2:17pm: 400+1100=1500. And I've stopped counting to eat bran and perhaps talk with Siri or the girls. They both enjoyed a movie Siri took them to title EPIC. Now, bran flakes...185+1500=1685 at 3:30pm: A lot going on at the moment: TV on, loud enough to hear but of course not understand because of my hearing problem. Tiana and Brendan are playing with Tiana's many nail polishes etc. Siri and the two girls are talking off and on. And I am enjoying it.

I didn't when I first moved in with Siri 5 months ago. I was too accustomed to silence. I'd had lots of it and enjoyed it for more than 3 years before that. It was up to me to adjust to and learn to enjoy the way Siri's household works. That's what all old folks should do when they move in with their children. I'm sure many don't. Instead they depress themselves about what goes on in their kid's house. Or perhaps they try to change the way the household works. Both a hopeless task and a good way to get the children resentful and regretting they took the parent in.

It took me about a month of working on myself to stop irritating myself with all the noise---even reach the point where I can enjoy it, as I am doing now as I am typing. My attention is a bit split, but I believe I am writing coherently and understandably. Please tell me if I am not.

I made use of my breathing awareness to change myself. Every time I caught myself being irritated, I tried to look at what I was telling myself, how I was talking myself into feeling irritated. When I found that, I deliberately changed what I was telling myself. An example is, "Why don't you enjoy Tiana's enjoyment of the TV, Rusty. That's much better than irritating yourself." It took a little over a month for me to stop irritating myself and start to enjoy the reality of Siri's house. During that month, at times I chose to go to my room and shut the door, effectively blotting out the noise. It's a long while since I did that.