The Dog Ate My . . .

The dog ate my homework.  Everyone knows a kid who has used that excuse.  I’m guessing teachers have heard it so often they just laugh it off.  I have a dog story for you but it does not involve homework.

The story unfolded when Monty came in to talk to me in my office.  Making himself comfortable on the overstuffed chair while I sat at the desk.  We chatted and decided to return a call from a friend on Monty’s phone.  In order for both of us to hear and talk to the friend he took his hearing aids out and set them in his lap.  By way of explanation, we have no idea why the hearing aids are screwy and we can’t use each other’s phone when we have them in.  I suppose it has something to do with bluetooth and who understands Bluetooth. The name doesn’t even make sense.

When we heard ‘the party to which you are speaking can’t come to the phone right now’, we gave up the call.  Monty got up to move on with his day and I followed him out of the room.  Thirty minutes later when I passed my door I noticed a tangled piece of plastic and wires laying on the floor.  What in the world! There was Miss Daisy guarding her treasure, she had the closest thing to a piece of dad right there under her paw.  She had completely dismantled both hearing aids into little pieces that weren’t even identifiable.  I was in a panic that she might have swallowed the small batteries and  I envisioned an expensive trip to the vet.  Luckily she was more into the plastic than batteries so they were both still in the little compartments. Or at  least the place where the little compartments used to be.

This was a surprise turn of events we hadn’t planned for.  Luckily we have both held on to old hearing aids just because it seemed prudent. A quick call to Costco and Monty had an appointment for the next week to get the hearing aids replaced.  We weren’t upset with the dog just concerned that doing something like that was so out of character for Monty who is the perfectionist in the family and lives by the motto, “a place for everything and everything in its place”. Nothing in his life is willy nilly. For him to set the hearing aids in his lap was just so unlike him. 

Off we go to Costco and Monty spends time with his new best friend,  Missy.  He spent time with her about six months ago when we had our hearing checked and now he was back to repeat the process.  I don’t think he admitted the dog ate his hearing aids.  I’m sure he wouldn’t want Missy to think less of our Miss Daisy. It was only a week until we heard from Missy again and the new hearing aids were ready for  Monty to give them a test run.  

The hearing aids seemed to work great, he loves the clarity and the sound is much improved.  While I’m thinking for $1,500 they  should be better!! Here’s the fly in the ointment, the new hearing aids won’t pair up with his older iPhone.  So although there is an app for the phone that allows the user to adjust settings it won’t work because his iPhone is the eight model and the newest model iPhone is a seventeen model. His eight works just fine as a phone and even takes good pictures but it won’t play nice with the hearing aids.  So now we are in a quandary, should we bite the bullet and get a newer iPhone,  Notice I didn’t say the NEWEST iPhone.  According to the hearing aid website the devices will play nice with an iPhone model thirteen or newer.  

Well, we’ve already invested in the new hearing aids so we might as well jump right in and get the phone upgrade.  Caroline at the Apple store was great and didn’t try to upsell us to the new seventeen but was certain the thirteen would satisfy our needs. Besides, the thirteen model was still very similar to the old eight.  Just looking at our gray hair seemed to convince her we didn’t need to make too big a jump in technology.  

Monty was experimenting with the phone and hearing aids and discovered they don’t always pair up and do what they are supposed to do.  It is nice if you walk into a restaurant and along with the menu you grab your phone and change the hearing device to the restaurant setting and block out the background noise and focus the clarity on the people at your table. It is one of the nicest things about hearing aids; they let you adjust to the situation via your phone.  

His frustration was not quietly simmering, I was hearing about the problem several times a day. I had no advice since my OLD hearing aids and OLD phone have never paired up and actually worked. I’ve gotten used to hearing what is going on at all the tables around us and never understanding a word of our table conversation.  

Another trip to Costco was put on the calendar and he talked to Cassidy, the gal who solves technical issues.  She listened patiently as Monty explained the problem in detail.  After asking a few questions it was decided the best solution was to turn both the phone and hearing aids off at least once a day – sort of like time out.  

Not to be deterred, Monty wrote to Phillips, the hearing aid maker, to express his displeasure.  Their advice – turn the phone and hearing aids off at least once a day to reformat the selections.  WOW really, that’s it, that’s all you got.

Long story short, unless it is already too late, Monty has decided to keep the hearing aids and his new Phone and promised to stop  griping about the whole thing.