flameburns623
Member
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2015
- Messages
- 86
- Reaction score
- 1
Hello!
HoH WM, 55 y/o, in the Riverbend/Madison County area of Greater Metro-Illinois St. Louis. Wife and I are soon to take up ASL.
Married grandfather of two (boy, 6; girl, 2). US Army veteran, college graduate (BA in Sociology). Various interests: reading, swimming, gardening, poetry, bicycle riding. Sometimes do a bit of Yoga, hope to someday take up T'ai Chi.
We have two dogs and one cat: a German Shepherd/Belgian Shepherd mix, which is my wife's dog. A blue-eyed terrier/beagle muttling which was abandoned as a puppy along with one of her sisters in our back yard: I found a home for the other pup and kept the blue-eyed one. And a gray cat who showed up one cold autumn day on our porch. We fed him, named him, got him shots, got him fixed: and he hangs around these days to be fed, petted, to terrorize our dogs, and harrass the ;birds.
Traditionalist (Latin Mass Only) Roman Catholic, paleoconservative/perennial traditionalist.
Born and (mostly) raised in a small-town community in Southwest Missouri. In grade school I was bounced aaround, tested for vision problems, tested for learning disabilities, given speech therapy, and finally determined to have otosclerosis, a hearing disorder.
A few surgeries later I had 'normal' enough hearing that I began performing normally in school and was even accepted in the US Army.
During service, however, some of my hearing issues re-emerged and the VA became concerned about a breakdown of some of the surgery I had undergone as a young teen.
They went in to do some reparative surgery and unfortunately introduced an infection, killing the nerve in my strong ear.
I have worn bicross hearing aids since 1983, adapting well to them and generally NOT thinking of myself as disabled nor as 'hearing-impaired'. I have been generally not even aware of the Deaf/HoH community, apart from general-interest news stories and of course the film "Children of A Lesser God
However the otosclerosis and general aging have led to a continued decline in my hearing, behond what hearing aids can actually augment.
This has made my hearing loss more noticeable both to myself and to others. Partly for this reason, and also simply because learning ASL sounds like fun, my wife and I are preparing totake Sign Language classes and to get more 'plugged-in' to the Deaf/HoH community.
As my hearing declines, being connected to others who cope with hearing loss may help me identify resources and strategies to get along better. My wife may glean insight into some of the challenges I face as a HoH person, enhancing our ability to partner and problem-solve.
ASL might also give both my wife and myself further opportunities to serve and to help: she is a home healthcare worker, I have been 35 years in the private security industry. Each field has some potential for bringing us in contact with Deaf/Hard of Hearing people who might be reliant on ASL.
So these are the things which bring me here. Hope this is an adequate introduction!
HoH WM, 55 y/o, in the Riverbend/Madison County area of Greater Metro-Illinois St. Louis. Wife and I are soon to take up ASL.
Married grandfather of two (boy, 6; girl, 2). US Army veteran, college graduate (BA in Sociology). Various interests: reading, swimming, gardening, poetry, bicycle riding. Sometimes do a bit of Yoga, hope to someday take up T'ai Chi.
We have two dogs and one cat: a German Shepherd/Belgian Shepherd mix, which is my wife's dog. A blue-eyed terrier/beagle muttling which was abandoned as a puppy along with one of her sisters in our back yard: I found a home for the other pup and kept the blue-eyed one. And a gray cat who showed up one cold autumn day on our porch. We fed him, named him, got him shots, got him fixed: and he hangs around these days to be fed, petted, to terrorize our dogs, and harrass the ;birds.
Traditionalist (Latin Mass Only) Roman Catholic, paleoconservative/perennial traditionalist.
Born and (mostly) raised in a small-town community in Southwest Missouri. In grade school I was bounced aaround, tested for vision problems, tested for learning disabilities, given speech therapy, and finally determined to have otosclerosis, a hearing disorder.
A few surgeries later I had 'normal' enough hearing that I began performing normally in school and was even accepted in the US Army.
During service, however, some of my hearing issues re-emerged and the VA became concerned about a breakdown of some of the surgery I had undergone as a young teen.
They went in to do some reparative surgery and unfortunately introduced an infection, killing the nerve in my strong ear.
I have worn bicross hearing aids since 1983, adapting well to them and generally NOT thinking of myself as disabled nor as 'hearing-impaired'. I have been generally not even aware of the Deaf/HoH community, apart from general-interest news stories and of course the film "Children of A Lesser God
However the otosclerosis and general aging have led to a continued decline in my hearing, behond what hearing aids can actually augment.
This has made my hearing loss more noticeable both to myself and to others. Partly for this reason, and also simply because learning ASL sounds like fun, my wife and I are preparing totake Sign Language classes and to get more 'plugged-in' to the Deaf/HoH community.
As my hearing declines, being connected to others who cope with hearing loss may help me identify resources and strategies to get along better. My wife may glean insight into some of the challenges I face as a HoH person, enhancing our ability to partner and problem-solve.
ASL might also give both my wife and myself further opportunities to serve and to help: she is a home healthcare worker, I have been 35 years in the private security industry. Each field has some potential for bringing us in contact with Deaf/Hard of Hearing people who might be reliant on ASL.
So these are the things which bring me here. Hope this is an adequate introduction!
Hi! That was more than an adequate introduction the was your life history which is very interesting . I do have one request , I would love to see your pets, and I thinking the 2 kids in your avatar are your grandkids , if so they're really cute !