I'm not a chronic-over sleeper, but twice in the past 2 weeks I've dozed in hours late and delightfully unaware. Unfortunately, my reason sounds just as lame now as it did when I was a freshman in college: "I'm sorry I was late. I didn't hear my alarm. I have significant hearing loss, and if I'm asleep deeply enough, I don't hear anything."
Although lame, my reason is true. I'm over 60% deaf in my left ear and 15% in my right. Huh? What did you say?
After being late for my Calc 2 class multiple times as a freshman (yeah, I had Calc 2. Four mornings a week. At 8am.), my audiologist hooked me up with an alarm clock for the deaf and hard of hearing, a.k.a, "The Beast."
The Beast got me through college. The Beast has many special features. It's mind-numbingly loud. You can plug a light into it and it will flash it on and off with the alarm. You can even get an extension that goes under your pillow and shakes it in the morning. I only ever used the obnoxious alarm, but it's comforting to know I have those other things as a backup if I ever need them.
The Beast has been the thorn-in-the-side of many a good roommate. In fact, once in college, my roommate Katie came home to a note on our door. It said something to the effect of this, "The other tenants heard a loud noise coming from your apartment. Unable to decide if it were a fire alarm or very loud alarm clock, they called me and I opened the door. We found the alarm clock and turned it off. Just wanted to let you know we entered your apartment. -The Landlady."
I had accidentally set my alarm for 9pm instead of 9am. Oops.
I haven't used the Beast since college, but after this morning's escapade that made me very very late for my seminary class in Charlotte, I decide to resurrect it.
After dusting it off, I've found it's just as butt-ugly as I remember it. There, that's just what my nightstand needed.
Here's to you, Beast. May I never oversleep again... May you never wake my roomie Lindsay... May my dog not get PTSD from our new morning routine. Cheers.
This is a great post. I stumbled across your blog and as I always do, start with a older posts, picking a few to read for every year. I stopped and didn't read another until I shared this. You've summed up everything we would call every device that falls under the category "assistive alerting device." It's beastly... not slick or sleek or pretty. While functional -- it does one thing very well, imagine if it could also start the coffee maker or better yet, alert you to the doorbell, or someone knocking at the door, or the microwave beeping or the telephone ringing, or the dog barking, wanting to be let back in? Well, that's probably why, like you, we have a love/hate relationship with beast-like devices. They answer the call - do their duty - but are limited in their reach/range of sounds. They have served their purpose and we thank them, but it's time to move over, move out of the way, for there is a new kid in town -- OtoSense.
ReplyDeleteOtoSense is sleek, can wear many different "skins" and slip into the back pocket of your jeans, and you appear as if you're like everyone else.
OtoSense is a mobile app that is converniently downloaded onto your smartphone and tablet, and performs many functions, beyond looking and being cool, it will notify you of sounds with flash and vibration, connect seemlessly to other cool geek gadgets...all while performing heavy duty of answering the question - What is that sound?
Thanks!
OtoSense