A drive to the library … and a rundown on MAP # 2

Yesterday, with car battery nicely charged again, I decided to drive to my local library and pick up some new audio books to listen to.

The first thing I heard, when I turned the key in the ignition, was the familiar hum of the engine running (only it was more of a bellowing hum than a quiet hum).

The second thing I heard?

Squeeeeeak.

Oh the brakes! Not good! I bet that’s the first time I’ve ever smiled at that noise though!

I turned on the radio – put it on one of the commercial FM stations. There were advertisements playing – I could understand them if I concentrated, even over the sound of the engine and the traffic. The ones with male voice-overs were easier to catch. It’s strange – I think because female voices are still very high pitched, I can actually understand male voices better at the moment. (I was told it’s usually the other way around!)

Someone beeped their horn twice, and my head swung around to the left. It wasn’t directed at me. The driver in the car on my left was just waving to someone walking along the street. I grinned because I’d known what direction to turn my head in and thus been able to immediately identify why the person had beeped.

Soon after, I recognised a song that started playing on the radio. It was a Buble track! What’s more, it was his recent track (‘Haven’t Met You Yet’) that I’ve only ever heard through my CIs. He hadn’t even started singing – I’d recognised the first couple of bars of the song. Pretty neat! I turned it up, then got paranoid that it was too loud and turned it down! But, I have to admit, volume tends to sit at comfortable levels these days. For example, the TV at home used to be set to a volume of ‘70’ when I wore a hearing aid, and now I feel it’s too loud if it goes above ‘40’. I tend to keep it at around ‘36’. So the volume level in the car was probably within a normal range, but I lowered it just in case.

I noticed that the traffic sounded similar to what I remembered from my days of natural hearing too. The cars on the other side of the road made a ‘whooshing’ sound when they drove past. With my hearing aid, I never used to hear distinct sounds – just a roaring, static background noise. Individual sounds were jumbled up together and lost. With CIs, I was hearing my car engine, the radio and the other cars on the road, all at the same time. I could also tell, by the sound, when the road surface changed. If buses or trucks drove by, they were noticeably louder than cars. As they should be!

I parked the car and prepared myself for the silence that would greet me when I entered the library.

Well, clearly I have not been to a library for years, because this one was loud! There was a children’s storytelling session happening in one corner, study groups chatting away in another. A circular computer bay in the middle of the library was inhabited by several teens who were individually watching YouTube videos. Without any earphones.

I thought back to my childhood years, when we were forever being ‘shushed’ by librarians. I guess times have changed!

I haven’t been to a library for ages because I’m an avid collector of books, so I tend to save my dollars and buy them. Even though I've run out of space and there are books lying around everywhere at home. (I dream of someday having a room dedicating to housing my books … Jase longs for me to have this too only, in his version of the dream, the dedicated room is a cupboard.)

The noise got a bit much for me after a while, so I used the remote to set the ‘Noise’ program and drop the background volume a bit. That worked nicely. I chose some audiobooks and headed to the counter.

Hmmm. Self-serve. No librarian required. Just place your items on the mat, swipe your card, and away you go. Thing is, my card was too old for this system – it had a barcode, not a magnetic strip.

I took a deep breath. This was going to involve conversation.

The librarian laughed when she saw how old my card was.

‘I haven’t been here in a while,’ I said, apologetically.

When she started speaking, I breathed a sigh of relief. I could understand her just fine. Though she asked fairly routine questions for the next five minutes, while she started a new account for me, I never had to guess what she was asking.

As I walked back to the car, I realised I’d forgotten to change programs from ‘Noise’ to ‘Everyday’, and yet I’d been able to hear her. That was lucky!

I switched to talkback radio for the drive home, and listened to callers ring in about recent movies they’d seen. Listening to the radio took quite a bit of concentration, so I tended to listen at red lights only so I could focus on driving. Maybe some day it will come more naturally.

Friends and family are asking how I’m going with the second MAP – I honestly didn’t walk out of there experiencing a major difference in sound quality, but there are little things I’ve noticed. When watching TV without captions, I’m starting to hear more speech that is spoken on top of background noise. The cuckoo has a deeper tone now, so I think some of the high-pitched sounds are starting to come down. (My voice is still too high. Women and children still sound high pitched too!) Music is improving. One of the melodies on the cuckoo clock sounds richer now and I’ve realised it is because I can hear that there are sometimes two tones played in quick succession, instead of one long flat tone. Makes the melody much prettier!

I have the full range of programs now, too. I have been using ‘Everyday’ and ‘Noise’, but now have access to ‘Focus’ and ‘Music’. I haven’t needed to use ‘Focus’ yet, the program for filtering out background noise but allowing you to hear what people near you are saying. Haven’t been in a situation where it is necessary. But I have been playing around with the ‘Music’ program, and I quite like it. I didn’t at first, until I switched back to ‘Everyday’ and realised what a difference there was. The ‘Music’ program allows me to hear more instruments than ‘Everyday’ does, so I’m going to stick with it.

I’m off to work on my daily ‘Sound and Way Beyond’ exercises now, and give the piano a bit of a whirl. (Persistence!)

Mapping session # 3: Next Wednesday