due to my disabilities, I use quite a few aids: hearing aids, white cane, etc. One of these is a tactile vibrating alarm clock. It’s basically an ordinary alarm, except that instead of going ‘bleep’ or ‘ ring ring’, it sets of a special vibrating pad which is placed under the pillow. Obviously, the idea is that the vibration wakes you up. (Mine also has a plug for a light, but obviously I don’t use this feature). The front cover also comes off, enabling a blind person to feel the hands and raised dots which indicate the numbers.
I’ve had this clock for so long that I just take it for granted. Until very recently that is.
Last week, the vibrating pad suddenly stopped working. I assumed it had packed up due to constant use, so took it home and brought my other vibrating pad from home with me to Bartimeus.
so yesterday I plugged it in to test, and what do you know? It didn’t work. turns out it was the alarm clock itself all along. Brilliant. 🙄
There’s nothing I can do about it until I go home on Friday, so for the next few days at least, I’ll be dependent on the staff to wake me up in the morning. I sleep without my hearing aids in so I’m literally deaf as a plank at night. This means that an ordinary alarm is not an option for me.
I’ve always had a thing about being as independent as possible, so I’m actually rather anoyed about this whole alarm business. I feel like I’ve gone back a step, having to be woken up by someone else, when up til now I could manage fine by myself.
It’s also made me realise how dependent I actually am on all those modern gadgets and gismos I take for granted. It’s a similar story with my hearing aids. they run on batteries, which of course go flat after some time, in my case about a week or so. I’ve learnt the hard way to always have a packet of spares with me wherever I go. Believe me, it’s bloody hard work trying to function normally with only one ear working, when the ear doesn’t work well at the best of times.
but back to the alarm clock: I suppose I’ll just have to stick it out til Friday and hope the staff don’t forget to wake me. And if they do, then at least I’ve got a valid reason for oversleeping 😀
Living in the Dark 