It’s the little things that make the difference, right? Wow, I’m not kidding. I’ve been frustrated for years trying to talk to people on the phone because I just couldn’t hear.
Middle-age has firmly set in and memory is second to go. I can’t remember what’s first. Kidding. It’s being able to hear. In spite of my over-sensitivity to noise, when I watch TV the sound has to be turned UP. But when everybody else watches it (as my kids and husband can attest to) it has to be turned down because the background noise is too much for my over-sensitive ears.
And talking on the phone is something I’m completely disinclined to do. I can’t hear. That means I don’t talk to friends and family much. It also means I had opportunities to do conference calls and webinars with lots of useful information that I turned down, because I just can’t hear on the phone.
I have bought several phones, even one that was specifically for hard of hearing people. But it’s not that I can’t hear anything, I just can’t hear a person speaking when there is background noise. It’s frustrating to me…and just another part of my social anxiety that I’ve been working on.
Then some bright young individual named Diana Bertoldo told me I needed to get a headset for my phone.
Like I need something stuck on my head like that? I was ambivalent at best. But I went to amazon.com and reviewed the various headsets out there. I like Amazon. I’ve got their “Prime” membership so generally there are no charges for shipping. And because I don’t get out much a lot of my shopping is done that way.
So Amazon was naturally the place I wanted to go first. I did, however, go into Best Buy to look at them because I wanted to try one on. They are all prepackaged and they won’t open those packages, so I stuck with Amazon. (disclaimer: and I just joined up with their affiliate club because I buy so many of my books and things from there)
There are a lot of headsets for sale on Amazon! Wow, there are some expensive ones. So I looked at the reviews, which got me a little confused. Everybody has different specifications and are picky about various things. Me too, I just didn’t know what I wanted exactly. A headset, for crying out loud.
So I got a headset that was inexpensive but had a lot of reviews of four stars or more. And since it’s from Amazon I could always return it, no questions asked. So I picked out the Panasonic with no bells and whistles and cost under twelve bucks. Not only was it a great early Christmas present, it was a cheap (excuse me, inexpensive) one too. Bonus!
It came in the mail yesterday. Wow, I got a headset! Once I dug through the wrapping (really is so much packing required?) it out, it didn’t look like it as big and bulky as I expected. I put it on. It fit. I tried it out by calling my cell phone from my home phone. I could actually hear! So of course I started calling people. The darn thing works great! I am so excited. I haven’t been this excited to get a gadget in a long time.
So let me sum it up. I have three ways of connecting with people; face-to-face, online (email, social networking etc.) and telephone. I don’t get out much because we’re in a new area, I don’t have a car and my husband is gone from dawn till dusk and he’s tired when he gets home. I’m chicken to go prowling around in a car when I can’t see all that great (old age setting in again. I have tri-focals now and really can’t see that well at night). It’s just a fact of life.
I’m online quite often and have made a lot of online friends in various social networks. And that’s a great thing, but it doesn’t quite take the place of friends and family.
I didn’t talk to people, including my kids and best friends, on the phone often because I couldn’t hear distinctly and constantly was asking what they said or interrupting them because I couldn’t hear that they were talking.
So the headset just opened up a whole ‘nother path of communication for me!
I just got off the phone with OPM, a call I have dreaded, regarding my retirement benefits. It was so easy to deal with being on hold. I had the headset on while I was working on this blog. They finally picked up after twenty minutes (normal wait time) and got an answer I was looking for! I could actually hear her and I could take notes because I wasn’t trying to hold a phone in one hand.
What took me so long?!!
