By KATHERINE ROTH, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — My first tip-off were the little things, the high-pitched little things: the doorbell and ringtones my kids could hear but I could not.

Then it was the garbled-sounding conversations, and the accompanying annoyance of having to ask people to repeat themselves. Or worse, giving up and just playing along without being able to follow everything that was being said.

Even then, I stalled for years before finally going through the process of getting a hearing aid. How do you even begin? Will it look clunky and make me feel like a dinosaur? And the cost!

Getting a hearing test, and confirmation that I needed a hearing aid, was just the beginning.

Finding an expert

The doctor handed me a list of places I could go to get fitted. I made some calls and narrowed it down to the places that took my insurance and my zero-interest health care credit card.

The first couple places were demoralizing: I walked in, was told it’d be $7,000 for the “best” option (they mysteriously didn’t happen to have any other options handy), then marched right back out the door, utterly discouraged.

I started asking friends and neighbors whether they wore a hearing aid, or knew anyone at all with a hearing aid, and could point me to a good audiologist.

It took a lot of poking around, but I found one — and it made all the difference.

The joy of reconnecting with the world

I’ve been wearing my hearing aids for several months now, and they are as easy as slipping on a pair of glasses, are almost invisible, have reconnected me with the world, and, as crazy as this may sound, they bring me joy.

This combination of images shows promotional art for Oticon Intent hearing aids. (Oticon via AP)

After talking with a few audiologists around the country, it turns out that my experience is pretty typical.

“There are a lot of people who stall before getting one,” says Meagan P. Bachmann, director of audiology at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, in North Carolina.

“Hearing is important because it connects us with people,” she says. “Multiple studies show that not hearing can affect your ability to connect with others and participate in life, so you have to think of it in terms of overall health. Maybe you no longer go to family events, or you don’t understand your doctor. People start to withdraw. A lot of people come in because it’s gotten so bad that it is impacting their relationships.”

Steps to take

To speed up the process and make it less frustrating, here’s what the pros recommend:

1. Get tested, take the results seriously, and know that many if not most hearing aids these days are small, nearly invisible, rechargeable, and pretty easy to wear and maintain. And believe it or not, hearing aids can be fun — these days, there are colors to choose from and ways to bejewel them. One company, Deafmetal, makes jazzy-looking “safety rings” to help keep hearing aids in place.

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2. Shop for an expert audiologist. Look for someone who takes your insurance or any sort of medical credit card you might have, or has a payment plan of some kind, if needed. This is a world at the awkward juncture of consumerism and medical care, but a good audiologist should come across as a medical provider, not a salesperson. And a good audiologist should take the time to work with you to find a hearing aid that meets your individual needs, and also fits your budget.

A good place to start is often with your doctor; with the American Academy of Audiologists, which lists providers on its website; or by word of mouth.

“Although all hearing aids are amplifiers, not everybody needs the same thing,” says Bachmann. “Fitting a hearing aid is an art. It changes the acoustics, and everyone is different. You want someone who listens to your lifestyle needs. Do you have a lot of difficulty with noise? Are you mostly in quiet situations? How much technology do you need, and what kind?”

Greta Stamper, an audiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, agrees. “Hearing loss is not a one-time thing. It’s a chronic health condition. It should be a partnership between you and your audiologist,” she said. “It’s someone asking you what you’re looking for and how it’s going. You shouldn’t feel pressured or pushed.”

3. A note on cost. Although hearing aids can be pricey, there are affordable options, and a good audiologist should be able to let you try out options at several price points. Insurance often covers much of the cost, and there are ways to pay for the remaining cost in installments. Also, avoidance has pretty high costs as well, audiologists say, and the longer the wait, the harder it may be to solve the problem with a hearing aid. Although there are cheaper hearing aids at big box stores, Bachmann warns that it’s good to check with your audiologist before taking that route. “Some of those hearing aids are locked, so that you’re not allowed to have them programmed by an outside audiologist,” she says.

Remember, says Stamper, that hearing aids are an investment, and usually last between five and six years.

4. Know your rights. “We select what is the most likely to be successful, and if it doesn’t work out you come back and do something else,” says Stamper. She said most states mandate a trial period. In some cases, hearing-aid companies also cover the cost of multiple visits to your audiologist while you are getting used to your new hearing aid and get training in how to use and maintain it.

5. Embrace the process, and expect it to take a little time and a few expert tweaks. Audiologists say your brain needs time to adjust to a hearing aid, and that hearing-aid settings should be adjusted little by little as your brain adapts to them.

“A big misconception is that you can just wear them a couple hours a day. Your brain does better with it if you use them most of the day. Your brain needs to adapt to hearing sounds it hasn’t heard for a while, and it takes the brain awhile to relearn how to process all those sounds,” says Stamper.

6. Be realistic. “Although hearing aids can be enormously beneficial, they may not give you back your normal hearing,” says Stamper. Depending on the situation, there might be limitations to what a hearing aid can do.

“It might just be lots of improvement in the key areas in which you’re struggling,” said Stamper.

Using hearing aids is a process, the audiologists say, and although it requires some patience, it can be well worth the journey.

By DAN FRIO, Edmunds

If you wanted a midsize truck 10 years ago, your choices included an aging Toyota Tacoma or an even older Nissan Frontier design. Today, renewed versions of the Chevrolet Colorado, Ford Ranger and Honda Ridgeline have revitalized the segment enough to have spawned a new compact pickup class, led by the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz.

They approach light-duty truck utility from different angles. Although it offers a wildly fuel-efficient hybrid engine, the Maverick, with robust towing and hauling limits, plus its bouncy ride and barren interior, is a more conventional pickup. The Santa Cruz is classier and more comfortable, more SUV than truck. It can tow more than the Ford, but it lacks the heavy hauling strength. The best one for buyers really comes down to intended use.

This photo provided by Hyundai shows the 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz, a compact pickup with a car-like interior and impressive towing capabilities. (Courtesy of Hyundai Motor America via AP)

Power and fuel economy

Both the Maverick and Santa Cruz start with four-cylinder engines rated at 191 horsepower. Neither truck is quick, but both are capable. Importantly, the Maverick is a hybrid that delivers an impressive 38 mpg combined, and we even squeezed out a few extra mpg in our real-world testing. The Santa Cruz isn’t a hybrid but gets up to 25 mpg combined (22 city/30 highway). Adding all-wheel drive shaves the estimates for both trucks by 1 mpg.

Both models offer optional turbo engines for better performance. The Maverick can dash from 0 to 60 mph in 6.6 seconds with its 250-horsepower four-cylinder, while the Santa Cruz is nearly as swift (6.8 seconds) with its 281-horsepower engine. The turbo trucks are also more evenly matched at the pump. The turbo Maverick gets an EPA-estimated 23-25 mpg combined, which we confirmed in our real-world testing, while the Santa Cruz actually outperformed its 21-22 mpg combined EPA rating with 29 mpg in our tests.

Winner: Maverick

Towing and payload

Properly equipped, the Maverick can tow up to 4,000 pounds, plenty for a small pop-up or travel trailer, or a couple of dirt bikes with a trailer and fuel, but doing so requires the pricier turbo engine. (The hybrid is limited to 2,000 pounds.) The Santa Cruz is rated at a more robust 5,000 pounds with its turbo engine or 3,500 pounds with its base engine. One thousand pounds isn’t much when comparing big trucks, but it’s a sizable advantage for a compact pickup.

The Maverick’s 1,500-pound payload capacity — fuel, passengers and bed weight combined — edges out the Santa Cruz’s rating of 1,411 pounds, and the Ford’s slightly longer bed improves utility. The Maverick also offers a trailering package — hitch, wiring harness and trailer brake controller — from the factory. For the Santa Cruz, you’d need to source aftermarket components. Since both trucks are capable in different ways, this choice comes down to specific use cases.

Winner: tie

Off-road capability

Neither truck offers serious off-road hardware, although the Maverick comes close. Both can handle a rutted trail or fire road thanks to optional all-wheel drive, a measure of body armor, and roughly 8.5 inches of ground clearance. The Santa Cruz XRT trim includes all-terrain tires, front tow hooks and a surround-view monitor to enhance visibility, but the Maverick Tremor trim is the best choice for dirt work.

The Tremor comes with even higher ground clearance, a specially tuned suspension and locking rear differential, underbody skid plates, and modes that optimize speed and traction for different terrain. But the pricey Tremor ($42,690) isn’t the only way to go off-road. The optional FX4 package for the Maverick XLT trim offers several of the same features for less money.

Winner: Maverick

Comfort, tech and value

If you expect a truck-like ride, the Maverick doesn’t disappoint. It jostles along like a basic work truck, its street-oriented Lobo trim the only exception. The Santa Cruz feels like a Mercedes by comparison, with a softer, controlled ride more typical of a crossover. The theme continues in the cabin, which feels fresher and more upmarket than the Maverick’s plastic expanse.

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Both trucks come with large touchscreens — 13.2-inch in the Maverick, 12.3-inch in the Santa Cruz — underpinned by clean user interfaces and responsive software. But the Hyundai’s extra standard and optional driver aids, including adaptive cruise control, give it an edge. You can also get more optional creature comforts with the Santa Cruz, such as ventilated seats and leather upholstery. Both trucks cost nearly the same, with the Maverick starting at $29,840 (including destination) and the Santa Cruz at $30,200. The latter’s classier features give it an edge here.

Winner: Santa Cruz

Edmunds says

Get the Maverick if you need typical truck muscle or excellent fuel economy. Get the Santa Cruz if you want classier crossover comfort or need to tow heavier loads.

This story was provided to The Associated Press by the automotive website Edmunds.

Dan Frio is a contributor at Edmunds.

Two new novels by accomplished Minnesota authors show the wide variety in the mystery/crime/thriller genre. One takes us deep into Spanish history; the other ties together women with the same last name. We recommend both for reading during the lazy days of summer.

(Courtesy of Calumet Editions)

“Ring of Lions”: by Cass Dalglish (Calumet Editions, $18.99)

Ruben was on one knee, leaning toward the ninth lion as if he was having a face-to-face conversation with the beast. As Drummond moved forward and was nearing the fountain, the lion made a low, gurgling sound before the light stream coming from its mouth thickened and began to bubble and spurt, squirting up and then falling down into the channel at the animal’s feet. The spray curved as if it were echoing the geometric proportions of the archways that surrounded the courtyard on four sides. — from “Ring of Lions”

Cass Dalglish (Courtesy of Calumet Editions)

There is something odd and amazing going on with lion number nine in the famous Court of the Lions fountain at the Alhambra palace in Granada, and Graciela Corzal de Moreno is baffled and concerned. Graciela is director of Alhambra, the Moorish castle-city of the last Emir of Granada. The 12 stone lions were a water clock when they were built in the 14th century, but they hadn’t spouted water for centuries. Now one of the lions is functioning again. Was this priceless animal in one of the most famous palaces in Islamic architecture tampered with?

Graciela calls for help from Walter Drummond, an American former FBI agent who investigates the authenticity of documents, art and artifacts.

So begins this historical novel and murder mystery that introduces readers to the Alhambra, a UNESCO World Heritage site some believe should be named an eighth wonder of the world. Besides taking readers into the history of the Alhambra complex of palaces, the story incorporates the intertwining of cultures and religions during the 800 centuries the Moors dominated what is now Spain.

As Graciela and Drummond travel deep under the palace’s tangle of hidden corridors to check the old water system that fed the lion fountain and dig into centuries-old documents, they are joined by Ana Madrizon and Ruben Torres. Ana is a young New Yorker whose family of mathematicians, philosophers and storytellers fled to the mountains when the Moors were forced out of Granada in 1492 by Christian monarchs King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Ruben is Graciela’s Cuban assistant who believes his Jewish ancestor traveled with Columbus.

When a young man is killed falling from a cliff, the Granada police captain suspects Ruben. But when another body is found in a room beneath the Court of Lions, there is another mystery. The workman had no visible signs of trauma that would have killed him.

There’s more intrigue surrounding the treaty signed by the last emir before the Christians took over. What hints lie in the reference to the lions? Is the document Graciela keeps locked in her office a forgery? What does it have to do with words written on the lion fountain?

There are plenty of suspicious characters, including the unhappy director of digital resources for the City of Cordoba, who feels he should have been Alhambra director, and a musicologist who leads French docents to Spain and seems to pop up when Graciela is around.

Dalglish writes her characters vividly as she weaves the history of Alhambra and the Moors’ influence into her plot so carefully a reader doesn’t realize how much knowledge she absorbs. After finishing this look into the rich culture left by the Moors, readers will want to head to the internet to learn more about these Islamic centuries and the palaces from which the emirs ruled.

Dalglish, a poet and professor of English at Augsburg University, has lived and studied in Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Cuba. She will introduce her novel in conversation with Minnesota nonfiction history writer Jack El-Hai at 7 p.m. Thursday at Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls. Free, registration required. Go to magersandquinn.com/event.

(Courtesy of Berkley/Penguin Random House)

“Making Friends Can Be Murder”: by Kathleen West (Berkley, $19)

How was I to know that everything would be so different just fourteen days later? I couldn’t have known that Ruby and I and all the Sarahs would be thrown together for another, higher-stakes project. Investigating a murder! Can you believe it? It’s not like murder and yarn-bombing have much in common, right? — from “Making Friends Can Be Murder”

Kathleen West (Courtesy photo)

There’s a lot of fun in this quirky, clever mystery about a group of women with the same name, including one who’s dead.

When 30-year-old Sarah Jones is new to Minneapolis, she and a group of women who share the name Sarah Jones bond over pranks like decorating a tree with yarn. Then they learn a Sarah Jones who is not in their group has been killed. That sets the Sarah Jones Project in motion, sparked by a lively 17-year-old. The Sarahs want to find the killer.. Because the women share a name they refer to one another by number. Sixty-Nine is a crochet master retired from corporate law. Thirty-Nine and Forty-Four taught elementary school and Twenty-Seven, Sarah’s closest friend, was halfway to a doctorate in sociology. What the Sarahs don’t know is that there is a ringer in their midst, a swindler and possible murderer.

Adding a romance vibe is a hunky FBI agent who thinks the original Sarah can help him investigate the woman who has infiltrated the Sarah Jones Project. But can they trust one another?

West keeps the action going through several devices, including group emails, video transcripts made by Seventeen, and interviews with law enforcement.

West graduated from Macalester College and holds a master’s in literacy education from the University of Minnesota. She has published three previous novels, including “Home or Away” and “Are We There Yet?” She will launch “Making Friends Can Be Murder” at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Pryes Brewing Company, 1401 West River Road N., Mpls., presented by Magers & Quinn. Free,  registration required. Go to magersandquinn.com/event.

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Four out of the five brightest stars we can see are now readily visible in the early evening celestial dome. Of course, the sun is our brightest and closest star. Once the sun has finally set this time of year, the brightest star is Arcturus, lighting up the southern sky, and next in line is Vega, showing off its brilliance in the high eastern sky.

Capella is the fifth-brightest star we can see from our planet. Look for it as soon as you can in the low northwestern sky, poking out of the evening twilight. Don’t wait too long to look for Capella, though, because it slips below the horizon shortly after 11 p.m. Even though it’s only fifth place in stellar brightness, Capella’s claim to fame is that it’s the brightest nighttime star that we see most often in our northern hemisphere.

Capella can make that claim because it’s the nearest, brightest star to Polaris, the North Star. Polaris marks the position of the north celestial pole. Every celestial object we see in the sky, day or night, whether it’s the sun, the moon, planets or stars, all appear to rotate around the North Star Polaris once every 24 hours. Polaris is the “lynchpin” (sorry) of the sky because it shines directly above the Earth’s terrestrial North Pole.

(Mike Lynch)

If we lived at the North Pole, the North Star would be directly overhead, and everything in the celestial dome would pivot around the overhead North Star every 24 hours. Around here, we live about halfway between the North Pole and the Earth’s equator, so in our sky, Polaris is permanently fixed about halfway between the northern horizon and the overhead zenith.

Stars close to Polaris in the sky, like those that make up the Big and Little Dippers and the W-shaped constellation Cassiopeia, are so close to the north celestial pole that they’re always above the horizon, moving in a tight circle around the North Star. They are called circumpolar stars, and we see them night after night.

Capella is not quite close enough to Polaris to be considered a circumpolar star, but it’s close. Because of its northward position, Capella can be seen in our evening skies from late August to mid-June. Throughout the year it never goes an entire night without making at least a brief appearance.

Astronomically, Capella is around 42 light-years away, with just one light-year equaling nearly 6 trillion miles. While it looks like one giant star, it’s actually made up of four stars, two binary systems of stars, all revolving around each other. In each of the binary pairs, one of the stars is a huge giant, way larger and more massive than our sun, and the smaller star is considered a red dwarf, way smaller than our sun.

According to Greek mythology, Capella is known as the “goat star.” That’s because it’s the brightest star in the constellation Auriga the Charioteer. The constellation Auriga basically resembles a lopsided pentagon that’s supposed to be a retired chariot driver turned goat farmer, with a mama goat on his shoulder and baby goats in the crook of his elbow. How you get all of that out of a lopsided pentagon is beyond me. There must have been quite a party when that constellation was conjured up. Capella is supposed to mark the position where the mama goat is sitting on the chariot driver’s shoulder, and that’s why it’s known as the goat star.

Unfortunately, all we can see right now of the constellation Auriga in the early evening is Capella. By early August, though, the lopsided pentagon will be available for very early morning viewing in the pre-twilight northeast sky. Until then, all we have is Capella, or what I like to call the “Old Faithful” of nighttime stars.

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and retired broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is the author of “Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations,” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and adventurepublications.net. Mike is available for private star parties. You can contact him at mikewlynch@comcast.net.

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