Hearing Aids, Detours, Quilts, and This Thing

Monday was wet.  Rainy, cloudy, and wet.  And this is a week we're not doing any school.  Though I nearly changed my mind about that, as the boybarians were very restless and irritable.  I suspect they were still unwinding from a busy weekend.

And they were doing this thing which drives me nuts! They hover around me like frantic buzzing bees, absolutely vibrating with tension.  One will ask a question, or initiate a discussion about something.  The next boy will interpret any lull in the conversation - you know, like when you pause between words to breathe - as an appropriate time to interject his own question or issue of choice.  And then the next boy will do the same thing.  And it's all, from their perspective, terribly, exceedingly urgent.

Bzzzzz, bzzzzz, bzzzzzz.

One.  At.  A.  Time.  Please.

Probably didn't help that I was on a self-imposed quilting marathon to finish the vintage tumbler quilt.

Which I did.  Yay, me!  No pics yet.  Coming soon.  I like it.  I really like it.  It's happy.


So today we made another trek to Children's Hospital, this time accompanied by Grampa Grasshopper.  Can I just say again how awesome Grampa and Gramma Grasshopper are?  Why yes, I think I will.  Because, really, I'm a big girl, and I can drive into the city all by myself.  But I'm a little worried about something.

It's the van.  We've nicknamed it Pahoehoe, which is that hot, red lava that flows quickly and smoothly.  But lately I've been calling it Dory.  Because it does this thing.  Actually...
 

I think it speaks whale...

(If you haven't seen Finding Nemo, just move along.)  It moans sometimes.  And it's probably the power steering, (which still works), but every once in awhile it doesn't go into reverse when I want it to.  And I really don't want to have issues with it, far from home without another adult present.

So hurray for Grampa Grasshopper!

Which also worked out well since they're doing road work along my normal this-is-so-easy route from I-5 directly to Children's, and it was nice to have a driver and a navigator, because I saw places I'd never seen before.

And what a good thing we did make the trek to Children's.  Remember Tate's little drama with his HA and the tomato soup? 

He swore his HA was working just fine after that, but we were all noticing a lot more, "Huh?" and "Whaaaaat?" and missed communication.  Either he had a very coincidentally timed drop in hearing, or the soup did more damage than we initially thought.

Tate was not happy with me for even suggesting such a thing, knowing that sending his HA in for repair means wearing his old aid, and the difference in sound quality is very noticeable to him.  So he kept insisting everything was fine.

Yah.  His Audie hooked the HA up to her computer and it was clearly not functioning properly.  And surprisingly, when it came right down to it Tate was great about it.  Total attitude turn around.  Thank you, Lord.  She (the Audie) did reprogram his old aid - optimized it as much as possible.  And given the malfunction of his good aid, the adjustment probably wasn't so bad after all.  I think the sound is just really different. 

Should have the "new" one back in a couple of weeks.

Hallelujah.

In other news, I had planned on putting all my sewing stuff away as soon as I finished that quilt.  But then I remembered, I still have to bind the Christmas quilt when it comes back from the quilter.  So, meanwhile, I'm puttering away at little sewing projects.  Like bibs.  Made from scraps.  Kind of fun.  I may need an intervention.