In this weekās column, I am departing from my usual format and instead am telling a true story, which, in a way, still is a āgeezer momentā of sorts. Iām sure you are aware that life on our planet has changed dramatically since the advent and proliferation of cell phones. Obviously, there are many positive and negative aspects to life in the cell-phone age, i.e., occasions of life-saving and life-threatening events, aids in communication, finding services, etc. For geezers like myself, one of the difficulties I have is being able to hear clearly when using a cell phone. Hereās my personal āgeezer momentā experience from just this past week while using my cell phone.
I was shopping in a large and noisy store, trying to talk to one of my sons at the same time, my version of multi-tasking. After a while, he handed his phone to one of my grandkids without telling me who he was giving it toāat least I didnāt hear him say to whom I would be speaking. I wasnāt sure if I was my 12-year-old grandson or 7-year-old granddaughter. Worse yet, I couldnāt make out what I was hearing. I asked the child to repeat what was said and still couldnāt decipher the words or determine if it was the boy or the girl. This, of course, was very disconcerting and embarrassing for me and probably a pain for the person on the other end of the line as well. Finally, not knowing how to respond, I just said, āOkay, and how are youā? Still not sure what was being said or who was saying it, I asked to speak to my son again. When he came on the line, I explained the problem I has having and asked him if it was Nick or Sophia, and what was said. To my complete dismay, it was Nick telling me he had made the jazz ensemble at school. Realizing that I had probably made Nick feel like his feat was no biggie when, in fact, I was thrilled for him in this accomplishment, especially as a 7th-grade percussionist and as my student. I asked to speak to Nick again and apologized to him for my inability to determine it was him and to hear what he was so proudly telling me. He replied, āThatās okay,ā but I still felt embarrassed about the way I handled the situation.
Over the years, Iāve found that itās quite difficult to make out words when a child is directly in front of me, let alone on a phone or when I canāt at least see mouth movement. So I went to my phone store and asked to see products that might help improve the clarity and volume of my cell phone. While I was willing to spend the bucks to have such a product, they had nothing to offer that would solve the problem. Yes, you can buy both wired and wireless ear pieces, but they are for safety and convenience only. If someone out there has an answer to this problem, please let me hear from you. I will be happy to pass this info on to those of you experiencing the same issue.
Thatās it for this week. Once again, please keep those āmomentsā coming. Send them to me at HYPERLINK “mailto:greengeezer9@comcast.net“greengeezer9@comcast.net. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sammy
