Five String Guitar

Love Is Better Than Anger
Five String Guitar Jack Layton served Canadians! Jack Layton died this past week. In his memory I want to post his last words that he left to world. " My friends, Love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic, and we'll change the world" Today I got angry at one of those typical "little things" in lif...
Thu, Aug 25 2011

Marriage and Parenthood
Five String Guitar Some days are diamonds, some are stone. Yesterday was mix. The day ended in a rock avalanche. I try to do the best I can, and I've made mistakes along this particular road in life. I never asked to be a Dad, but it is part of my reason for being a lot of days more than I'd like to admit. I did ask, in marriage, to be a Husband; and yes I have made mistakes along tha...
Wed, Aug 24 2011

Waxing Nostalgicly
Five String Guitar Lately there has been a rash of sitings on Face book profile posts that wax nostalgically for the "better times" when the CD had not been invented, Nintendo not heard of, a 500 television Chanel universe was only a dream, and we all played hide and seek until dark. While it is indeed wonderful to wax nostalgically abut the "simpler times", my 53 year old deaf self is...
Wed, Aug 24 2011

Meterorites and Fur Balls
Five String Guitar I am blessed! I have no doubts about that. I have decent health, nice life, amazing wife and family. We live as a family unit in a home that we love, in a neighborhood that we enjoy. Our life as a family unit is not without the tests and speed bumps that most families have, and I would be naive to ever think that we are immune to "life-at-the-speed-of-life" meteorit...
Mon, Aug 22 2011

Spreading Joy and Having Fun!
Five String Guitar The silly season is upon us!Traffic in the stores is abysmal; crowds are pushy and rude; marketing to play on our greed for the next best thing is everywhere!I enjoy a bit of the hustle and bustle I suspect, as long as the"reason for the season" is remembered, my joy can been seen in my smile. I love the look on the little one's this time of year. a magical time in th...
Tue, Dec 14 2010

Flying with an Implant
Five String Guitar Flying is a giant pain for me. I suspect becoming a curmudgeon has much to do with it, but being deaf plays a huge fun stopping role in flying for me.From the questions in the security line up by the "rent-a-cops" in their nice crisp Transport Canada uniforms to the mumbling overhead speakers that may or may not be announcing a gate change for my flight; I am not liki...
Wed, Dec 08 2010

My First Silent Halloween
Five String Guitar It was around this time three years ago when I "woke up".October 2007 was an eventful month as I look back on it. In early September of that year, I went into hospital via an ambulance in the wee hours of September 7, 2007.I have no memory or recollection of that fateful night. For years I have tried to piece together the lost "episode of those two months.My next memo...
Fri, Oct 29 2010

Wally World Revisited
Five String Guitar I wrote this on April 17th 2008. One month before my cochlear activation and sound re entering my life after 230 days in my deafness. I am reprinting it because Mary did not read it, and I happened to have it saved. I also liked it, and reminisced fondly of my first trip to a Wal-Mart superstore. Deaf as a stump, no balance, wandering through my first Superstore. ...
Wed, Aug 25 2010

When Protons Colide
Five String Guitar Today I try to find the good of my many physical ailments. I am indeed profoundly deaf, have no balance due to loss of that inner balance thing that most of us still have, and the many other little nagging "issues" that Mary begs me to get checked.Many of these can be written off as what a guy in his 50's gets. Some may be due to the stroke damage that occurred on tha...
Wed, May 26 2010

Seek To Understand
Five String Guitar The deaf world of David has taught me many things.Since that fateful day in September 2007, when a cone of silence was dropped over my being. I quickly changed gears and adapted as best I could to being profoundly deaf.The first survival instinct is of course lip reading, or more specifically speech reading.One watches the lips and position of tongue of course to obse...
Fri, May 21 2010

If You Could Hear What I hear!
Five String Guitar I was sure a lion was loose in my neighborhood. While walking the dog the other morning, I heard a roar that made me jump and nervously look around for an unlikely escaped jungle beast. There are no Lions in my town, and the zoo is 3 towns away. The “roar” I heard was a car horn.I am deaf, yet I hear sound. I am in this unusual liminal space. I exist in this space as...
Mon, Mar 29 2010

Invisible?
Five String Guitar So I am on a bit of tirade these days. Getting pissed off at the lack of compassion and understanding for us Deaf/deaf/hearing impaired/late deafened ...whatever pigeon hole we decide to deposit us in. I get little response on email when I launch into my canned approach of "why do you not have the ability for us hearing challenged to express our complaint ...etc" The ...
Sun, Mar 21 2010

Why is the world designed for the hearing? I spent last...
Five String Guitar Why is the world designed for the hearing? I spent last night, and good knows countless others in the past 2 1/2 years, trying to understand why closed captioning sucks. Why it is hit and miss. Why
Sat, Mar 20 2010

Just Breathe!
Five String Guitar I wrote this almost one year ago to the day, and posted it the first of April in 2009. This week I had many of "those" days that we all have. My 83 problems are still 83, always will be, but I was hitting the proverbial wall with "self" issues. I went back and read this post from one year ago, and decided to re post it because I can.You don't have to read it, but it f...
Thu, Mar 18 2010

Las Vegas In New Light
Five String Guitar Another cochlear implant first for this boy: I went to a business conference in Las Vegas!I have been many times on business, and towards the end of trips as a hearing person, quite frankly I was tired of Vegas. The allure and shine seemed to have gone out of it, and Vegas started to get to me. My last trip was 2005.Fast forward 5 years to magnet boy on his voyage bac...
Tue, Mar 16 2010

Love Of ASL
Five String Guitar Last night was week 5 in our American Sign Language course (ASL). It is week 15 if I count the 10 weeks we took back in the fall, then signed up again for a second go in the "Introduction to ASL" course at the Durham Deaf Centre. It is as tough as any course I have taken, and I do have a few years of college, University, and assorted other endeavors that I have taken ...
Fri, Mar 05 2010

Coping With A New World.
Five String Guitar It was two years ago almost to the day when I posted my first blog. I remember clearly the excitement of it. Reading MY words when they were magically transformed onto a template that I created. The Super Bowl was just in the books , and American Idol was once again in full swing. And I was deaf as a stump!No hearing, no balance, and no idea that in 4 months time I wo...
Sun, Feb 21 2010

Blessings At Holiday Time
Five String Guitar Once again the end of another year is upon us. The many celebrations of faith and new beginnings have already begun and will continue well after the New Year’s ball has dropped in Times Square and the , and the last drop of bubbly has been slurped from the proverbial cup of celebration. I know too well that reflection can be painful as in the past year I have w...
Tue, Dec 08 2009

Jonesin For Clear Sound In A Noisy World
Five String Guitar Thursday, I will grace the wonderful confines of Sunnybrook Hospital. I will visit the building and the people who restored sound to my life in May of 2008 after nine months in a cone of silence. It is a "working visit" as I have an appointment with the world reknowned audiology department for a schedule maintenance.Sort of like a 25,000 KM tune up and oil change.My a...
Wed, Nov 04 2009

The Autumns In My Life
Five String Guitar Autumn is a favorite time of year for me. I love the colours, love the not-so- sweltering heat, and enjoy the crispness and frangrent scents that the earth offers up for the senses, before Mother Nature sheds her annual skins of summer and bares down for a long and white winter nap.There is something in the visuals of falls cascade of colours, that can be both magnif...
Fri, Oct 30 2009

Closed Captioning Still In The Dark Ages!
Five String Guitar Why is Closed Captioning so difficult to do on television.Or is it?Watch any show on any night and the "CC" goes from the ridiculous to the hilarious. Spelling is atrocious and following the actors timing of speech is never even close.When you think about it, they know the script on any tapped show, so how hard can it be for the networks to just type the copy in and t...
Thu, Oct 15 2009

Getting Out Of My Car, And Getting More Than I Paid For!
Five String Guitar I hate the drive thru!No, hate is a word I hate.I dislike and question the drive thru.I love my occasional "Four Bucks" and the odd "Double/double" at the local "Timmy's" But why on God's Brown and grey (used to be green but the drive thru is changing the colour) earth, do we have to line up like lemmings in our automobiles, whilst spewing out the toxic fumes like we ...
Sun, Oct 11 2009

"We can do no great things, only small things with great...
Five String Guitar Here we are again! Back at the place that was warm and cozy for a year, but got neglected when life roared back at the speed of life.The place that gave me solace and comfort in creating words; the blogs that I read in my deafness, wrote in my recovery, and laughed at when I needed to smile and make the world smile.My history at the blog writing began in January of 20...
Fri, Oct 09 2009

Touching and Hearing Home
Five String Guitar I have to keep in check my overwhelming desire to right the wrongs. I have grown miles in my deafness and illness that of September 2007, and I changed, the problem I have is that the world around me kept basically the same ideas, and ideals.It is coming up on my two year anniversary of my medical nightmare that cost me my hearing, my balance, and my old carefree wor...
Fri, Sep 04 2009

Deaf Aerobics And Other Firsts!
Five String Guitar The continuing journal of my seven day holiday and journey.It is now day five in our vacation. For me it has become what I had hoped: A seven day discovery of David. The thought patterns and process of self diagnosis are neither planned nor thought out in advance. They occur at random.For seven days I will be out of the home and work environment. I am four and a half...
Thu, Aug 06 2009

hola! saludo
Five String Guitar Back from a week in the sun and sand. I ate too much, had too much fun, and had more than my share of sun.I also wrote.And wrote.And wrote.So you good reader, get to share my seven day excursion by way of journal.I will not do the ungrateful blog faux pas of posting all of my ramblings in one heap of a post. I would much rather spread it out over a week or so, and h...
Sun, Aug 02 2009

Act 2: A Love Story
Five String Guitar If "Act 1" of my life were to be labeled or defined, some would call parts of the act both tragedy and comedy.Tragedy in the sense that towards the end of my "Act 1", or in the last two years, I suffered a medical meltdown, on life support, in a coma for ten days, then a period after that night that saw me hospitalized for 100 days, and rehabilitating at home for 15 ...
Thu, Jul 23 2009

Back In Blog Land
Five String Guitar I am indeed back!Not that I went anywhere, but I have been MIA from this cozy place that I used to spend hours putting fingers to "qwerty".Since I last graced this page in attempt to update in a creative manner, summer came. Well sorta. The days flew from June to July, and now I scratch my head trying to recount where July went, and what I did or forgot to do. Ah! Lif...
Tue, Jul 21 2009

Perfection.
Five String Guitar I seem to have gone away from here for a jag.Life got busy, and as always, travels at the speed of life, which tends to speed up exponentially as per the number of "things" one has on the many burners.Spring sprung of course, ions ago, and now we sit in springs purgatory awaiting the dogs days that the summer seems to promise and deliver.I am still "here" of course, s...
Wed, Jun 03 2009

Walk In Silence
Five String Guitar I am complicated and I will be the first to admit it.I share my day with you as it started with rain (much needed and much appreciated due to the grass seed planted a few weeks ago that requires constant water), but the day   leapt quietly into sunshine and warm summer like breeze.My complications are internal as I sat in the glory of the backyard, an took in the soli...
Thu, May 14 2009

Words.
Five String Guitar Word are powerful. Written and spoken alike. Through a media like movies or music, words can make, move and improve us. They can also shred, bruise and batter us.A word can be read in a manner that transforms and shifts the paradigm from one end of emotion spectrum to the other.The written word is powerful to be sure. But when spoken, a weak word can become powerful. ...
Mon, May 11 2009

Searching The Engines For Acceptance.
Five String Guitar "Sitemeter" amuses me.You know of the widget of which I speak, yes?The green widget icon thingy on some if not most blogs, that allows us to see track our visitors.As much as I like the data it provides on towns, counties and countries of my now over 14,000 visitors that grace my silly space here, I like drilling down a bit further to see how they found me, or what li...
Wed, May 06 2009

Bring On Change
Five String Guitar May brings change, as do all months, weeks and days. May offers more hope as the trees and vegitation of these semi northern climes, spring to life. Pun intended of course.Today was a day of mixed bagged, licorice allsort variety. Domestic chores, followed by brief breaks in the mix of wonderful sunshine and spits of rain.The late afternoon offered up yet another firs...
Sat, May 02 2009

A Year Of Digital Sound.
Five String Guitar Time is the equalizer it seems, when one is trying to gain back some of the lost art of comprehension.For every bad day where the roar of the tinnitus, or the poor quality of the conversation due to background noise, there are golden days where I stumble at first; then adjust; then roll with the topics de jour.I had the good fortune of being invited out last Wednesday...
Tue, Apr 28 2009

The Roar In My Head.
Five String Guitar The buzz and hum that dogs my inner auditory nerves, is at times unnerving. Rumble and roar from tinnitus is so much a part of my life, that at times acceptance is the only way to deal with it.It drowns out conversation at times, and that is not what I need.I need some quiet up there to hear the conversation that I so miss and crave.I had a wonderful Sunday, except fo...
Sun, Apr 19 2009

There Are No Accidents In The Universe
Five String Guitar There are no accidents in the universe, in my beliefs of life and in my experience. We ramble about the planet doing what we do, living our lives, and change is happening.I spent a great deal of my life in search of happiness, and discovered that searching and seeking usually brings about more of the same searching a seeking.I was, and am, content in my new life for t...
Sun, Apr 19 2009

Conversations With Myself.
Five String Guitar I need to spend more time here.I catch myself drifting aimlessly at times, searching for something to occupy my new found "free time". I like having the time now, it's just that I need to spend it more focused. I drift.After the mundane chores of dinner, dishes, laundry, homework checks, and bill paying are complete; I still go to old auto pilot and think about drivin...
Fri, Apr 17 2009

Just Breathe
Five String Guitar There is no "normal" for me. Acceptance of that statement/fact is huge for me, and it puts me in a new space that requires constant review and challenges. I struggle to develop a better mental toughness most days, that is required to bring me out of a place and space where I often drift to in my hearing and balanced challenged world.In the past eighteen months I have ...
Sun, Apr 05 2009

The Way My Brain Works On Special Occasions Mystefies Me.
Five String Guitar So it is the big "Happy Birthday Guitar Boy day" and I may or may not have messed up already!So aware of the day, and making it special especially in light of recent events, it was first and foremost in my mind all last week, and took precidence over all other sceduled events.It dominated my thoughts and grocery planning.My cleaning and laundry was based on the day ar...
Mon, Mar 30 2009

Interpreters For The Challanged.
Five String Guitar Tinnitus has seemed to raise it's ugly rubber extrusion factory sounding head lately.No stranger to this am I. But now it is getting rather annoying. Especially now that I need better comprehension , all the time, in my cochlear challenged world.Being back in the world of business and commerce, reinforced my view that passion or compassion for "hearing challenged" las...
Fri, Mar 27 2009

Discovery Mode
Five String Guitar The wonderful souls and denizens of this earth, at times seem so set in their ways. I suspect I was no different at times.We have routine, ideas, ideologies, philosophies, opinions, and "shades and blinders" we put on to keep things the way they are.What a great loss that can be, if one travels the roads of life, never changing direction because "that's the way we alw...
Wed, Mar 25 2009

Ever Changing Life.
Five String Guitar Just as I suspected, life at the speed of life carried on. The snow retreated and there were shades of brownish/green grass rearing their darling spiked and shriveled heads, as spring made a subdued entrance last week.It had been my hope, to be back at full QWERTY by springs birth, but life got busy, and I am back at five strings, with full intention of doing somethi...
Mon, Mar 23 2009

News
Five String Guitar I have been thinking of a new blog. I am in a place right now, where I want to move forward. Life in a cone of silence was the beginning of a new journey in my deafness.Five string was the next step as I rehabilitated.I will be shutting this down, and going with some new writing in a new spot, with a new them.I will advise y'all of my new place soon.David
Tue, Mar 17 2009

Janet Lorraine Sweet
Five String Guitar Life is a journey of self-discoveries. For many interested in being than in just busyness, that self discovered person is most worthy of respect.Janet, my loving wife of 19 1/2 years was such a person.Janet lived, the last of her life, with no fear, no doubts, no unnecessary cravings, no extreme emotions. No egotistical actions ever graced her world. Selfless always, ...
Tue, Mar 10 2009

It is a profound and penetrating place when we put it all...
Five String Guitar It is a profound and penetrating place when we put it all together. When we figure things out.Many writers have tried to define the subject of love, and since the beginning of time, man has quested the definitive answer to "what is love".Many assume "love" graces them in a relationship, and perhaps it does, albeit too briefly and fleeting. Others assume love has a phy...
Thu, Feb 26 2009

Easy To Do.
Five String Guitar In this new chapter of my life, post September 2007, and living deaf for all intents and purposes, I do many things now, that I had little patience for pre-medical implosion.Activities that I always wanted to do, had the noblest of intentions, but never followed through.So what changed?Most of my activities and disciplines that are part of my routine, are, for the mos...
Fri, Feb 20 2009

Needing "9's"
Five String Guitar I'll tell you this: If one happens to be profoundly deaf, and ones method of "hearing"is through a plastic stick hanging on your ear, that only functions if a magnet is strapped on tight to the side of ones melon.And if indeed you walk like you're in the a wind tunnel at the National Research Center for hurricane testing, regardless of the calmness that exists in th...
Wed, Feb 18 2009

Sunshine And Family Days.
Five String Guitar It is "Family Day" here in our province of Ontario. An official holiday, and a new one to help offset the winter blues. It is indeed a long time between official holidays. Not the ones that we take as vacation, but the ones as that are arbitrary in nature, and force employers to close up shop to give the employees time away from the mining of salt, or whatever ones la...
Mon, Feb 16 2009

The Day The Muzak Died.
Five String Guitar I sort of half expected the elevator I was in yesterday, to fall silent. At least for one minute, out of respect. But the quick seven floor upwards journey and the return downward trip, continued to play the Muzak. No breaks or pause on my quick in and out and up and down trip.Yesterday of course, Muzak filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company that pio...
Thu, Feb 12 2009

Curve Balls
Five String Guitar As I wound up week two in my graduated return to work after a five hundred day medical absence, I spent the evening reflecting on the changes that seemed to give me pause for reflection.The reality of the changes, were in the fact that really nothing changed, except me.This epochal moment I owe to a comment on my last post. The comment came from Ann.And it hit me ov...
Sat, Feb 07 2009