The Antiseptic Baby

Its been a intermittent rainy/sunny Sunday. I've had the CI now for 5 days and each day brings somethign new and wonderful. Yesterday I spent the afternoon down at the Legion with some friends, and had a great time. They are a fantastic group of people, and there were several that I had always had a very hard time lipreading. Some I could not lipread at ALL, and I was understanding almost everybody! There were quite a few teary eyes too when friends realized I was hearing and understanding them.

On the way to the Legion (I decided to walk- its only a mile away) it was just wonderful. I could hear dogs barking, birds chirping, I could tell way beforehand if a vehicle was coming up behind me on the street.

I find when I'm IN a vehicle its more difficult - the sound of the engine itself drowns out other sounds, but I'm sure as I learn to "listen over" some sounds, I'll be able to filter it out with time.

I heard the rain on the hood of the truck the other day. It was such a wonderful sound. I find myself stopping beside my Mom's fish tank a lot - she has a raised water filter that runs back into the tank, and the sound of the running water is just beautiful. I like to just stand there and listen to it. My hearing aids could never pick up that sound, water was just a blurry rushing noise, never something crisp and clear.

I'm realizing what a noisy place the world is. I probably knew that back when I could hear, but being a child, one doesn't really learn to appreciate what one hears. We had Evan over this afternoon while my brother worked on my car, and he'd laugh and giggle, and babble away and it was just music to be able to hear his voice. I'm so thankful for the chance that has been given to me to experience this again.

I'm finding that often voices are still a jumble of sounds....and then, out of the blue a word or 2 or 3 will come through clearly. When those words come through, sometimes I do a double-take. Did I REALLY hear that? I'm not just imagining it?

I've been going through my movie collection a bit at a time - just hearing everything from a new perspective. I watched Aladdin and Sister Act II and the singing is just beautiful. I had forgotten
Robin William's voice.

I want to rent some of my old favorite musicals - My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, Chicago, A Chorus Line. I always LOVED the musicals - even when I couldn't hear them. Music played such an important part of my life when I was younger. There was always music in the house. Dad would play his guitar all the time, and when we went camping he always brought it with. I have some of the most wonderful memories of the family, relatives, friends sitting around a campfire singing songs like "Do Lord," "My Grandfather's Clock," "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore," and "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean." and many more.

When I was 3 years old, we were camping in Bowser and the family who was camping next to us had a daughter who was 9 or 10. She had a tape recorder with some childrens songs on it, and she taught me a song called "The Antiseptic Baby". Its quite the tongue twister and I learned it quickly - and me and my Dad would be asked to sing it together during the campfire sing-a-long's. At my Paternal Grandfather's funeral, 2 years ago, everybody started bringing out the guitars and singing - it was one of Grandpa Guy's favorite things - and me and Dad sang that song together.It had been the first time in about 10 years that we'd done that.

THE Antiseptic Baby and the Prophylactic Pup
Were playing in the garden when a Bunny gamboled up;
They looked upon the creature with a loathing undisguised,
It wasn't disinfected and it wasn't sterilized.

So they took the pretty creature, and without an if-you-please,
They popped him in a boiler of a thousand-odd degrees;
They froze it in a freezer that was cold as banished hope
And washed it in permanganate with carbolated soap.

In sulphurated hydrogen they dipped its wiggly ears;
They trimmed its frizzy whiskers with a pair of hard-boiled shears;
They donned their rubber mittens and they took him by the hand
And welcomed him a member of the Fumigated Band.

There's not a Micrococcus in the garden where they play,
And they bathe in pure iodoform a dozen times a day;
They imbibe their daily rations from a hygienic cup—
The Bunny and the Baby and the Prophylactic Pup.