My problems with this auto-site builder continue.
    Almost all the time I have to spend on the computer is involved in resetting the pages. It's a slow process even though I have copies of everything. Trellix, as a server side piece of software, will not recognize pages uploaded from my computer, thus, will not open them for editing, even though they are displayed normally when accessed. I have to reset all the pages through Trellix so they are available for editing. Thus, this post and, I expect, most of them for the next several days, will be short and sweet, much to those few of my readers' pleasure, I imagine.
    There is something I want to report from yesterday evening. My mother is hard of hearing. This has been the case in one ear since she was a teenager and in the other ear for a few decades. Throughout the years our entire family has continually suggested that when she watches TV I turn on Closed Captioning. She is not comfortable with subtitled movies, though, so I have always accepted her refusal.
    Last night, there was a show on that she and I wanted to watch. Our TV in Mesa, an old one circa the late 70's or early 80's, delivers full, rich sound which is fairly easy for her to interpret. Our Prescott TV, although only 6 years old and both digital and cable ready, has horrible sound that delivers very little mid-range vibration and almost no low-range vibration. It is very difficult for my mother to hear and somewhat scitzy for me to hear. As the volume goes up, sound clarity goes down. My mother became frustrated last night trying to negotiate the program and I was distracted by my efforts to modulate the volume minute-to-minute to her advantage. Finally, on a whim, I decided to turn on Closed Captioning. My mother complained when I triggered but I reminded her that one of the movies we regularly watch that she and I both enjoy is a Dutch movie with English subtitles, Antonia's Line. She has no problem with that.
    Within minutes she was riveted to the set rather than easily distracted by her environment. A half hour into the show when I asked her how she liked CCing.
    She said, as is typical for her, that she "wasn't sure" she "liked it" but the couple of times I played with the CC settings to see what was available to us she complained when the script disappeared from the screen.
    It seems we have solved the problem of her 'hearing' our Prescott television. I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand she is absorbing much more than before. On the other hand, because of the quality of the sound, she has typically watched much less television in Prescott than in Mesa. I think that situation is going to reverse, now. But I'm pleased she is enjoying her programs more.
    "We should have tried this a long time ago, Mom. You know, everybody (in our family) has suggested this for you at one time or another," I said during a commercial toward the end of the show.
    "I believe you're right," she agreed.
    We briefly discussed hearing aids again. When she was watching an Ellen episode that featured Pat Benatar yesterday, I noticed and pointed out to her that Benatar was wearing two hearing aids. I explained to her that hearing loss is typical of many rock stars and some of their fans.
    Although she was intrigued, her final response was (she's so funny, I love this response), "I know one day there'll come a time when I'll have to consider hearing aids. I don't think it's necessary yet."
    I'm thinking that she assumes that maybe when she's 110 hearing aids might be a good idea. My mother: The woman who still believes, at 86, despite her extraordinary practicality about death, that she will never die. This is one of my favorite aspects about her.
- posted by gail rae @ 11:31   email...this post