Tag: deafness

Loose lips sink ships.

~ Lkvy ~ 1 Comment

Thought of the day: We have collectively decided that screen addiction leads to brain rot. But, how come audio addiction is not a concern? I’ve met individuals who always seem to be tuned out, no matter the activity: driving, cycling, or even hiking. Evidently, there are people with the desire to drown out the horrible sounds of nature. 

“Ugh! The birds always sing off-key, and squirrels have no rhythm. And, that babbling brook won’t SHUT UP.”

I don’t have that option. My deafness has robbed me of the joy of having Taylor Swift accompany me on my walks in nature. For this reason–among other less comical reasons–I am eligible for several subsidies. Among those is a card that grants me a 50% discount on the standard passenger fare for BC Ferries. These savings amount to between $7 and $12 each time I take the ferry, unless I get hungry and blow said savings on a stale Bread Garden cinnamon knot from the ferry cafeteria.

For 30 years, I’ve used the same card: a piece of cardstock with the BC Ferries logo, my name, my address (from the mid 90s), and my signature from when I was 10 years old and therefore still had the energy to get through my long name in cursive. Although I’ve kept the card in a plastic sleeve since the beginning, it has yellowed and begun to disintegrate along the edges.

From what I understand, BC Ferries changed the design 15+ years ago, and it is now a plastic card that includes an ID photo. Even so, the majority of ticket agents want nothing more than to keep the line moving and honour the discount based on my papery relic.

However, if I’m early and the only one in the line-up, it’s a crapshoot. Twice now, I’ve had the same ticket agent give me a print out of the application for the current Accessible Fare Identification (AFI) card. She was kind, so I couldn’t even be mad about it. The second time I encountered this agent, I lied and said I’d mailed my application a few weeks ago.

Well, now I’m trying to catch up to that lie and get my new card before our paths cross once again.

Continue reading “Loose lips sink ships.” →

Budding hummingbird rookery.

~ Lkvy ~ Leave a comment

I recently received the stinkiest stink eye I’ve ever gotten from an ambulance driver. Before I enter an intersection, even if the light is green, I look both ways; it’s a built-in safety feature I have as a deaf person. I can’t think of a time I’ve witnessed a deaf friend crossing a street or stepping off a curb without first looking both ways.

Yesterday, while riding with Daniel, as I entered an intersection on a green light, I noticed an ambulance making its way through cars that had pulled over to the curb on the far side of the street I was about to cross. I stopped before the ambulance reached the intersection. Still, because everyone else had heard the sirens earlier, I must’ve looked for a monster for even daring to roll into the intersection. That stink eye was so powerful that Daniel noticed it from a few meters back.

Rory explained to me today how sirens have gotten increasingly louder over the years as modern cars have improved their soundproofing. The sirens, Rory says, are so noisy that they hurt most pedestrian’s ears.

I have deaf friends who can hear these sirens before they see them, but deaf as fuck people like me and Zoée exist. We’ve had to reconcile with the fact that, by existing in public, we’ll inevitably offend people without effort. Whenever we notice hearing people shooting us a dirty look, our thoughts automatically go to: they must have tried talking to us. Neither of us wear a red cap, nor do we own a shirt with something offensive written on it, so what else could it be?

All the worse, I was dressed in my cycling kit — a “spandex warrior,” as grumpy drivers like to call recreational cyclists. At that moment, I didn’t look like a regular jerk. I was a jerk cyclist.

Life goes on — for me and hopefully for whoever needed that ambulance.

Continue reading “Budding hummingbird rookery.” →

Ironically, “aural” is an anagram of Laura.

~ Lkvy ~ 3 Comments

Does anybody else react with sarcasm in place of cursing when something goes wrong?

One of the wires of the whisk attachment for my hand mixer came loose, spraying flecks of butter-saturated brown sugar everywhere. “Oh, fun! A mess!” I exclaimed. It was already past ten at night. I’d misjudged how long that evening’s baking project was going to take, and now I had a mess to clean up too.

Along with this after-dark banana bread production, I’d also powered on my food processor for some hummus. My landlords went out of town for a few days, so I used their absence as an opportunity to raise a ruckus!

“If a tree falls in a forest and only I am around, does it make a sound?”

Continue reading “Ironically, “aural” is an anagram of Laura.” →

The gum is not yet ready for consumption.

~ Lkvy ~ 3 Comments

Check out the progress I’ve made on my tub of blueberries:

It’s underwhelming, I know. Two reasons I still have this many blueberries:

  1. The second vaccination did not make me ill.
  2. I haven’t smoked cannabis in almost two weeks.

On Saturday–the day of my shot–a colleague asked me how I was doing. I told her I was booked for my second dose in the afternoon and that I was worried that I’d be among those who get super sick since my first shot didn’t go so well.

Her: “I don’t mean to scare you, but I spent three days vomiting after getting my second shot.”

Well… I guess I’ll keep worrying!

Continue reading “The gum is not yet ready for consumption.” →