Wednesday 14 January 2009

The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy from Company B

I have narrow ear canals, the trumpet is not my favourite instrument, and I like fresh air. Together these can be a problem.

To deal with the hearing first – I normally have exceptionally good hearing. The ‘comfortable’ volume for the television for other people is very loud to me. However, because I have narrow ear canals they easily block with wax. When one gets blocked my hearing becomes about average and I try to live like that for most of the year to reduce the level of incoming annoying noises. Just occasionally both get blocked at once and it is a nuisance because then I am hard of hearing and it always happens at inconvenient times – as for example at Christmas when I was seeing my two daughters. I was not happy. On this occasion I made the mistake of trying to clear both ears at the same time by using my usual wax remover. It worked (two weeks too late).

Now to the fresh air. I like having windows open all year round. The traffic noise from the nearby road is a nuisance when I am in the house and the assorted noises from the adjacent doctors and nursing home are a real pest.

Combine two cleared ears, exceptional hearing, the desire for fresh air and the proximity of the nursing home and you get – “The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy from Company B” blasting into my brain at 7.55 a.m. this morning. It was so darned annoying that I had to increase the volume of my Mozart Piano Trio and stick ear plugs in. Some folk are never happy.

3 comments:

  1. What you need is an i-pod, and a pair of those 'in-your-ear' headphones. Then it's Mozart - uninterrupted - all the way! (Bliss!)

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  2. Nice post. Annoying is funny! (But mostly when someone else is being annoyed and not me.) Thanks for the chuckle. (My white noise at night is Sirius radio on my TV -- soft instrumentals purring quietly through the night air.)

    Don

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  3. As one who is slightly hard of hearing (big speakers, small car in my youth), it was interesting to read of your dilemma.

    It's kind of like the blessings and curses of having a good mind.

    I remind myself often (when ticked off at small things), "Well, if that's your biggest problem: life is good."

    Sometimes though, it's just fun to whine! (Even about the lesser problems.)

    ReplyDelete

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