We were planning to leave last night, but a huge snowstorm hit Kansas and parts of I-70 were closed so we decided it would be best to wait until today to start driving. I am glad that we decided to drive instead of fly because I heard that DIA (Denver International Airport) was PACKED and many flights were delayed. Nothing like spending 8 hours in the airport waiting for your flight to take off (yes, this has actually happened to me).
Many people hate traveling by car, but I have come to love it! Growing up as a kid, my family drove everywhere when we went on vacation and, while it was not always the most pleasant experience, some of my favorite moments from childhood are from our family road trips. I think our longest drive was from St. Louis to Fort Lauderdale (~24 hours if I remember correctly), besides our family trip to visit colleges during the summer between my sisters Junior and Senior year of high school, which was a 10 day trip through the Midwest, up to New York, and down through most of the east coast. Many “Griswald” memories… Anyways, I was very excited for our road trip to St. Louis.
When we woke up this morning, my ears were hurting and kept feeling like they needed to pop. I kept holding my nose while swallowing but it just didn’t seem to do the trick. I had not taken my allergy medicine in almost a week so we had to take a little detour this morning to find a Walgreens that was open at 6:00 am!
I decided to take the first shift of driving because I was so excited to just listen to music with the open road in front of me. When I drove home from work yesterday, music on the radio sounded AMAZING! SO much different than it had sounded in the last two months. I didn’t experience any distortion and I was able to actually hear the different instruments. I was also able to hear the words well enough to later find the songs on itunes to download them for our road trip. However, driving on the highway while listening to music was quite different for me.
I decided to take the first shift of driving because I was so excited to just listen to music with the open road in front of me. When I drove home from work yesterday, music on the radio sounded AMAZING! SO much different than it had sounded in the last two months. I didn’t experience any distortion and I was able to actually hear the different instruments. I was also able to hear the words well enough to later find the songs on itunes to download them for our road trip. However, driving on the highway while listening to music was quite different for me.
First of all, I was so overwhelmed by all of noises a car makes. Before my re-adjustment appointment, the sound of driving a car was mostly just a loud muffled noise. When I was driving today, I noticed that a car makes a different noise as you drive over different parts of the highway. Also, in certain parts I heard this constant “clunk-clunk”, which sounded almost like a horse galloping. I actually remember as a kid not being able to sleep in the car because I was so distracted by this on some parts of the highway. I would even sing songs in my head to the beat of this noise. I also took notice to the sounds that the car makes when it accelerates. It is weird how I never really noticed these little things before.
So, these car noises were a bit overwhelming for me and interfered with the sound of the music. It took a good 2 hours of trial and error to find the programming that would take away the background noise but also allow me to hear the music clearly. I think I tried each and every volume on each and every program setting. I also tried this in conjunction with adjusting the car stereo.
My husband woke up while I was in the middle of trying to figure this out and told me that the quality of the music I have been downloading is really bad. It made me feel better knowing that it sounded a little crackly to him as well, but it is weird that I never noticed how poor the quality of my music was. Maybe that is why it sounded so bad before? It wasn’t until he plugged in his ipod that things sounded a bit more comfortable. Unfortunately, his ipod has thousands of songs and it is so difficult to sort through and find the ones I actually like!
My husband woke up while I was in the middle of trying to figure this out and told me that the quality of the music I have been downloading is really bad. It made me feel better knowing that it sounded a little crackly to him as well, but it is weird that I never noticed how poor the quality of my music was. Maybe that is why it sounded so bad before? It wasn’t until he plugged in his ipod that things sounded a bit more comfortable. Unfortunately, his ipod has thousands of songs and it is so difficult to sort through and find the ones I actually like!
I feel like each of my 3 program settings have their plus’s and minus's when it comes to listening to music, but none of them sounded “perfect” (if that is even possible). I feel like the programming that sounded the best for one song, was not always true for the next song. I found what worked best for me and produced the least amount of distortion was if I had my Esteem set lower and the volume in the car set higher. If I turned my Esteem past volume 3 on any of the programming, I would experience crackling distortion. What I found interesting was that when I did increase the volume past 3, the actual instrumentals sounded great, loud, and clear. It seemed that the voice of the singer or the cheering in the background (from albums recorded live from concerts) was what produced the distortion. So, after many hours of trying, I found C3 to be the “best” setting. While the noises of the car were a bit louder than I would have liked, I think the music sounded the clearest at this setting.
I did talk to my husband about this and he said that when you are driving on the highway, it is just loud. That is the way it is. He explained that the noisiness of the car is what he hears too which is why he has to increase the volume so that he can hear it over the loud noises of the car. He also explained to me that more “basey” bands or singers with deeper voices are more difficult to hear since the sound of the car drowns out the music so he also has to adjust the volume depending on type of music he is listening to.
I did talk to my husband about this and he said that when you are driving on the highway, it is just loud. That is the way it is. He explained that the noisiness of the car is what he hears too which is why he has to increase the volume so that he can hear it over the loud noises of the car. He also explained to me that more “basey” bands or singers with deeper voices are more difficult to hear since the sound of the car drowns out the music so he also has to adjust the volume depending on type of music he is listening to.
What I found to be pretty amazing is that songs were much easier for me to identify. Before my Esteem, it would take me at least 30 seconds to identify a song that was being played. I would first have to turn it very loud so that I could actually hear what the song was, and once I identified it, I would be able turn it down and then follow along more easily. So, I feel like I am actually hearing the music much better than I ever did before.
Right now, Fras is driving and listening to talk radio. This, for some reason, is not as clear on C3. I find that listening to talk radio and talking in the car is much easier on my “Background” settings. I found B7 to be the easiest for me to comprehend what was being said, of course when I put the effort in to do so.
I also want to mention one of the few benefits of having a disability. It can get you out of speeding tickets. I was a little speed demon when I was driving earlier today and got pulled over. With all of the cars flying by, I wasn’t able hear what the officers was saying so I kindly explained to him that I am hearing impaired, just got surgery, and was having a difficult time hearing him and asked if he could speak up. We started talking to him about the surgery and our plans for the holiday as I tired to find my license and registration. He went to his car and came back a minute later with a warning. Score! This is actually the third time I have played the "hearing impaired" card and gotten out of a ticket.
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