6/9/2014

weekly update 6/9/2014

Monday started off this week busier than I was all was week.

I began by going to the Hearing Center to turn in my Hearing Aids. They were not working as I expected them too, and it was an awful lot of money to pay for something that was more an annoyance than assistance. (While the City of Rochester has included transgender realignment in their health coverage package, I got exactly $0 to help with my hearing loss. I have no quarrel with the unfortunate individuals who may be born in a body they didn't ask for, but I also did not ask to be hard of hearing, and my quality of life is no less important. Yet financially, I can foot my own bills. Not happy about that, I'll tell you). Anyway, I was there an hour early because their records weren't synced. I was nervous anyway because I knew they would try to talk me into giving it more time, which I probably should have. But when I get up every morning dreading putting those uncomfortable things in my ears, I think it's time to call it quits. So, I waited for an extra hour, but held firm and turned them in, asked for my money back, and left. It's a pleasure to drive my car and hear the radio, not the wind rushing past my ears. Or to be on my own schedule again of going to the pool or taking a shower without having to either do that before I put the aids in or take them out and put them back in again every time I get near water. I enjoyed watching my tv (with the CC on again) without having that pain in my ears and counting the hours until I could take them out. I don't miss them. I probably should have tried harder, because now Donna will need to continue in the role of interpreter for me, and I will occasionally need to ask people to repeat themselves (I needed to do that with the aids, too, which I had certainly hoped would be eliminated. But if I need to do that with the devices, what have I lost?). Oh well...

Then it was book club. This month was The Light Between Oceans by M L Stedman. As I was reading it, I thought it was wonderful, and I was ready to recommend it to everyone who enjoys a good book. But the ending was so flat, so banal. That rather soured me on the book. The others in the club thought so too. And although the story is quite preposterous, it seemed plausible until the end.

I had told Sylvia at book club that I had thought about going to the Sand Gnats baseball game that evening. Her husband likes to go to the games, but never has anyone to go with, so she suggested that we go together. I enjoyed being with Charles, but missed having Sylvia there too (as well as Lisa and Dave, who will indulge my once-a-year desire to see a game, but they're in Wales and couldn't make it back for the game). I stayed until the end of the 9th inning, and the game was tied 1-1. Not knowing how much longer I could sit there and be bored, I left at that point. I found out on the news that evening that I should have stayed for one more inning because the 'Gnats lost in the 10th.

 

In addition to book club, this was the Week of the Books. When I see or hear about something that I might be interested in reading, I generally will go to the library website and place a hold on the book. Well, three books became available this week. Rather than skip the pick-up and have my name be placed at the end of the list, I went to the library to borrow them. I read Wiley Cash's This Dark Road To Mercy; I've been wanting to read since I heard him speak at the Book Fest last February. Then, I read Call The Midwife by Jennifer Worth; it was OK, but really just told some of the same stories that were on tv, but with a little more detail, and a little more realism. Finally, I've just started Natchez Burning, by Greg Iles, a nearly 800-page page tome that's going to take me a while to get through. Also, Mark Kay Andrews was signing copies of her new book, Save The Date, at a hotel downtown. This is Ms. Andrews 12th book. Although born in St Petersburg Florida, she began her career as a journalist in Savannah. She now lives and writes in Atlanta, but has a summer home on Tybee Island. The setting for many of her chick books is Savannah (or at least the south), and she has a wide following here.

Philomena is a movie that many friends raved about after seeing at the Savannah Movie Fest last winter. I'd wanted to see it for a long time, but it never seemed to be playing in a movie theater. It's finally turned up on pay-per-view tv, so I invited Donna Holter (to be forever know as The Other Donna, so as not to confuse her with Donna Roy, who's still in Maine) and Anne Nedd over to watch with me. They both live in Mercer Point, so they could just walk over. It was an interesting movie, and we liked it. Of course, what's not to like about Judi Dench?

I went to a SCT production of Shrek the Musical (fantastic, but aren't they all?) When I tried to walk in a buy a ticket a week ago, there were no seats left. This week, I purchased a ticket on line ahead of time, and I'm glad I did, as it was another sell-out performance. It was an ambitious production, but they did a wonderful job. The main characters were played by adults, but the children get experience playing some of the minor roles as storybook characters, villagers, and soldiers. They can show off their dancing and singing skills or just gain experience being on stage in front of a live audience - and hearing the thunderous applause at the curtain call. It's wonderful for the kids. (Of course, there's no photography allowed during the performance, but I took a couple of pix in the lobby after the show. The photos are awful, because all I had was my little iPod).

 

This weekend was the Second Sunday, so tours were scheduled for BC. Just before the first tour began, the skies opened up and it poured! It didn't rain, it was a deluge! There were bright flashes of lightning, and loud claps of thunder. I really did not want to walk around a cemetery, under huge live oaks trees that would serve as lightning rods, and get soaked to the bone. But, as fast as the storm started, it ended just as quickly. And my tour was dry, except for the huge puddles everywhere that we all needed to step around.