If you’re a friend and would like our new address, please write to me!
We now live in a two-bedroom apartment in a four apartment building in North Berkeley, California. The house sits at the end of a long driveway, making it pleasantly secluded in a great neighborhood. We have our own private patio and we open the back fence to a communal 1/4 acre back yard with grass, trees and bocce court!
We live just a few blocks away from a great grocery store (Monterey Market), and a row of stores with a meat market, fish market, cheese market, bakery, Chinese restaurant, pizza place, wine store, coffee shop, and plant nursery! The neighborhood is full of kids under three years old, and just four blocks away is a large playground with everything from tennis courts, swings, and a public pool. We were very cramped in our one bedroom apartment with very few friends or neighbors to talk to.
Right now the place is full of boxes but we are rapidly making headway! We’ll be having a house-warming party soon.
We’re all well. Abigail is growing, drawing, climbing, and telling us about her world all the time. Megan is chilling at home now that her school year has ended. And Lee’s school fieldwork is a refreshing change, with fewer hours and a much more gentle commute.
Lee, Megan, and Abigail
I’ve been experiencing tinnitus for the last two years or so… There is ALWAYS a ringing in my ears. It sounds a lot like cymbals that just never stop. Ba da bump, Tsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss…
It occurred to me that my 5 hour/day public transit commute to school might be contributing to the problem so I got the best earmuffs I could find.
I got these earmuffs for my commute. They are the highest noise reduction I could get:Howard Leight by Honeywell Impact Pro Sound Amplification Electronic Earmuff (R-01902)
I like them because when I put them on I don’t hear anything else. If you talk at a normal volume 5 feet away, I MIGHT notice that you are standing there. It’s nice for when I need to concentrate on something.
The music headphones on these earmuffs are too quiet to be useful. Maybe that’s a safety feature but it totally sucks. So when I want to play music, I put in earbud headphones and then the earmuffs on top. It works but it’s a big bother. I tried several music players and I exchanged the earmuffs to find the same problem.
Here is a second earmuff that might be better for a long commute. I don’t have this next pair but this second pair is supposed to be designed for playing music. They block less sound (25 NRI instead of 30 NRI), but it should be good enough for the train. And they are less expensive.
Howard Leight 1030110 Sync Noise-Blocking Stereo Earmuff
Enjoy. If you get either, I’d love to hear what you think.