Thursday, November 10, 2005

How You Know Someone is Going Deaf

Recently I watched a wonderful program on public TV about the old-time entertainers of my era, including Bob Hope, Milton Berle, Bing Crosby, Sid Caesar, Lucille Ball, etc.

During one of the segments, they were interviewing Steve Allen about someone, and I remarked to my husband ......"He sure has a bad toupe."

The reply he gave me was......."I didn't know he was gay!!"


Once again, the link to comments is missing in the post below, about my birds. Leave comments here, please, if you have a response to that post. Thanks!

28 comments:

OldLady Of The Hills said...

Love this story about 'Toupe' and 'Gay'....

As to your other post about Bilboi and Beladonna...what a sweet sweet story..so painful..I surely do understand your feelings about these losses..especially as we get older. I agree it does get sooo very hard....but, I'm not sure I want to live without a pet, you know? I will know what I need to do when that time comes, as I know it eventuaklly will, Again....but I pray it's a very long time from now.

I am commenting here about the dear Birdy's because I wasn't able to leave a comment there. Sorry about that.

Dak-Ind said...

i love the gay toupe... i find myself saying "huh" and "what" a lot more these days. its hard getting older!
btw, Michelle sent me!

jane said...

poor hubby. i have a difficult time 'hearing' if i can't watch the mouth of the talker. and i'm not that old.

michele sent me

srp said...

I try so hard not to cry at the animal stories. No such luck.

On the other hand, the toupe-gay story is priceless and accurate. We finally convinced Mom to get a hearing aid but Dad needs one too. I sometimes feel like I'm at the looney farm with the conversations that go on at meals...totally uncomprehensible. Sometimes it just leaves me sitting there shaking my head.

JoeC said...

Hello, Michele sent me. lol, maybe he thinks that guy looks gay with the toupe. cheers!

Anonymous said...

Sassy, a cockatiel, with a long involved story about a brother who was cat - sitting for his military brother, thus causing an almost nervous breakdown on said bird, to be taken to Grandma and Grandpa's for safe keeping ... and never left.
Then one fine summer day during a garage sale outing I spied a multicolored bird "for sale to good home" humm complete with cage and name "SAM".
Sam was an australian Bork, alittle guy with a big attitude and and a bad leg and my husband's best friend for about ten years.
Sassy died first, about two years later little sam died. They became the center of my husband's life when he first retired. The loss of Sam is still very painful.
I know he will enjoy your story.

Anonymous said...

It took years for my dad to accept he needed a hearing-aid...! Now on the birds: loved the story,and the way you told it is just precious. It's so sad when to lose a pet, that's one (if not the) reason why I don't have any. We had a white cat, Nico, when I was a teenager. Fun guy, but a party guy and one day he just didn't came back. It broke my heart, it took me a long time to get over it and decided I couldn't go through this a second time in life. Here via Michele's today.

Anonymous said...

I meant it's so sad to lose a pet...

Anonymous said...

Ok, to loose a pet, my fingers are not warmed up yet. Sorry to mess up your comments *blushes*

Marie said...

Nothing worse than a bad toupe!

;-)

Can you believe I've never had a pet? It's almost embarrassing to admit! Your story about the birds is very sweet...

Michele sent me!

Aginoth said...

Ahhh turns any conversation into a game of Chinese Whispers

Michelle sent me today, be back on my own later :o)

Anonymous said...

The answer to this question is: When they start yelling at you. My folks yell at each other all day long and the malapropisms that arise out their hearing problems are blog worthy.

As far as the birds go- this is not at all hard for me to relate to. I have an aviary of little finches (who are clamoring for breakfast as I type) and I love watching them, listening to them, trying to figure out what's happening as the rearrange their territories and affections. They're lovely little characters. And I took them on knowing that when the time comes I'll be pretty much on my own as far as helping them out. Cats are as small as I go when it comes to utilizing the vet- anything smaller is more traumatized by the trip than is worth it.

Love on, Judy. It's worth the trade-off.

Anonymous said...

Loved the bird story. It was so well written.

Believe me, I understand not wanting to risk losing another loved pet. I've told my wife already..."If Jenny (our dog) goes before I do, I don't want another pet."

Then I remember this saying..."Tis better to have loved and lost then not to have loved at all." I know that was said with reference to human relationships but love is love and I think the saying applies regardless.

Because of Jenny, I've learned what unconditional love is. It's one of the most important lessons I've been taught in life. I wouldn't have missed the experience for the world.

Hoots Musings said...

Yall sound about like me and my sweet husband! I am still picking myself off the floor...too dang funny. Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Yep, the sound's about wrong when the ear is shot.

Anonymous said...

Back again, this time by way of Michele's. Hi Judy!

Anonymous said...

Hi Michele sent me this time Judy.

Thank you for sharing your story of Bilbo and Belladonna. Other lives do get intertwined into our hearts, don't they.

I have sworn often that when our cat goes, we won't get another but only time will tell the real behavior for me.

Anonymous said...

I loved your post about the birds. It was so full of love for the "little ones in life'. Both were lucky to have had you as a companion.

ribbiticus said...

haha! yep, that sure is a sign that you gotta get him to the nearest eent pronto - lol!

michele sent me today. have a great weekend! :)

brendalove@gmail.com said...

Hey there's a song in there somewhere, Judy...."gay" "toupe"....I can work with that.

Jean-Luc Picard said...

Great story about the gay toupe. Someone who is slightly deaf can say some strange responses.

Michele sent me this way.

doug said...

LOLLOL huh what did I read? hehehehe

Off to a great start hIya Judy M says Hi too of course I am back from being side tracked this week and today being the Domestic God I described at M's....... I get to PLAY!!!

ps: gonna email ya some "ephemera" I located this week in my vast holdings of a garage!

Oh My Goodness .... w/v anagram is:

"ngcoeadc" =
"No Good Comes Of Everyone Dreaming cuastically...."

Yea, now we're talking anagrams!

brendalove@gmail.com said...

Hey Judy - you're doing better than me....I have no comments option at all right now!

Olyal said...

My dad is past that point. Now you have to say things 5 or 6 times before he even hears it, let alone understands it. You know they're going deaf when you can hear the TV before you walk in the front door. :o)
Michele sent me again.

carmilevy said...

Hi Judy. Your previous post was beautiful. We're wrestling with the post-cat decision with our kids. We're not sure what to do. But our house sure seems empty now, and the silence is weighing on the kids. I think having a pet back in their lives would be good for them.

Oh, the decisions of parenthood.

Our buddy, Michele, sent me tonight. She's wise, for your entry has gotten me thinking.

Gel said...

As someone with a Masters in Audiology, it is so frustrating that people will obtain eyeglasses far sooner and far more often than they will be checked for the need of hearing aids. As with eyesight, hearing often declines.

Also, the jokes about the husband not hearing the wife or tuning her out, are partially true for not hearing. Women's voices contain softer tones of sounds harder to hear and that are often the first to be affected by hearing loss: "f", "s", "sh", etc.... Anyone needed a hearing aid, please be checked by a good ENT (Ear, nose, throat doctor) and go to another one if not satisfied. Hearing loss is NOT for your general practictioner to diagonse.

In med school, the hearing info rotation is only a few wks, hardly enough to diagnose hearing loss in people of any age. MANY MANY children are missed because of this inadequacy of pediatricians. The good pediatricians (and other such) REFER patients to Ear, Nose, THroat specialist doctors. In the case of children, it's not a phase! Parents, listen to your gut.

As "funny" as this sounds here, it often takes more than one fitting for the proper hearing aid(s). TUrning up the volume only DISTORTS sounds; it does NOT make them more clear. Good luck.

Gel said...

On a different note, the saga of your pet loss is wonderfully written with love and tenderness. I enjoyed the glimpses into your birds' personalities. Pets are part of us, like a part of the family. It's an acute loss that has a special place in our hearts forever. It doesn't matter whether the pet is a traditional cat or dog: ALL animals are mourned by many of us. YOu should have seen us with the tropical fish our daughter had as pets.

She remembers each name, coloring, birthday, and their passings. I think those of us who cherish animals are better humans. Take care

Weary Hag said...

I got a bit emotional over your bird story below. I think we can become attached to anything that we speak to ... or that speaks to us for that matter. I can't recall where I read this, but there was a lovely story about becoming emotionally attached to small creatures ... even those that don't exactly 'interact' with us (i.e. turtles, fish, etc) ... the author claimed that once we name something, we have claimed it as a part of us and therefore feel the loss greater than we might if it were a wild and un-named creature.

Anyway, sorry for the lengthy comment. When I come here, I always feel like I'm in for a visit and get carried away when it's my turn to 'talk' (comment).
Forgive!