Share Your World 17th May

Time really is whizzing past. No matter what anyone says, I don’t think time is always the same. I can remember afternoons that lasted longer than a month seems to last these days. I’m pretty sure time is not stationary. It may say a minute on the clock, but it’s a lot shorter. Maybe it will get longer again at some point in the future.

Children aside, do you celebrate your birthday/anniversary or is it just a normal day for you?

We celebrate, but we keep it small. We don’t have many friends anymore. The ones we have live too far away to see frequently — and many are gone.

Do/did you always give your child a birthday party when they were young?

I did something, but I was working full-time. It was hard getting parties organized. Eventually we asked Owen what he wanted and if we could manage it, we did it.

If NOT Christmas, then what?

Owen was born a day or two before Mother’s Day. Since that day varies by year, sometimes his birthday is on Mother’s Day, but that’s nothing like Christmas.

Would you prefer to give your child a party, or take them and a few friends on a special outing?

My child is 54. I give him something he needs — or wants — and treat him to a special dinner.

When it’s our anniversary? He sends us out to dinner. We keep it simple. We don’t have a lot of money, so we try to make the most of it.

Gratitude: Garry’s hearing

Garry, after five years, decided it’s time to get a second cochlear implant so he can hear from both ears and maybe be able to be part of a group and actually hear something other than noise. It’s a big decision, though maybe not as big as it seemed. Because he can’t really hear much out of that other ear anyway. Just noise, no words, It was deemed suitable for an implant five years ago and only hearing the audiologist finally say: “You know, a new aid isn’t going to help. You should consider another implant” got us to reconsider. It’s not like we were saving something because he really can’t hear out of either ear and effectively, the left ear is just background noise. He can’t hear words.

So now it’s a hustle to get a lot of stuff done so he can have the surgery. He will need a certificate from the dentist that he has no decaying teeth. Fortunately, 2/3 of the work has already been done, so he only needs one more session. I need to get my work done because he’ll be out of commission for a while post surgery. Not completely, but it will give him a headache that lasts for a couple of weeks. I’ve done so little driving, I need to remember how to get places. They’ve changed the roads and I have no sense of direction anyway. With road changes and not driving much, I’m doubly lost.

I’m grateful the surgery is possible and grateful that they have improved how they do it. Now they can often keep any parts of the ear that enable even a little bit of hearing with a new implant. That’s an important change.

I think it’s likely that I will have less time to blog, at least for while. I’ll do the best I can. I think I have at least a month, maybe a month and a half before this gets moving. I will let you know as it develops.

Categories: #SYW, celebration, Hearing, Share My World

Tags: #Photography, anniversary, birthdays, celebrations, Garry Armstrong, humor, Marilyn Armstrong