Well, not exactly deeper in debt. Deeper in goodies, though, particularly a long-awaited little slice of musical wonderfulness! By the time my birthday rolled around, I'd been whining about the iPod for so long that Steve probably got it for me simply to earn some peace and quiet. But from the moment we learned, while selecting my CI device, that I could connect the processor directly to an iPod, I wanted one.
Back in the early '80s, when mobile music became ubiquitous, I had a Walkman. I used it a couple of times, but could hear at all only with my hearing aid switched to telecoil and cranked its loudest, which left the music nearly overpowered by a persistent buzzing. Later, I tried a portable CD player, with the same results. Plus, I couldn't use earbuds (because, um, my hearing aids were in there), and the regular headsets had to be perched on my microphones to allow me to hear - an awkward, and incredibly dorky-looking proposition.
So the personal portable musical device, it just wasn't happening. Which meant that after I stopped driving, about 10 years ago, I also stopped regularly listening to music in any kind of purposeful way. I had a CD player in my kitchen for a while, and would play some tunes while I cooked or baked, but that was it.
I come from a family of music lovers. I've always been the odd woman out, with my toneless voice, inability to understand the words of the songs, and lack of opportunity for focused listening. But I, too, love music, and have long regretted my inability to listen more often, and hear better.
So when the audiologist showed me the special cord that links the CI to a personal audio device, I immediately started pushing for an iPod. After all, I told Steve, if I had to undergo surgery, recovery, and months of learning how to hear again, I should at least get some music out of it. I was sort of hoping it might appear in the form of an anniversary gift, but the extra months' wait only added to my enthusiasm when I finally unwrapped it.
My brother installed a few songs on it, I plugged in my special gizmo, and (after I figured out how to turn up the volume), it worked! Not only could I hear the music, I could understand the words. The sound quality was excellent, and the music sounded surprisingly "right" to me, since I keep hearing that CIs don't process music well. Because the music is going directly into the CI, there's no interference from environmental sound, yet with the special program my audiologist installed last week, I'm still able to hear external sound as well as the iPod. It's incredible.
Steve and I worked into the wee hours last night sorting our music collection and debating which discs were worthy of occupying the Nano's 8 gigs of memory. Hopefully, it won't take us too long to complete the process of moving all that music. We've acquired a car adaptor, too, ensuring an impressive soundtrack for our Christmas roadtrip to Wisconsin.
wow!! that is sooo cool!! really, really excellent that the ipod and CI work that way... it's hard for me to imagine not listening to music a lot of the time... glad to learn you'll be able to!
hope your holiday was fun!! i've been lying in bed since thanksgiving dinner (and the turkey trot) with a horrendous cold! see you at the gym soon i hope!
Posted by: fish | November 26, 2006 at 07:53 PM