-
My hearing isn't as bad as I thought it was
My friend called last Wednesday and we talked for quite a while but I spent the whole time struggling to hear her. This has occured in the past and I thought it was either the way my friend was holding the phone or my hearing was getting really bad. I had to go out that evening and at one point telephoned to check in with Lego lover, who has been rather clingy lately. The Scientist answered the phone but couldn’t hear me while I could hear him just fine. I hung up and tried again with the same result. Our phone was essentially useless and we decided that the cost of repair would more than likely be greater than purchasing a new phone. So the Scientist and I went out to the three major electrical retailers that are now conveniently situated within five minutes of our house (by car) and checked out all the phones. We opted for a digital phone that actually has a bit of shape so that it fits our ear comfortably. It’s rather new-fangled but we are quite pleased with it. We got a package with an extra handset so now we can call each other in the house which, surprisingly, is a feature that is useful right now although I won’t elaborate on the reasons in this post.
-
Trackballs and websites
I ordered a trackball in February from a local retailer, eventually received it, then discovered the wrist rest that was supposed to be included wasn’t. The wheels moved quite slowly for resolving the issue and I had to follow up several times because communication is not exactly a strong point of the retailer. The trackball had been shipped directly from the supplier and that’s where the hold up was…Anyway, last week, I finally received another trackball and will be able to keep the original too. I took the wrist rest and the Scientist has taken the new trackball to use with his new notebook computer. It took awhile but satisfaction was achieved.
-
Instant gratification
While progressing through a series of links from the iTunes podcasts, I came across the BBC’s language podcasts. This reminded me of listening to my shortwave radio over 25-30 years ago to hear the German language learning program on Radio Deutche Welle. I used to listen quite often to the program and enjoyed the format at the time. Like many shortwave programs back then, a booklet and sometimes other complementary items to accompany the program were offered to listeners who wrote in. I requested the booklet and eventually did receive it a couple months later. I remember being very impressed to get something from Germany (actually West Germany at the time). The fact it was from another country was far more important to me than the actual content, which was pretty basic and limited.