Life During COVID

On a normal morning, traffic on Scott Blvd northbound past my post is quite heavy. By 0815 traffic stopped at Monroe St. can back up all the way to my corner, about 500 feet away. Stop and go is the norm from about 0800 to when I leave ar around 0900.

Yesterday, the City of Santa Clara banned all public gatherings of more than 1000 people, and asked the big tech firms to allow as many people as possible to work from home.

Today, there was almost no traffic on Scott. It was eerie.

I can hear again!

Picked up my new hearing aids today, and I am very impressed. Unlike my old set, which just amplified, these are tuned to my exact prescription. My hearing loss is mostly in the range of normal human speech. So my aids are tuned to the "quiet conversation" level, which is just perfect, as this level doesn't mean I experienced overwhelming environmental noise. I guess I mean to say they are more focused.

Another good thing is no more tiny batteries! I have a charging dock now. Plug them in, let them charge. The best part is, say I have to manually adjust the input for some reason. Like we're at a loud movie and I want to tone it down a bit. As the aids charge, the automatically reset to the base setting.

I'm also Bluetooth capable now. Not a feature I'm going to use much, I think, but it could be useful and is very cool. It would be nice to listen to podcasts without needed to switch to headphones. But the best part comes tomorrow when I'll be able to hear what my kids are saying to me.

As I recall, the Lions Club collects old hearing aids for the needy. I'll have to look up the local chapter.