I’m hard of hearing and well on the road to going deaf. Daily, it seems as if I’m having more trouble hearing. At times it’s pretty terrible, especially when I have to be on the phone for my day job and I can’t hear the customer and have to ask them to repeat themselves ad nausea. Or when I can’t understand my father who has dementia or my own adult children. People get pretty extremely frustrated with me.
You should hear the gibberish I hear. Some of it’s pretty funny. A lot of my responses are totally embarrassing. Have you heard the 60’s Moldy Oldy “It’s Magic’? I hear “It’s my dick”.
I hear a lot of things real people say totally cattywampus too. Recently a customer was trying to tell me his name was “David” and when I asked him to spell it, he was like “seriously, you don’t know how to spell “David’?” When I finally understood him, I felt like a total idiot. That one’s really bad as my husband’s name is also David. But I couldn’t hear him. Instead I heard a warbly syllable or two with a lot of static.
I fear for my day job. Luckily, a lot of it’s done on the Internet. When I confessed my shortcomings to my boss this week, she told me not to worry. We’re going to try to get a phone amplifier. I hope it helps. I already have double hearing aids turned up full blast. And my work telephone is turned as loud as it will go too.
I lost my hearing due to excessive noise I was exposed to in the Air Force. I worked in a high noise area without proper ear protection. Worse, a tumor grew in my left ear and when I reported to the Air Force doctors, I was told ear aches and headaches were normal for expectant mothers. I was accused of malingering (faking illness to take time off work). By the time the Air Force inspected my ear and found the tumor, they had permitted it to wrap itself around two of the three bones of my ear. Both bones are history now. Fortunately, it wasn’t cancerous. Still, there’s no conductivity in that ear. It’s little better than a block of wood. I would like to add that the Veterans Administration is taking good care of me now and has provided me with hearing aids and I appreciate it very much.
Still reading words is such a delight in comparison to the struggle to hear them. The written word is concrete. I can go back and reread if I’m not sure what I thought I read. I can enlarge the font (on a computer or eReader). I can take my own time to ingest and respond.
I love being an author as I can continue to do this job even if my hearing deteriorates. I get to “talk” to readers, fellow authors, and editors online via text. As much as I love meeting my readers and fellow authors and that I want to connect with my lovely editors, it’s debatable how many live conferences I’ll attend as I’m nervous about chatting with people when I can’t hear well. I’m not anti-social. I just hate to appear stupid if I respond incorrectly or anti-social if I don’t hear somebody and thus don’t respond at all.
Someday I hope to get the BAHA (bone aided hearing aid) which one of my doctors thinks will help me to hear better. I also plan to learn sign language. And perhaps I can persuade at least one of my daughters to join me to be my ears at writing conferences.
Ashley Ladd is the author of more than seventy published erotic romances. She lives in South Florida with her husband, five children, and beloved pets. She loves the water, animals (especially cats), and playing on the computer.
She’s a disabled Air Force vet and sometimes military characters pop up in her stories. She also loves rom com and Star Trek so don’t be surprised if gthere’s comedy or a star ship captain either.
Blurb:
Guy Rogers is extremely attracted to his new realtor, Tom Beaudreaux. As a passionate vegetarian and animal activist, he’s ecstatic that Tom is a kindred soul. He could never be with a carnivore. Unfortunately, Tommy isn’t really a vegetarian or animal activist. He never said he was either, he just didn’t eat meat when he was with Guy. And maybe he emptied his house of all meat and dairy products before inviting Guy over. In fact, Tommy’s family owns the most popular barbecue restaurant in town and if his family has their way, he’ll manage the new location.
When Guy finds out that Tommy eats meat and his family owns a restaurant that is a monument to eating meat, he’s livid and doesn’t know if he wants anything else to do with Tommy.
But then Guy’s life gets crazy ““his dad’s paranoia blossoms into violent dementia, he gets arrested for picketing a doggy mill, and then he winds up in even more legal trouble. When Tommy sticks by him through all his trouble and does everything he can to help him, Guy wonders if he’s been too militant and narrow-minded. Perhaps he can learn to live with people who have opposite views.
Excerpt:
Gunshots rang out as they turned onto Guy’s street.
Tommy looked at him and mouthed, “Shit! You don’t think”¦?”
“I hope not. I don’t know.” Guy pressed the gas pedal to the floor and the car shot forward, fish-tailing.
Tommy fisted the door, hanging on tight. “I hope we’re wrong.”
Guy’s intuition told him he wasn’t. His knuckles turned white they held the steering wheel so tightly. Unafraid for himself but scared for his dad, he pulled into his driveway and jumped out of the car, with Tommy close on his heels.
The woman next door ran outside screaming, tearing out her already tattered hair. She pointed at her front door. “Your father’s shooting up my house and is holding a gun at my dad’s head. He’s going to kill him. You’ve got to do something.”
Tommy yelled as he began dialing on his phone, “I’m calling the police.” As if on cue, police sirens blared in the distance and grew louder by the second.
“I’m going in. I have to stop him.”
“Wait for the police. Don’t put yourself in danger,” Tommy ordered forcefully.
“I have to take the chance. He could kill someone before the police get here. I can’t let that happen.” He put himself in harm’s way for animals, so certainly he could risk his life for his own father and other fellow human beings. He had no choice. It would be his fault if someone got hurt.
So he ran through the open door flailing his arms, hoping he would be in time. “Dad! It’s Guy. Don’t do anything. I’m here. You’ll be okay.”
“He’ll be okay? What about me? He’s got a shotgun pointed at my head threatening to blow it off,” the elderly neighbor cried.
Buy Links:
https://www.totallybound.com/business-or-pleasure
“¢ I hope to have more buy links before this posts ““ I’ll let you know
How you can contact Ashley:
chinara@aol.com
http://www.ashleyladd.blogspot.com
https://www.facebook.com/ashleyladdauthor
http://www.twitter.com/ashleyladd
https://www.goodreads.com/AshleyLadd
http://www.shelfari.com/search/books?Keywords=Ashley%20Ladd
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=ashley%20ladd&sprefix=ashle%2Caps&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aashley%20ladd
Leave a Comment