First day of school

Hey,
How is everyone, hope grrrreat!
Back to school! Today was the first day of school, and everything went great. Both my boys entered new schools. One went to the big High School, 10th grade, new school, and the other started Middle School. Like every year we bring them in and pick em up. We kinda make a big deal about it. A little later we will be taking them out to eat. Nothing fancy, a Denny's or something :)
Anyway, I hope you all had a great summer. Mine was just great. Did a lot of day trips this year, and played a bit of golf. Not that I'm Joe Golf, but my son Alex loves it, and wants to play every chance he gets. So I go, and started to really enjoy it. Playing better also keeps me interested :) Since my CI, and my hearing getting better, it is a lot easier to communicate on the golf course. In the past I never talked with my son's until we were next to each other. In golf everyone hits the ball someplace else. If anyone asked me something from a distance, forget it! Now I can understand from a very far distance, and even talk to people I don't know, cool. It's just a lot better now.
The weather has been great, gonna go out and sun a little now:)
Just wanted to keep in touch, say hello. HELLO! hee hee
My Yankees will miss the playoffs on their last year at the Stadium. Does anyone feel for me, lol.......
Take care,
Billy

Summer 2008

Hey Guys,
Sorry for the long delay in posting. Everything is just cool here. How is every ones summer going? Hope great.
Next week will be my first vaca of the summer and we will start it off with 4 days of camping :)
The weather has been real nice, so hopefully it stays like that while camping, don't want rain those days, arrrr.
Kids are enjoying the time off, I'm enjoying not having to pick them up from school or making those late night sandwiches:)
As far as the CI goes, everything is just great. Had my one year appointment about a month ago and everything was good. A few program changes, but nothing out of the ord. I did have a program included that's good for music and long distance hearing, like on the golf course :) Seems ok so far. I elected not to have a hearing test. Don't care much for results. Seems to me that when I'm tested in a sound proof room, no noise of any kind, those result changes a lot when out in the real world. Background noise and different voices change everything. But it still feels good scoring 90% on the words test compared to 10% without a CI :) in that quiet room :)
I talked (on the phone) to one of my best friends last week, I was his best man on his wedding day. Just so you know he is a real best friend, lol.. We talked for about one hr. The last time I talked to him was about 8 years ago. Very long time. Especially considering we talk everyday at one time when we were young and I could hear. Conversation went great. Every now and then he would say, "Can you hear me", made me laugh. He also said, "So that thing is working pretty good huh?" LOL
Yeah it is!
My next mapping will be one year from now. Wow! My audi told me it's like graduating, they set me free:) One year seems like a long time. But I'm sure it will come up fast.
Anyway, just wanted to let everyone know I'm still here. Life is good. I'm hearing, Yankees are playing better ball, All-Star game at the Stadium, don't miss it, lol....
Take Care,
Billy

HEY, YO, WUZ UP, HOW'S GOIN, SUP, LOL..

Hellllllllllllllllooooooooooooo Jerry's!
Just saying hello, blog still lives:) What's new in every ones busy world?
Me, glad you asked, lol.....
Baseball, kids playing ball, at the fields about 4-5 days a week. My oldest son is on the HS team, so they play a bit. My little guy is playing for the Red Sox, (majors) lol, and since I bleed Yankee, that does hurt. I was shocked when his coach called and told me the name of the team, no-way! I help coach, and they even gave me a Red Sox hat. That hat was outside in the yard a few days. Everyone was asking me why the hat is in the yard. But since, I have worn it once. Just once. Think of something you really hate, now put it on your head. That's how I felt, hee hee.
Besides that, staying busy with work, the kids stuff, and the days just go to fast.
Hearing is going just great! Use the phone all the time now. Still having a hard time in real noisy places. I think I will always have a hard time with that. I can turn my volume and sensitivity down, and that does help a bit, but it is still hard. I'm not concerned with it, I make up for it in other ways.
Anyway, hope you are all doing great.
GO YANKEES! GO RANGERS!
Billy

Hey, Wuz UP??????????

Hello from snowy Seattle,
Just figured i'd keep the blog going a little longer. I find myself here less and less. But I will try to drop in more often. I do still read many of your blogs and you all make me smile and keep things interesting, I mean me interested, lol... Looks as if Sam is going to be under the knife soon, best of luck to him. Wishing for you Sam. Anyway, not a ton new here. Just working and doing the usual kids stuff. Have had a kind of slow winter as far as kids sports. Both my sons are not playing hockey this year. That frees up a lot of time. One of my boys has picked up snowbording while the other is playing basketball and will hit the soccer fields in the spring. But they will both be playing baseball as well. Can't give that one up, GO YANKEES! :)
We will be getting white stuff...............
Yeah, we're expecting snow tonight. We also had a snowy morning today. Just like Buffalo, lol Sam.......
Where I live we normally do not get a lot of snow, but go East 45 min and your in snow country out here. A 98" base where my son snoboards and they are expecting 12-18" tonight. But the kids will take the snow days and I will deal with Morons that can't drive in the snow :)
Hearing is going just fine. Had a Mapping a few weeks ago and everything is just great. I elected not to take a hearing test. My audio Tina said next time. I know my hearing has gotten better since my last hearing test.. My next Mapping is in May.
So, things are cool, life is grand, hearing is great!
Hope everything is great your way.
Your friend Billy
PS
In the market for new cell phone soon.
Anybody recommend a good one for the CI

Hello

Hello Everyone,
Still alive!
Just wanted to update a little. Not too much new. Have not had a new mapping for a few months now. I do have one January 8th of next year :) Have kept most of my programs the way she set them the last meeting. Noisy situations are still hard. Have to drop the volume in some really loud places. When I go to my son's basketball games in the big High School gym, that also is a hard place to hear. Echo sounds. But the overall picture is very good. Still talking on the phone, but still mostly family members. I did place a pizza order a few weeks ago and that went well. Understanding a lot on the TV, but not enough to follow an entire movie, if I turn the volume up enough I do better, but the the rest of the family no like:) Listening to music a lot now, love my rediscovered CD player, boy did I miss that. One of the best things is how much I don't text anymore, I talk to my kids on the phone now, very seldom do I ever text anymore, saves so much time and my thumbs get rest:)
Funny thing is how I really don't give my hearing much thought anymore, I'm also a lot less frustrated at the end of a day. I actually do get a little down when I don't hear or understand something, I guess I expect myself to be perfect now, make sense?:)
Anyway, after my next mapping I will update again.
Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Billy

Update

Hey Everyone,
Time for a little update on the ear and me:) Sorry it's been a while.
Today I had my 3 month mapping, the last one I had was about two months ago, so it's been a few. I was down to one program out of the four that I had. Program 2 was the only one that had the volume level that I liked, the others were just to low. So, program 2 moved to 4 and I was given a new program called Whisper, I think a few of you guys have this, as I did real it on a few blogs. Should help me a little when talking to someone on the golf course:).
Everything as far as hearing has been going great. I use the phone a lot now, talked to my best friend from NY a few weeks ago for about an hour. Talk to the wife and my Mom with ease. Still haven't done anything on the phone like making a doctor app. or calling in a pizza order:), but I will soon. At work things have changed a ton, no more "just not getting it", and not to long ago my brother and his family from CT came out and they said I hear a lot better. Also many people at work have said that too. So I guess my hearing has been noticeably better, and yes, I would say it has:)
My audiologist said I am doing extremely well, one of the best she has ever had, she went on to tell me that at 3 months I'm ahead of most of her patients that are at 6-9 months. After hearing all that, I'm not sure what to say, I was more like, WOW, and thanks:) Hearing that made me feel so lucky and I figure I shouldn't complain about the little things in life that annoy me, or at least not as much:), and that I'm just really lucky. Not long ago, I started to prepare myself for being deaf at a later age, at whatever age my hearing would completely go, without being able to lip read or sign, and man, I was thinking, I'm up shits creek when that happens:) So yeah, I'm really lucky and thankful. OK, enough rambling!
Anyway, I took a hearing test, sentences, words, and some beeps:)
My results with CI are:
Beeps and sounds: 25 decibels range, which puts me in the speech banana, and is considered around normal hearing :)
Sentences: 100%, two months ago 90%
Words: 82%, two months ago 66%
So yeah, I'm feeling good today
It's been a really tough month, my Dad passed away on Aug 6th and it's the hardest and most painful thing I have ever gone through, so this is good, and I know he is watching and happy happy for me, if anyone in the world was cheering for me, it was my Dad, my #1 fan. Well I have more, but this one will be so missed:(
Well, that's about it for now, I still read all your blogs, just to darn lazy to write, but I will again.
Take care,
Your friend Billy

Pony league champs

My sons team as they would say, "won the whole thing" they had one heck of a season. They started off like, this is going to be a long season, to winning the championship. My son is the catcher in the middle, chest protector on. He also made the All-Star team. They played teams from other towns, cities and they basically got blown away in that. Some great teams, but they tried.
Now a little info on the CI, I have not had a mapping in a while, was supposed to have one last Monday, but they decided to cancel that one, said I was doing ok and didn't need to change anything, but if I did feel I needed more volume or anything they would schedule me another one. My next map will be Sept. 11. So I will have a way to go before I see them again. I am running on one program right now, I do have four, but I only use one of them, works really well, #2, the others just don't have enough volume. I am starting to make out some of what is being said when I watch TV, I think with some more volume I might do better. Voices, even on my CD'S are getting better all the time. When my son plays the piano that sounds awful, not sure why. My other son play the guitar and that sounds a lot better. Can hear rain, wind, the leaves rustling in the trees. Let's see, what else, this is just a little update on what I'm hearing better and what changes I feel have happend:)
Like Yana said, I also do better if people are closer to me when talking to me, that I think would improve with more volume.
Overall I feel like I'm doing great, I kind of don't think about my hearing as much anymore. In the past at work if people talked to me, it took many, huh and what was that before I finally understood and many times I never did get what they were saying, now maybe one huh or what:) a lot better!
Anyway, that's about it here.
Hope everyone is doing good, and as we head into another weekend soon, have a good weekend.
Billy