Hearing Aids...

[kiwigtx]

We used to throw Fizzies or
Alka-Seltzer tablets up in
the air for them to intercept.
(Remember what a Fizzie
is?).

We call them Sherberts here.....they go mental on your tongue as they fizz away.

 

[1STMP]

We call them Sherberts here.....they go mental on your tongue as they fizz away.

They're a fruit flavored tablet
that were dropped in a glass
of water. When done fizzing,
they tasted like kool-aid.

 

[kiwigtx]

They're a fruit flavored tablet
that were dropped in a glass
of water. When done fizzing,
they tasted like kool-aid.

....oh those ones - they are called Berocca here.

 

[1STMP]

....oh those ones - they are called Berocca here.

View attachment 1682776

As a kid, I took a dare and
tried to put a couple Fizzies
in my mouth. Much like
trying to swallow a spoon
full of cinnamon.
Rate of ingestion couldn't
keep up with the carbon
dioxide produced.

 

[33 IMP]

I must be one of the lucky
few. My hearing is great at
69.
Loud noises have always
bothered me. From
screeching Skil saws, to
shooting sports,
Hearing protection was
first and foremost.
Kinda wish I was half deaf
while sleeping, though.
Every little sound hear
wakes me up while trying
to figure out what caused it.

I m sure that lack of hearing protection use (tho it absolutely was available) has had an effect. I used routers, saws, and anything else in the machine shop and wood shop for years. (Scratch that. Decades).
I now have tinnitus too. It's not terrible, but I learned years ago that I have to sleep with the TV on. If the sound goes off in the room, I wake up.

 

[Cranky]

That's what's gotten worse in my case, tinnitus. Sometimes it gets so loud it makes it hard to understand what someone is saying. Lots of TV shows and movies use background music that drowns out what the actors are saying. That's what it sounds like to me anyway.

I've known many dealing with hearing aids. Spend a lot of money for something that doesn't work or only works for a short time. What to do.

My hearing was really good when I was a teenager and before going into the military. It was actually off the upper end of the chart but now a days, it's more like in the middle. I also have problems with certain lower tones and my dad's voice was in that area. If he was talking directly at me, no problem but he had a habit of starting off taking at me and then turn away before he finished what he was saying and once he did that, anything he said after that was just in the wind. Also, if I'm in a large group of people and there's several talking, forget it. It's just one big jumbled mess.

I must be one of the lucky
few. My hearing is great at
69.
Loud noises have always
bothered me. From
screeching Skil saws, to
shooting sports,
Hearing protection was
first and foremost.
Kinda wish I was half deaf
while sleeping, though.
Every little sound hear
wakes me up while trying
to figure out what caused it.

Loud noises bother me now but years ago, no biggie. I started working in new home construction when I was 14 but was only installing asbestos siding so for the most part, only hammering was the loudest noise but a couple of years later I did plywood and 1x4 strip decking so was hammering and using the Skil saw a lot....then going to the drag strip etc etc. The first time I had ear trauma was when I was about 7 maybe and popped a whole roll of toy gun caps. The 2nd time was when I was in my mid 20's when I shot a well used .357! That was a LOT worse than the assault of the roll of caps. I sold that gun to a buddy of mine years later and told him not to shot without ear protection and he called me a pansy. Just told him he didn't, he would only do it once. A few days later he called and said....well, really don't want to type out here what he said lol.

As a kid, I took a dare and
tried to put a couple Fizzies
in my mouth. Much like
trying to swallow a spoon
full of cinnamon.
Rate of ingestion couldn't
keep up with the carbon
dioxide produced.

I m sure that lack of hearing protection use (tho it absolutely was available) has had an effect. I used routers, saws, and anything else in the machine shop and wood shop for years. (Scratch that. Decades).
I now have tinnitus too. It's not terrible, but I learned years ago that I have to sleep with the TV on. If the sound goes off in the room, I wake up.

Read my reply to 1STMP.....even wood shop in school didn't have ear plugs and these days, I have a fan on and even in winter time. Can't sleep with a TV on because it's not constant enough I guess. The radio is a different story though but I listen to a Christian station at night with the fan on and the radio it pretty low.

 

[khryslerkid]

I remember as a teenager coming home from a rock band dance and how bad my ears would be buzzing from being too close to the speakers. Did a lot of shooting in my younger years but always used hearing protection. I remember shooting a 44 mag one day, 240 gr ammo without protection and man that really hurt. Like getting your ears boxed. They say the decibels from a 22 cal is one of the worst sounds on your ears.

When I was really young I remember being out in the cold and freezing my ears so bad it really hurt. Today I can't even stand cold air blowing across my ears or I'll get an ear ache.

Doing metal fabrication for many years doesn't help either. I always wore ear plugs. Some days I'd walk into the shop without them and someone would be welding, (spray arching would be the worst) and I'd have to wait until they stopped to get to my plugs and get them in. No way could I stand the decibels from welding, hammering or someone dropping a piece of steel. Sometimes you got caught without your ear plugs and you payed for it. Guess I'm still paying for it.

My friend is soft spoken and I've been driving her crazy asking her to repeat herself. Driving down the road she'll be saying something and then look away and I'll miss the rest of what she said. I'll ask her what she said and she'll yell out what she said and that gets hard to understand also. I can't win.

 

[33 IMP]

I remember as a teenager coming home from a rock band dance and how bad my ears would be buzzing from being too close to the speakers. Did a lot of shooting in my younger years but always used hearing protection. I remember shooting a 44 mag one day, 240 gr ammo without protection and man that really hurt. Like getting your ears boxed. They say the decibels from a 22 cal is one of the worst sounds on your ears.

When I was really young I remember being out in the cold and freezing my ears so bad it really hurt. Today I can't even stand cold air blowing across my ears or I'll get an ear ache.

Doing metal fabrication for many years doesn't help either. I always wore ear plugs. Some days I'd walk into the shop without them and someone would be welding, (spray arching would be the worst) and I'd have to wait until they stopped to get to my plugs and get them in. No way could I stand the decibels from welding, hammering or someone dropping a piece of steel. Sometimes you got caught without your ear plugs and you payed for it. Guess I'm still paying for it.

My friend is soft spoken and I've been driving her crazy asking her to repeat herself. Driving down the road she'll be saying something and then look away and I'll miss the rest of what she said. I'll ask her what she said and she'll yell out what she said and that gets hard to understand also. I can't win. View attachment 1682925

Your last paragraph is EXACTLY my experience with my girlfriend too!

 

[1 Wild R/T]

Seagulls can't. Don't ever feed them bread filled with baking soda.

While in the Navy we referred to Seagulls as "Grinder Birds"... The huge paved areas where we marched while in Boot camp was referred to as "The Grinder"... Grinder Birds were always present... And known for running bombing missions.... A few of us who'd had the misfortune of being hit took to tossing them "treats" AKA Alka Seltzer when we were able to do so...

 

[33 IMP]

While in the Navy we referred to Seagulls as "Grinder Birds"... The huge paved areas where we marched while in Boot camp was referred to as "The Grinder"... Grinder Birds were always present... And known for running bombing missions.... A few of us who'd had the misfortune of being hit took to tossing them "treats" AKA Alka Seltzer when we were able to do so...

In the old ww2 movies, they were Gooney birds. So we're Catalinas, if I remember right.......

 

[Ron H]

Ironically, part of my job was sound level testing for companies, employee training, following hearing conservation standards. Likely by then I had done some damage to my hearing working in a small machine shop, loud music, drag strip, concerts, shooting, etc. Worst time I recall was standing in the pits behind a couple of dragsters in front of the tower. The noise was painful, cupping my hands over my ears. I looked up at the tower and saw the glass moving back & forth when the throttles were hit.

It’s said that only ONE time being exposed to extremely loud noise will damage hearing, some military guys can attest, and anything loud enough, for long enough will do the same. Charts/graphs on this stuff. Hope football fans wear hearing protection as they’ve showed the decibel levels in stadiums exceeding 100dB. At that level damage can occur in 90-minutes to two-hours. Rock concerts and live bands are of course, worse. I stood up or attended a few dozen weddings, being young then, staying until the band was done...brutal on the ears. One of the telltale signals I learned was getting back in the car the next morning and the radio being stupid loud turning the volume down quickly. Some hearing loss is temporary from excessive noise and recovers after some hours of quiet, a night’s sleep; but keep it up and the 'recovery' is less and less.

One of those things where I wish I knew then what I learned too late.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

In the old ww2 movies, they were Gooney birds. So we're Catalinas, if I remember right.......

Gooney Birds aren't Seagulls... They are Albatross... Reason people call them "Gooney Birds" is cause they are terrible at landing... They wipeout at least 30% of the time...

 

[33 IMP]

A 44 Magnum is loud.
I wonder how loud it was in the 16"gun turret of a battleship..... and what kind of hearing protection they used, in 1905, for example?

I know that the Yamato's 18.1" rifles permanently deafened anybody on deck when they went off.

 

[33 IMP]

Gooney Birds aren't Seagulls... They are Albatross... Reason people call them "Gooney Birds" is cause they are terrible at landing... They wipeout at least 30% of the time...

Thanks for the correction, Wild!

 

[1 Wild R/T]

Thanks for the correction, Wild!

I had a buddy who got stationed at Midway Island in 1980... By that point it was no longer much in the way of a military base but they kept a small command there... It was being transitioned back into being a bird sanctuary... After we both got out he told many stories of his time on that mostly deserted island, mainly about the spectacular crashes of Gooney Birds...

 

[GetX'd]

Never was or am a concert goer. My loss which is approaching hearing aid levels must mostly be from shooting. I remember one time fairly young and a bunch of buddies were blowing off all our weaponry- This dude standing not 8” from me blew the cork on his old Chinese assault rifle - holy **** it about took my head w/it. I chastised the **** out of him but I believed damage was done then and thereafter. My wife has this terrible habit of trying to start conversations w/me when she’s upstairs and I’m downstairs. It’s useless but she still does it. And anyone talking to me from behind or turned away I have to get in front of them and forget about noisy restaurants etc…. For the last year or so I’ve discover the beauty of closed captions - every program for me now. But no hearing aids until absolutely necessary. Vets get them free from the govt. My brother a heavy combat VN vet in 69 has them otherwise he’s like talking to a wall…. Another brother, also a 67 VN vet - Huey guy - everything you say has to be repeated or …. But he won’t ever get aids. Just not him …

 

[kiwigtx]

A few of us who'd had the misfortune of being hit took to tossing them "treats" AKA Alka Seltzer when we were able to do so...

I remember at high school lunchtimes some kids would tie bread crusts to fishing line and watch the seagulls snatch the 'bait' It was fun to play a seagull trying to escape just like a fish. They cannot cough it up or fart......lots of fun. The line would eventually break loose when the bread got a bit soggy.

 

[Cranky]

I remember as a teenager coming home from a rock band dance and how bad my ears would be buzzing from being too close to the speakers. Did a lot of shooting in my younger years but always used hearing protection. I remember shooting a 44 mag one day, 240 gr ammo without protection and man that really hurt. Like getting your ears boxed. They say the decibels from a 22 cal is one of the worst sounds on your ears.

When I was really young I remember being out in the cold and freezing my ears so bad it really hurt. Today I can't even stand cold air blowing across my ears or I'll get an ear ache.

Doing metal fabrication for many years doesn't help either. I always wore ear plugs. Some days I'd walk into the shop without them and someone would be welding, (spray arching would be the worst) and I'd have to wait until they stopped to get to my plugs and get them in. No way could I stand the decibels from welding, hammering or someone dropping a piece of steel. Sometimes you got caught without your ear plugs and you payed for it. Guess I'm still paying for it.

My friend is soft spoken and I've been driving her crazy asking her to repeat herself. Driving down the road she'll be saying something and then look away and I'll miss the rest of what she said. I'll ask her what she said and she'll yell out what she said and that gets hard to understand also. I can't win. View attachment 1682925

My GF is for a lack of a better way of saying it.....strongly voiced. But after a couple of glasses of wine, she gets louder. If anything I have to make sure my ear isn't too close to her at that point lol.

Your last paragraph is EXACTLY my experience with my girlfriend too!

Read above

 

[Don selleck]

I've have hearing issues since I was about 12, had a 12 gauge blow up in my face from a "friend" that reloaded a shell a little fat lets say. Plus construction running metal saws, hilti shots etc. Finally got a set about 4 years ago, pretty amazing to be able to hear High pitches again, Like said above not the same as real hearing, and a pain when in a restaurant with all hard surfaces, and bad acoustics with the sound bouncing around. they do have different programs for different situations and you can custom make a program to suit your hearing needs. I got a set of Phonaks. cost a fortune but worth it, plus they bluetooth to my phone, so music. phone conversations etc. pretty cool for that. I'll be wearing a set till I die. Worth every penny IMO

 

[Ron H]

got a set of Phonaks

Nice to hear (pun here) that you’re happy with the Phonaks. Those are what I have, partly covered by insurance. Wife got a set too, just a less HP version as her hearing is better than mine. Thinking mine are turned up too much, the specialist said he sets them at 80% and doesn’t want messing around with them until seeing him in a month as he’s dialed in a laptop with them.

Given I have some Supersonic hearing I’m contacting him Monday to ask to come in asap. The noise distraction is driving me nuts, can’t concentrate on anything, hearing stuff I don’t want or need to hear. Lol, haven’t taken my old ride out yet with them…fearing my Plymouth’s normal rattles will put me in a ditch.