"It's getting better... it's getting better all the time..."

A rainy, drizzly grey kinda Sunday. I spent most of it hanging with the cats and playing Half-Life 2 - Substance, a third-party modification to the original game.

This time I'm enjoying playing it plugged into the computer and am hearing all those funky noises I missed the first times I played :)

Hearing gets better and better and easier and easier every day. I wake up in the morning craving to 'hear' again, and take the unit off reluctantly every night. It has far exceeded my wildest expectations - after just two weeks. I wish I could describe what it feels like. But I am finding I just don't have the vocabulary to describe something this... big.

Overwhelming.

Miraculous.

Surprises:

My V-box (the cellphone I used and use for sending text messages) makes a beep when it's plugged into, and unplugged from, its charger. Okay, this may not be an earth-shaking discovery for you guys, but it was pretty exciting to me :)

The door at the foot of the stairs needs its hinges oiled.

One of my Board Members has a British accent.

Windows XP has a different "startup" and "shutdown" sound than Windows 2000 had. (Big newsflash to all of you, I know.)

The clutch pedal in "Yvette", the 16-year-old Honda Civic who is a member of the family, squeaks now.

I can occasionally hear Veronica, the cat, snoring at the foot of the bed. Don't tell her I told you. She's such a lady.

My deaf alarm makes an UNHOLY racket when it goes off! The vibrating "bed shaker" makes an incredibly loud buzzing noise. Poor Husband has been putting up with this all these months and I never realized it!

The little things I can hear really surprise me. I can hear water dripping. The wall clock in my office ticking.

That isn't really so surprising on analysis, though, 'cause they're simple, staccato, single-note sounds.

Yesterday we went through a drive-through. I understood every word the attendant said, even though I was in the passenger seat.

Now, that impressed me. I don't remember being able to hear them very well before I went deaf.

ronnie