 Okay, great. So we'll go ahead and move on to our presentation today, which is about emergency planning. And the image on this slide really kind of says everything to me. This is the country that we live in and it's frightening. It's shockingly visually shocking. It's something that all of us hope that we don't ever have be in that situation. So the two things that we need to be prepared about the most are wildfires and earthquakes. And are you prepared? That's what we're talking about today. We're hoping that everybody learns something that they have not previously known about to add to their repertoire of their plan. Yes, Dr. Mimi. Hi. I see your hand up. Did you want to ask a question? No, I'm sorry it was by mistake. Okay, so just click on the hand. There you go. We're good. So one of the things that all of us need to know about is that there's a national public service campaign and the month of September is the month that it's featured in and it's called the ready program. And they number one, we need to be informed of potential emergencies. We need to make a family plan. We need to build an emergency supply kit. And we need to act. So it's not good enough just to know about these things if you don't take some action to do them. And so that you know Alan prepared a resource list for all of the agencies that we're going to talk about today. So you don't really have to be busy writing down the links and things like that. So we're going to talk about wildfire and Cal wildfire. Also, you're going to hear over and over again through this presentation that everybody wants us to plan. No, and then act right. And they have a wildfire app that you can download on your phone, so that if there is a wildfire anywhere in your area, you will automatically get notified. There were several fires in the Livermore area. And in the Livermore area, I was notified for those fires. Yes, Alan. So the app is not really a downloadable app. It's a web page that's interactive. Once you register though, then they notify you. Oh, you're setting the choice of words of app. So it says wildfire app. And it's not actually a downloadable app. Thank you to a web page. And it just has all the information you need to prepare. Okay, so does everybody understand why Alan corrected the information on this slide most of us think of an app on our phones is something that's there and this would just come as a notification. And then they just sign up for text alerts with them. And that's what I was saying. They alerted me that there were these fires in and in and around Livermore. They told me where the location was and what my level of risk was at that time, and then they kept updating them. And I personally found that very reassuring. So what kind of wildfire action plan do you need to have? Well, the first thing that you need to do is you need to create an evacuation plan. And thinking in terms of your street, you know, how does your street run what what is where might there be bottlenecks and how to avoid that. You want to make sure that everybody in your family knows about what the plan is. There's an emergency supply kit and we'll talk more about that later. And their message is be prepared, ready set go. So in a wildfire situation, it can be very short notice for us. And if we had a home fire or a location fire, it's actually you only have two minutes to get out of your house. So you have to be ready and out of there. Otherwise, it's going to be very futile. Yep, Alan. Okay. There's a couple of types of evacuations. You don't have to wait for an order to evacuate. You could evacuate anytime you want. And that might be an easier way out. If you think you're going to be in jeopardy. There's a mandatory evacuation, which would normally come down from the city or the county. And in your resource resources. There's information there about used to be called zone haven aware as now taken over by Genesis protect. And that will give you a bundle of information on evacuation notice. I could tell you what routes are closed, what's routes are open, where there are shelters available. And that's something everybody should consider having. So without our presentation today, Alan, I'll be working back and forth with Alan thinks of something that I haven't mentioned that's important on the slides that I'm working on, he's raising his hand and adding additional comment. So just to alert you that that's that we know about that Alan and I are comfortable with this. So in your evacuation plan, you need to develop several different escape routes, potentially one of the routes that you might think about could be blocked. You might create a meeting space outside of your fire or hazard zone, so that everybody in your family knows to go to that place so that you can reconnect. The chances are very great that we may not be even though as we tend to age, we frequently are traveling with our partners. It's very, it's very possible that you could be out shopping they could be doing something else. And there was some kind of an evacuation. So you need to know where you should both go so that you can meet up again, so that you're not worried about Oh gosh, are they okay. You designate somebody outside of our area that everybody in your family knows so that if they're okay, they call that person, you call that person and everybody else in your family would know that they were the point of contact to alert every all of your other family members that you were okay. So what do you need to do to be prepared. They're recommending that you have a fire extinguisher on hand and you know how to use it. And this past week I saw an ad. I think it was on one of my Pinterest accounts for something that was talking about the reality that most people really don't know how to use a fire extinguisher. And they're selling a new product that's like a blanket. I haven't purchased it yet and haven't contacted them to see how well it works, but they just put this over the fire on the stove over several other fires in and around your location. And it's smothered the fire. So that might be something that you could think about as well. Everybody needs to know where your gas and electric main shut off valves are. So mine happens to be in my house where my gas is right outside of my office window here. And you also need to know what's the on position and what's the off position. So this is a list of emergency contact numbers, and it's not just usually good enough, you know just to have it like in a drawer in your kitchen, you need to have it in your emergency supply kit. So theoretically, your phone could be dead. You may be able to borrow somebody else's phone. There are all kinds of reasons that you may be able to access those numbers. If in fact your own cell phone didn't work. There are three steps to prepare. You need to get a kit. You need to make a plan, and you need to be informed. And so as you're hearing, we're repeating the same things over and over again on the slides just in different language. And part of the hope is that we all learn and take in information differently. And so one of these will have meaning for you. Alan created this wonderful video. It's going to pay it's going to play. Oh, it's automatically starting for us. So I know that there are many of us today who now have hearing devices that have rechargeable batteries. If you have and we have people today who have cochlear implants on our meeting. If you have, I, since I have advanced bionics cochlear implants, I can talk about them. I'm not completely sure about what one needs for cochlear America's and Sarah Osir might be able to tell us that. So with advanced bionics, the normal rechargeable here that rechargeable CI battery, it's removable, and you put it into a charger every night to charge it. You can also make a device that fits the same way on your processor that allows you to take special CI zinc air batteries. And so we all really need that. And I keep that in my purse. I just have a little container I keep them in my purse, in case something happened and I was out, and there was some kind of an emergency. If I couldn't connect my processors because the battery was dead, I'd be so well. So Sarah does cochlear Americas have a the ability to be able to use a regular battery rather than a rechargeable battery to. There's a, there's a battery on my receiver. Okay, so here it is. This thing comes on and off. Is that what you mean. Yeah, well, so Sarah, I have, I'll call it a battery holder, and I can put regular I can put zinc air batteries in it, rather than use the rechargeable battery. I don't know. Oh, a Susan back. Do you know the answer to that. The cochlear America does have the option of using the batteries rather than the rechargeable thing. And can you use it back and forth. You take off the one and the batteries fit in a little thing like the battery that she just showed us. And I've never used it. It's still in the bag, but it does have one. So I actually had not used mine either. But at the convention this year, I must have been up super early and late at night my battery died and I had it right in my purse I opened it up put it in work perfectly. So Sally Edwards raised her hand and she put it down. So I'm thinking that maybe Susan you answered her question. Sally, did you want to add something. Actually, I use my disposable batteries when I travel so I don't have to worry, especially if it's out of the country. So I don't have to worry about what the amps are, and they were perfectly fine and I have cochlear America's cochlear implants. Thanks Sally. So Sarah you need to look in your box and see if there's something there that you haven't noticed it guys when you get a CI. If you think that the accessories and all the stuff you get with hearing aids is a lot. The CI is just tons of pits and pieces and parts. Okay, so what would you put in your emergency supply kit. Number one bullet here is the most important thing for every single one of us to know, and it's probably the last thing we would ever think about. You need to know the make model and serial number of your hearing instruments. And the reason you need to know that is because when we had the big fires and in nap and Sonoma the first time around and Santa Rosa almost burned to the ground. So the hearing aid companies. Oh, you might think that, oh well I don't really need that my audiologist has it. Well, the audiologist offices were impacted the same way everybody who was living there was. So they didn't have access to your name because they couldn't go to their, their place of business. So if you have that information. The hearing aid manufacturers and the CI manufacturers replaced people's devices. And if you didn't have that information you couldn't substantiate, particularly that you may have had that device. So I'm really making sure that everybody knows that you need to have extra hearing aid batteries. So when I wore hearing aids I kept them in my car. I keep my little, actually, I might have mine right here. I have a little pouch from AB. Oops. Oh, mine happens to be empty this one that I picked up. So this is what I keep in my purse. And I have other ones that I've purchased on Amazon that look like this. Because you know, all these little bits and pieces are so easy to misplace. I just keep stuff and things like this so that I know where it is and it also fits in my purse or my backpack. So if by some chance that you need to recharge things you can have an extra power bank. You could use it in your car. You could have a solar charger to think in terms of how you could recharge your devices if you needed to. Yes, Sally. Did you want to say something? I guess not. So maybe she'll come back. Another thing that's really important to all of us, actually all the time and in the paper today I read that all the hospitals in California now everybody's back to masking required masks and Sarah texted me the other day from their appointment that she was at. And the hospital staff was masked there. And so all the problems that we have and understanding people in face masks. Well, it's coming back again. So you really need to make sure that you have a speech to text app on your cell phone so that your smartphone so that you can be able to communicate with people. I recently had a little bit of problems with a speech to text app, and it was at George Fitzgerald's Memorial service and the location where we at where we were at evidently didn't have very solid Wi-Fi. Normally what you need to do is the microphones for the phones are usually on the bottom. You need to make sure to rotate your phone so that the microphone either faces the person that you're talking to, or you're not covering up the microphones. The suggested distance from the microphone is really only about 12 inches. You can also if you want to you could connect a lavalier microphone to your smartphone for the speech to text app and pin the microphone on somebody if you were having a conversation with them. Now, even though when I went to George's Memorial service, I knew I would see all kinds of friends of mine that are in the East Bay chapter, and I wasn't smart enough to remember to take a microphone which would have been helpful for all of us. So, see, this is a reminder again, I need to have my, my other little patch, pouch, maybe where I put my regular zinc air batteries to just go ahead and put a lavalier microphone that I can plug into my phone in there. And for many of us, a pocket talker. So, if you have two CIs and your CI dies, a personal amplifier isn't going to help you. But for people who have hearing aids and have some level hearing left, a pocket talker could be very, very valuable too. So my favorite pocket talker is this one made by William sound. It's called pocket talker to oh, and the word pocket talker is a branded name for this personal amplifier from William sound. And if you have any other personal amplifier, even though sometimes people call them pocket talkers really aren't pocket talkers. It's like a copying machine and you know we used to say before Oh, go get a Xerox right what you really meant was a copy or Kleenex can I have a Kleenex right. And really that's a brand name for a tissue. If you have one of these the chances are great if something happens to the batteries and any of your devices that if you had to talk to emergency personnel, they may not have any kind of assistive listening device or system for you so you need to make sure that you're prepared yourself. And so this should be right in your to go bag. The American Red Cross has suggestions that apply to everybody in general, not specific to people with hearing loss. And you need a three day supply of food, three gallons of water per person. You need your medications and a first aid kit, a flashlight and a whistle. High glasses or contact lenses make sure that you maybe have an extra pair or have extra contact lenses readily available and change of clothing. An extra set of car keys in case by some chance you misplaced yours or lost them money credit cards or travelers checks. There's a chance you know if you had a big fire, you might not be able to use ATMs. Well, most of us today in America hardly use cash. So this is a time to maybe have a little, a little bit of extra money stuck in your supply kit and copies of important documents. So you might want a copy of your birth certificate. You might want to copy of your marriage license or social security card. Alan. The thing is that people often see these lists for emergency supplies and everything. And they feel overwhelmed. And they say this is too much for me to do. And what you do is just break it down into little steps. Every time you go to the story, maybe pick up one item that you can add to your kit or do one thing each week. That way it gets done, but it's not like I'll pile it up on you at one time. Another thing is with money is $100 bills probably won't do you any good. You want to carry small bills. Let's say you need a bottle of water. A guy has a bottle of water and he sell it to you for $5 and you have a $20 bill. So guess how much that water is going to cost you. So that's another thing to keep in mind. So Alan, while you were providing additional information, I was able to take a look at messages that are people are leaving in the chat. And Arlene Patton asked what's a lavalier microphone. So Arlene, a lavalier microphone is a little tiny microphone like this that you just clip on to somebody's shirt. Okay. So in our own home, we need to have emergency alerting devices. We need to have access to these things so that when there are emergencies near us that we know where they are. So first of all, the one that we need is we need a smoke detector and also a carbon monoxide detector. Carbon monoxide is a silent but deadly killer. We can't smell it. If you don't have the detector, and there are lots of things in your house that could emit carbon monoxide. We still have a fireplace and the fire wasn't fully extinguished and the flue wasn't open enough. You could get it from there. You could get it from your furnace. You could theoretically get it from a gas stove, a water heater. So there are things in your own home that you could have that. And there's a NOAA weather radio. So many people know that they're weather radios and they're thinking well what good does that do me right because I can't hear it very well with this particular radio has a strobe. So if there's something that you needed to be alert to you would know about it from the flash, and then maybe to go and explore more what's going on. Now we're going to talk about some other resources. So I've been a proponent of smart 911 since about 2011 when it first came on the market. And it turns out that the San Ramon fire that district was one of the initial adopters of smart 911. Now smart 911 works adjunct to regular 911. And if you sign up for it. And if you're in any area that has subscribed to it. And you need emergency responders to come to you. They know information about you very valuable information, which you have provided in 911 smart 911 for them. So in my account, the first thing that I have is that I'm hard of hearing, I wear two cochlear implants, but I don't have my cochlear implants on I'm deaf. So that they know that they checked me, and they're talking to me that they wouldn't think that I had brain damage or something else, because I didn't respond because I couldn't hear. You can list all of your medications. You can list if you have pets. There's this whole slew of options that you have that would be important potential information in case of an emergency, and you get to pick what you want and what you don't want. Yeah, Alan. Okay. Just for a second. So I don't know if you mentioned that besides the San Ramon Valley fire department. Brentwood and conquered also has smart 911. No, I didn't mention that yet. And Martinez also has it now. And what we need is important for us to know about, because we have our gas and electricity, both of which could be detrimental in a major emergency. And they have a safety action center. They have a special self generated incentive program. And there's the web link and as I mentioned earlier all these web links. We created a resource page for them so you don't need to worry about writing them down you'll be able to just look at it and at whatever time you want go back and visit them. Okay. Some of you don't know that there are different levels of preparation. For disasters versus emergencies. And you may wonder what is the difference. An emergency. You could dial 911 and expect a prompt response to your needs. And a disaster. You could dial 911 and you probably won't get through. You may not be able to have your needs met for hours or in really bad cases and may not be available for days. So what can you do to help prepare yourself. You start, you start from the ground up. You start with your immediate yourself and your immediate family. Go through the steps that we've covered before. As far as preparing your preparing yourself. If you are able. Then you could check on your neighbors. And if you're interested about what you can do as far as your community goes. There are different options available. But usually if you're at that stage. There are disaster volunteer centers. Normally for. Disasters. I'm not sure if there's any, but maybe talk to Mimi's here. Ross more is a. Senior resident community. And they have the emergency preparedness organization. Which is a way for residents. To help prepare themselves. And their community. In case of an emergency or disaster. So historically we have been meeting in Ross more for. I'm thinking like the last eight years and usually in our meetings, we have many Ross more residents. So we have a couple of slides addressing that. I don't think today that we have anybody in Ross more, but just so you know about this. And they also have a website available. And even though it says Ross more EPO. There's a lot of information available that will pertain to everyone. Yeah. Thank you, Ellen. I'm right. Information there is. And you don't have to sign in or anything to see the information. Anybody can just pull it up, right? Correct. Independent levering resources for Solano and Contra Costa counties. Administered a program for people. Who. Can use their power. You could go to their site. Into that particular link. And you could apply for a backup battery. That. Can help you in the case of a power outage. Or a set down. And it will allow you to use devices like. Oxygen generators and CPAP machines. And it may be able to charge your electric wheelchair. I'm not really sure about that. And I've known people who have taken advantage of this program. There's no cost to it. And it's actually, I think funded through PG and E. There's also additional information available for. People with. Disabilities. So it's a good thing to just go through and. Even if you're not at that point yet, you may want to just review what they. Have available for you. And. Their Red Cross has. Several things. That everybody else has. We've gone through before. But they also have. Volunteer and personal training. And, and mentioned, they have a program now called sound alarm. Save up life. And they've been distributing. A. Smoke detector. That is. Compatible. For people with hearing loss. It's something that's a little bit above and beyond self preparation. Although they do cover that. It is more for people who want to get involved. At the community level. They have local programs. I think every. Usually it's a city. And San Ramon, it's more their fire protection district administers that. But they all have local programs. And the programs may go by different names. I can Berkeley, they call it Bert, B, E, R, T. And San Francisco, I think they call it nerd. For neighborhood emergency response teams. And these people are all trained and organized to perform. And they also have activities that. Extend the capabilities of professional first responders. If you're interested in cert, I will. But my email address in. In the chat. And just let it be known that it's not just. It's a fairly extensive 30. 27 hours, I think. Of training. And so for those of you who don't know. Alan is involved in search. And Evelyn Turnstrom, who's on our call today. At one time was involved with cert too. Now I don't know. Evelyn, are you still involved with cert? Maybe she doesn't want to answer her. The question. So we'd like everybody also to know that on our website. We have all these resources. So if you click on information that. Downward facing arrow there. Additional information will come up. And two of the items that are there. The first one is our brochure. That's about disaster preparedness and creating a plan. And on this particular brochure, we created a checklist. So like Alan was saying earlier, you know, you can think of, think of all these things and all of a sudden really get overwhelmed because it seems like there's so much to do. And then you get lost as to, well, what have I done? What haven't I done? So this allows you to at least in a small scale, take the brochure. And once you've gotten your batteries, you can check that off so you know that you don't have to worry about that. And Evelyn had her hand up. And so Evelyn, did you actually want to say something? Okay, but we're not hearing you. So look in the bottom left hand corner where the microphone is and click on it and you should unmute yourself. There you go. I was wanting to respond just to say that I'm not any longer active as a cert member. But I was for about 10 or 11 years probably. So Evelyn, can you take, thank you very much. Can you take your screen and push it? I think maybe bring it forward so we can see your head. See, right now all we're seeing is from your bangs up. Oh, that's getting better more. More more. When you sit back, maybe we'll have your whole face. There we go. Thanks. Perfect. So we have, as we were saying, here's the attention for the disaster planning. And we have a checklist here. Another brochure, which you may find very helpful. Is for fire and carbon monoxide. And there's the reminder in here that you have, you know, I think we have three minutes in here, but they've recently decreased at the American Red Cross. As you have two minutes to get out of your house. So the, at the moment, the device that the American Red Cross is distributing. And Susan back, you should be very happy about this. Is the life tone device. Susan Beck, did you ever get your, when you. Change the battery and your carbon monoxide detector. And then you couldn't get your life tone to work again. Did you ever get it fixed? I'm embarrassed to say that I did not. Okay. So listen, how about in the next couple of weeks that I come over and fix that for you. I hate for you to have to do that. Why? That's what we're here for to help each other. Right. Okay. And Susan, you could also call the American Red Cross and have one of the problems with this device is you need a device in every location. So theoretically, if you had the life tone in your bedroom, the life tone, listens to your smoke detector and it needs to be a T three smoke detector. If it's a T three smoke detector, when it hears it where it says fire there, it flashes and it flashes big enough. And in a pattern that it does wake you up. But if you potentially wanted to have one in your kitchen, you'd have to have another one because there is a single device. The other device that you can see is the one that's the picture of the last column to the right on the top. And that's what you might be familiar with as a strobe in hotels or public buildings. You can also have them at home. So the thing to think about is how could we be alerted? And it's hard to imagine that that sound that we could all hear when before we had hearing loss, that shrill alerting signal that we couldn't hear it in enough time to wake up from a carbon monoxide emergency or smoke. And the reality is most people lose the frequencies that they lose soonest is the high frequency sound. And that's where the alerting sounds are for our smoke detectors. So you can be alerted by sound and this life tone device. It has the flasher. It has a bed shaker. And this is the only device that they have shifted the sound that it makes when it hears the alarm to a low frequency. So in addition to flashing, it's sending a sound. So depending on what your hearing loss would be, potentially you might be able to hear that low frequency. So sound vibration, which is the bed shaker. And if there's somebody who's here today who doesn't know what a bed shaker is, it's around a disc about this size. And it's plugged in. Most of them are plugged in, although there are some wireless ones. And then you put it underneath your pillow. And so the one that goes with the smart aware that they distribute from California connect previously CTAP is the strongest vibrator I have ever used. So both of these two brochures are on our website. They're always there. Even if you have one in print and you lose it, you can go look at it or look on our website. So that's the information that we have to talk to you about today. Does anybody have any questions? So we're going to open it up to everybody. And I'm going to quit sharing the screen at this time. So we can, it's easier to see people's spaces. And then we'll come back for a couple more slides. Sarah, good morning. Hi. Hi, everybody. Do you think that emergency responders. Know how to recognize. People with hearing loss. And. If they don't. What information could we give them. To say, Hey, this is. This is what looks like a person with hearing loss. Yeah. So. We had a member who was involved in emergency planning. And her husband had hearing loss. They haven't attended a meeting in a long time. And she actually educated. Whenever she was called out for an emergency, she educated everybody about people with hearing loss. But in general, I think that that was unusual. It's, it's Sarah picking your project. So my list of projects is really long as you all know, right. And. When I found out about the Red Cross program, I contacted them and what's happening is all of a sudden some of the fingers that I've been putting out for years are finally coming back my way. And they contacted me in the last. Month. And so there was a chance today that the regional director for my county was going to be on our meeting today, but I don't see her name and I'm thinking it's just because of the. The holiday weekend. And so I'm having a conversation with them. About, see, they did smoke detectors, but they didn't do carbon monoxide. And I'm saying, well, hey, listen. If you're talking about emergency preparedness, it could be one or the other. You forgot this. And so I'm thinking that I'm going to be asked to give a presentation to the American Red Cross, at least in my county. I'm hoping. Right. That it'll be bigger and maybe we can expand it to the state. Have another. Piece going on with meals on wheels, which I don't know whether some of you know about that. But I'm going to give a presentation. And it started with a doorbell. And in October, I'm going to be giving a presentation to them. About. Hearing loss in general to everybody. Another place, plus 55 communities in our area are also calling me. So it's, you know, we all have a certain amount of time. So if you make your list. And if you make a list of your ideas that you think could be beneficial if they knew about hearing loss. And then decide which ones can you do to direct time to. Because the reality is we can't do everything. And if we dabble a little here and little there. Lots of times nothing really gets done because we don't direct enough attention to it. So make your list. Okay. To me, let's see if any of our lists are overlapping. And. See what we can do about that. But I don't think most first responders have any idea about. How to talk to. There are recognized people with hearing loss. And. On my list that I've also started to work on is that we have like other states. An identification card that's issued by the DMV. And that's a way to get to your. Drivers license saying that your heart of hearing. Well, maybe there's a way in our state that we could link. That DMV notification with emergency response. Yeah, that sounds like. A good idea. And of course I'm thinking in person. When emergency responders go to help people. At what point. Are they able to recognize that someone has. Hearing loss. Yeah. So that's one of the. Reasons why I'm so much in favor of smart 911. Because see you're providing them with the information and the smart 911 information automatically comes up when someone is contacted. I don't know. And is it with your location. Or your phone number. Do you remember. Smart 911. Smart 911. I think it will have to do with the location. I'm not 100% sure. But. I would imagine if you're like a thousand. San Ramon and have to make a call. I do have an account set up. They would receive that locally. Whereas if I was. Home in Ross more. I made the call. I would. They wouldn't have access to that information. So I think a lot is going to be where it's where you are when you make the call. So we'll check that a little more for everybody. Sally Edwards, you have your hand up. Yeah, so I was thinking. Just the buttons that most of us have that say something like. I'm hard of hearing or whatever could be. A simple. Solution to that and maybe having. Put that in your emergency kit as well. Just. And also a pad of paper and a pen. You know, kind of basic stuff that would help. If. You know, people needed to communicate with you and you didn't have your devices weren't working. That's what they used to use in the hospital. They'd write it out on your little. Pad of paper, you know, so you would know what they were saying. So some kind of really basic things like that can help. And I was also just thinking about my dog. And I don't have a carrier for my dog. Like a little cage. So I'm going to get one because. Taking your animal without having them in a protected. Device is not, you know, they run away sometimes. And so that's something to keep in mind as well. Thanks, Sally. Susan. You mentioned something on the driver's license. That says you're hearing impaired. I don't think I've ever heard of that. How do you do that? Well, so in the state of California, we don't have that. Oh, lots of states all over the United States do have that. I'm misunderstood. Okay. Thank you. Well, no, we're one of the most progressive states in the country. How can we not have these things? Okay. Is there anybody who's called the Red Cross on their program to get the smoke detector? How many people in this meeting. Have a smoke detector. That's specific specifically designed for people with hearing loss. Okay, everybody. This is your wake up call. And I want you to know there are multiple ways that you can do this. So the. CTAP program. I'm making an assumption that everybody who's in this meeting, you know, I'm calling it from maybe one person is registered with seat. See, I'm calling it the old name. It was California telephone access program for a zillion years, and they just rebranded it to California connect. So is registered with California connect. And when you're registered with California connect. You're entitled to it serves like five different things. You're entitled to it serves like five different things. You're entitled to it serves like five different things. Mobility. And I can't think of the other ones at the moment, but today we're talking about primarily hearing. You're entitled to. An amplified or captioned telephone. And they also have accessory items. And the accessory items. And the accessory items. They're not just standing on the telephone, but some of them work for more than one thing. And one of the accessories that they have made available to all of us. Is this home aware. And it's a box about this big. And it also comes with a bed shaker. telephone line to it. And so if you had a phone call in the middle of the night, or some other time when you're sleeping, that device flashes or vibrates to wake you up. Well, this home aware system is a system. So they're giving us the main component of the system for free. And I bought the smoke and carbon monoxide alerting component that works with that. They also have a doorbell. So like they have, you know, like maybe five or six other items. So I think that I paid maybe $95 from my smoke and carbon monoxide detector. And so I have that I have my home aware in our bedroom. And it turns out that it hears any sound. So when I run the vacuum cleaner in my bedroom, it hears the vacuum cleaner. Oh, Sarah, thank you, Sarah. That's what it looks like. That's the bed shaker. And if somebody else will take over the meeting for a minute, I can go get the I can unplug it and go get the other. So see where that black screen is when I run my vacuum cleaner when it hears any sound, it goes alert, alert, alert. And I've had it go off in the middle of the night. And also on the top there, see that plastic piece that flashes as well like a strobe. Now, Sarah, did you get the companion piece that's the fire and carbon monoxide detector? Hold on. I can I don't know. I'm am I muted? No, I'm I'm here. Okay, no, I just have this I use this as a demo at outreach tables. Yeah, so Sarah, you need to either see if you can get another one for your demo for your outreach table. You need to have that at home. What are you using for fire and carbon monoxide? Um, well, I have a husband who can hear. Yeah, but what happens if he's not there? I'm in trouble. So you so I'll send you I'll send you what you need. So what is that device called? I can't you're moving it around so I can't quite see. It's called Sonic alert. Okay, alert. It's called home aware. Okay, here. It says Sonic alert. Okay, here it says home aware. So Claudia. Hi. Hi. One of the when we met for lunch, I mentioned California connect to you and I'll send you the link to get the form signed. So once you get the form signed and you submit it and then they'll approve you, you can get that device from the state for free. Perfect. Thank you. Okay. And so Claudia to our hearing loss community and for those of you who don't know her, she's a very accomplished artist and she has recently written a book that's to be released in May about the history of her hearing loss with her family of origin. So is there anybody else here who's not signed up for California connect? And yeah, Arlene had an issue that she mentioned in the chat. It is. Oh, so Marlene mirror had a great comment too. And I want Marlene I want you to give that yourself. Yeah, so Arlene Patton. Are you registered with CTAP California connect? No, I'm not. Okay, so I had one of their phones but I no longer have a landline. Yeah, but it doesn't matter. Yeah, no, I'm just saying. So Marlene, hang on one second. Arlene Patton. Are you still here? Yes, I am. Yeah. No, our lean. Yes. So Arlene, are you here? Oh, yeah, no, no, it's okay, Marlene. They're so close sounding. So anyway, so Arlene, I can't you're you're giving us something in the chat, but I can't directly talk to you. So any so the way that you register with former CTAP California connect is you have to fill out a form. And you can have your physician sign it, you can have an audiologist sign it. When we were meeting in person, there was an audiologist to attended our meetings who would just sign for everybody in our meeting because everybody has severe to profound hearing loss. You mail it in. And once you're registered, you're registered forever. I mean, I think that I registered in like 2000, something like that. And it's there forever. So as they the policy is that if you get a device, they won't exchange it just because you like a newer one, all you have to do is say that it's broken. And after you have them for a long time, right, they are broken, they're they don't function anymore. So you're entitled to one telephone and one of each of the categories of devices. Okay, so that's Arlene's question. Now, Marlene. Now, can you can you remind everybody about what your comment is in the chat? Oh, I was just thinking, you know, because it can be so frustrating, you know, regarding, and if you have a medical emergency, having the medical wristband or the I call them dog tags, you know, they will, you can have on there that you have a hearing problem of diabetes or you have a heart problem. And that will also enable the emergency folks to be able to know what to do with you as well. It I was just to be a I mean, yeah, you hate to have to wear that kind of thing and so forth. But it would help. Thanks very much. Is there any other question in the chat that wasn't answered yet? Does anybody have any more comments or thoughts about what our topic was today? Does anybody have anything that they've been having a problem with that they'd like to share with just to get off your chest? A hearing loss problem, some other thing. Okay, so then if nobody wants to speak up and chat a little, I'm going to go back and talk about the rest of our announcements and