To Hear - or Not!

My kids and I have a bit of a feud that is ongoing here whenever we get together. Actually, it is more between my daughters and me as my son doesn't usually get involved in this or any discussions about the subject, my hearing.

The fact of the matter is that I do hear but I don't hear clearly, and this happens frequently. I may hear people talking and pick up every so many words, sometimes enough to figure out what is being said but often, I only get bits and pieces and as such, am often asking my daughters to repeat what has been said.

Because they know I do hear people talking, at least most of the time, they like to say I have "selective hearing" and perhaps that may be at least partially true at times. They also like to tell me to "Turn up those belltones" of which I DON'T have -at least not yet. And, I really hope no one ever tells me I absolutely have to have hearing aids because I know how much it has cost a cousin of mine to purchase his hearing aids and if I had that amount of money available to me, I'd spend it on getting the main roof of my house replaced!

I'd rather have a solid roof over my head, with no leaks and deal with my "selective hearing" issues. Just my priority there, ya know.

But something that does annoy me with the hearing issues involves my television set and the fact that the volume on the TV varies from channel to channel. I get it set to a level I can hear but without it blasting anyone else out of their seats while watching something with me and then, if I switch to another channel, the volume will be so low there that I have to jack it clear up as high as it will go in order to hear anything on the set!

Because this issue only happens all the time on two particular channels, The Hallmark Channel and the Chicago station, WGN and every now and again on the PBS channel here I am thinking perhaps this is an issue within the cable company's equipment. Frankly, I think they -or someone in charge of audio stuff - needs to invest or at least look into getting sonar 6 to see if that might correct the problem!


As it stands now, in order for me to follow what's happening on any programs I watch on the set in the living room, I also have the application for captioning turned on which enables me to comprehend the programs I like to watch.

However, the little TV set in my bedroom doesn't have this function available for me to use so I have to have the volume on that generally turned up quite high to make out what is happening.

Because I sleep with the TV turned on all night, I often wonder when the weather is nice and warm in the summer and I have my bedroom windows open, how well the volume of the programs I like to watch as I fall asleep are being heard around the neighborhood.

So far, no one has complained about the sounds coming from my house in the middle of the night though, so I guess they are all either very sound sleepers or maybe a few of them also have to contend with "selective hearing" of their own then!