his story here) who has designed a number of different hearing aids for himself to use in different situations. They aren't pretty, and some require the person you're having dinner with to wear a microphone, but they work better than the stuff being sold commercially.

The last time I had my ears tested, she said I have good news and bad news.
(Paraphrasing)
Bad News, you can't hear for shit.
Good News, you don't have to spend a fortune of expensive aids when the cheap ones will help just as much.

Today may have been something of a milestone with our bird-feeding...

For the past few weeks we've been feeding squirrels, blue jays, nuthatches,
house finches, woodpeckers, and occasional robins, and sparrows.

The squirrels and jays have become very territorial, driving off all the other critters.
So, I called in our Lab Retriever, Vicky.
She cut off the squirrels' escape route up into the trees, and the jays followed suite.
I had her lay down at the base of the feeders for a while to establish her command of the territory.
After about an hour, we called her in the house and waited to see what was to ensue.
Here they came, first the female (left) then the male (right)... "Northern flickers"

Attachment 51481
(not my pic)

These are my favorite birds of the Pacific Northwest, I think they are gorgeous
in their black and red markings, and individual feathers are blends of browns, tans, and orange.

It's a milestone because they are also the most wary of birds around us.
If they can see you, they fly away.

Some people (justifiably) say they are nuisances with their pecking and drumming behaviors,
but for so much beauty you have to pay at least a small price.

They are gorgeous. We have the yellow shafted on this coast.

I have had 2 of my "Farm Series" images accepted into "What's Old is New Again - Alternative Photographic Processes" at Gallery136-1/2, Manchester, CT. These are gold toned Van Dyke prints from 4x5 and 8x10 b/w negatives. The show runs from June 13 to July 11 and was juried by Jill Enfield, one of the best alternative process photographers working today.

Cool, I'd like to see them.

Here they are - Attachment 51492Attachment 51494

Ah, nice. Very nice. http://cellar.org/2015/hands19.gif

Thanks !