Okay, I've been a home owning adult for a long time and my house is still standing and in pretty good shape I think. I know some things. But, this:

now she has a house and doesn't even know that she needs to change the furnace filters

Changing furnace filters is a thing? Furnaces have filters? That you have to change? I'm pretty sure that's not common knowledge. Unless I totally missed that class in Being a Grownup Homeowner school! Or maybe this isn't true of all furnaces.

...

My god, WHAT ELSE DON'T I KNOW THAT EVERYBODY ELSE DOES??

I mean, give me a non-vague instruction, and I'll do the non-vague task. That's more typical of behavior in the non-neurotypical. We like specifics! Specifics are good!

This. For DAYS.

Lisa, you have a boiler. It works a little differently than forced air (that I knew to change the filter every year, cause cathair alone....) That said, I have a boiler furnace too, and I don't *think* I have a filter....the home warrantee guy who gave me the lesson on radiator care didn't mention that, so I think we're good.

I have some auditory processing issues, which means I might not respond right away, depending on the level of competing input, and the nod/smile is part of the frantic, "did I even hear words? there were words, right? context, context... what can I predict was actually said here?"

I'm thinking more and more that this is the case with me, too, and it's not just that I have bad hearing. I am realizing when I think I haven't heard someone it's really that I heard but it took my brain a bit to catch up and understand what was said.

I suppose if I agree to be listed as a professional reference, all I'd have to say is yes she worked here for X hours during this time period, right?

That's what HR is for.

Literally the only good thing about being on my coop's board is learning bit by bit how buildings work. I know all kinds of fancy grown-up building words now, like "envelope" and "facade"! And how water is the worst when when it gets places it shouldn't. And I have many MANY contractor's phone numbers.

No matter how many times Tim has said "soffit" (if, indeed, that is how that word is spelled, and yes I know Google exists), I still don't really know what that is. Something to do with the roof. Or gutters. Or both, somehow?

I'm thinking more and more that this is the case with me, too, and it's not just that I have bad hearing.

I have a bit of both. Some is just processing speed. If I'm not expecting it, I'm likely to screw it up. We have these illiteracy ads here that show street signs as all garbled nonsense. That's how it feels. I know it is english, I just can't parse.

Some is I don't filter sound as well on one side of my head. It's not that my hearing is bad, but that I actually have a hard time straightening out the signals from the noise. A different kind of processing issue. And I can never remember which side until I'm actually in the midst of it, and I'm moving so the talker is on my good side.

With the latter, I have never had any compunction about asking for a repeat. For the former, well, I still ask, or respond with a complete non-sequitur that I then am all self-conscious about and 'wow, I did not hear that right at all.' I usually admit it, but there is an inner ouch,whereas there isn't with the StN issue.

My mouth sometimes also starts moving before my brain does. Always has.

The fuck is wrong with people? [link]

Yeah, I have something like that. At least, my hearing has been tested on many occasions and always pronounced fine, but I really have to concentrate (and preferably be able to see the talker's mouth) to be able to get what's said to me correctly.

I appear to be a very attentive listener, hanging on your every word, because that's the only way I'll have any idea what you are saying. It's kind of a nice impression to give, a lot of the time.