Loss, music & computing.

No. 14    Saturday 10 September 2011

Another longish break since my last blog, but a (sort of) excuse for the delay.  Nevertheless I can be expected to deviate from my intended weekly schedule and produce these somewhat erratically!!

This excuse is that last week, on Thursday, I went into the city and replenished my stock of hearing aid batteries.  This involved the usual bus journeys.  On the very next day, on returning home from shopping, I lost my right hearing aid and didn 't discover the loss until bedtime (when I take them out and turn them off).  An immediate search through the house proved that the loss had not happened there, so I had to think back over the day and work out where it might have occurred.  Eventually I realised that, going over a slightly rough section of footpath (in windy conditions), the wind noise through the hearing aids changed but I had put this down to a change in wind direction.  That must have been when I lost it.

The next day I made a thorough search along my journey to/from the supermarket, with special attention to the area where I thought the loss had occurred, but no luck there either.  The following Monday I reported the loss to the firm which provided the hearing aids and later in the week received a claim form from the company with which they had insured them.  This form presented me with the usual problem of filling in forms in that I cannot write well enough (due to my limited hand use), so I indulged in my usual tactic and sent an explanatory letter answering all the items on the form in the same numerical order.  Now all I have to do is wait for a response.

The club which I go to once a week is having its 'birthday party' next month and asked if I could provide the music.  At first I told them I hadn't much music suitable for dancing i.e. which was annotated on the CD with the type of dance.  Only one CD in my collection does that so I searched on the Internet for something suitable - and as is the case, found it easily.  So I ordered six CDs of which two have already arrived and I have told the vice-chairman that I can cope after all.  The club have also asked me to give my talk on 'Humour on Record' towards the end of the month so they will get a double dose of my eccentric taste in music in the month!!  At least I have some good quality portable equipment for playing the music.  One problem with adding six CDs to my collection is where to put them.  A certain amount of shelf re-arranging will be necessary to fit them in the appropriate place.

The fact that nights are beginning to draw in is accentuated by the dull weather we have had recently.  I have just turned the sitting room lights on and it is only 1700hrs (5pm).  This is so that I can clearly see the computer keyboard to supplement my one-finger typing.  On the subject of computers, I recently bought a few USB memory sticks to save important information onto and remove it from the computer's hard drive.  The reason for this is that, despite my very good anti-virus program, I feel that there is a remote risk of an outsider downloading such information from it via the Internet.  Now all I have to do is to sort out what goes on these sticks which will then be hidden away.

Mike