Thanks for all your comments on my blog from Wednesday, which I responded to.
As much as Mom and I watched news (CNN and FOX), we didn’t watch nearly as much as I usually watch and it was nice, I have to admit.
No internet…(her PC is on the blink and I didn’t want to use her tablet and I forgot mine …and that was fine)… less TV in general……pretty far out of L.A. in deep suburbs of beauty and QUIET, her deck overhangs a creek with frogs, etc…. lovely. No calls from friends, no emails to read and respond to, no internet articles to get ticked off over, ..I read the Maureen O’Hara autobiography I’d got Mom for Christmas and 3/4 of a book on the Duchess of Cambridge (very deep reading, right!?) and lots of cooking for Mom….
and Q U I E T.
TELL ME , FRIENDS: How much better would we ALL BE if…………it was more Q U I E T?
A belated HAPPY EASTER…May God bless you more richly than you could ever imagine!
Z
geeez2014
GeeeZ .... 
It’s great that you were able to spend quality time with your Mom, away from the distractions of the world. Happy (belated) Easter to you as well!
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Sounds like a wonderful time. Welcome back, and happy Easter to you, too.
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I took at bit of a break from the news, too. Relief!
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WELCOME BACK!
I’m sure that your visit has contributed to a speedy recovery.
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thanks, JMB! I like to think so!
internet is intermittent now, so I’m not sure what’s going on 😦
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As a young man I was by nature a boisterous guy, but today I’m a great fan of quiet. After decades of travel, skeet tournaments, Navy ships, military helicopters, fighter aircraft, and raising 4 kids, I find that nearly all those things now annoy me. In fact, nearly ALL kids annoy me, whether they’re my own grandkritters, the neighbors’, or just meandering miscreants. And tho I’ve always loved and had dogs around me, other people’s dogs barking really gets on my nerves these days.
Years ago I’d turn the TV on while grading student papers, just a background white noise to desensitize my ears to other distractions. Today I can’t even hold a decent conversation with the TV on . . . gotta kill the sound so I can concentrate.
One of the best decisions I ever made was having those triple-pane, hurricane-proof, terribly expensive windows put in throughout the place. Cost us about $20K, but NO NOISE! Only reason I can hear the Blue Angels when they’re out roaring around practicing is the sound coming down through the chimney and kitchen stove fan vents.
Used to gravitate toward commotion and uproar; now I seek peace and quiet. Especially dislike guitar bands simulating thermonuclear detonations with their stage effects and overpowered amps. Some of ’em sound like somebody driving a trainload of harps on flatbeds through a warehouse full of plumbing supplies.
Give me Mozart, or Vivaldi, or Strauss . . . followed, of course, by a palate cleanser of Brad Paisley, Johnny Cash, and Merle Haggard.
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http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/03/27/mother-angelica-founder-ewtn-dead-at-92.html?intcmp=hplnws
Just thought I’d mention that Catholic nun who was on for years passed away on Easter Sunday, Mother Angelica…quite a personality she was!
Bocopro: I have to admit I was enjoying the quiet but looking forward to being back in my much more active neighborhood…. Maybe when I get a bit older, I’ll seek out the quiet; it did occur to me when I was there!
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I read about Mother Angelica’s death at Yahoo News, and of course, the haters had to spew their garbage in the comments section…
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Seems she’s been in retuns for over a decade and nobody noticed!
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How is your mom?
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Interesting that she died on Easter Sunday.
SF….no surprise, right? I didn’t see that…I’m glad I didn’t. How could you spew about HER?
Ed, i wrote a little on the blog yesterday about Mom. She’s doing better…I may go back today or tomorrow. Thanks for asking. And thanks for your prayers.
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Welcome back, Z! I’m glad you mentioned your mom is doing better ’cause I was about to ask. And Bocopro, what you said about amplified guitars is spot on and the reason so many “kids” now are experiencing hearing loss at an early age.
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I’ve always sought to drink in quiet like a dry sponge in water. The primary reason for us moving is the q-u-i-e-t of the place … and walking around in the evening hearing the frogs in the creeks. Glad you had that kind of time away. It’s more healing that we think.
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thanks, Mal! She’s in a lot of pain but she’s a fighter and can tell she’s improving!
The amplified guitars are not only about hearing loss but TINNITUS, and BELIEVE ME, I know…sadly
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Too many rounds of skeet and trap, too many hours workin on antennas and transmission lines while F-8s and F-4s and A-6s were doin MLPs and too many checksite observer duties for guns on the cruiser I rode . . . this ringin in my ears is permanent, and I’m legally deaf above around 8KC or so. I can hear violins, but only if I turn the other stuff W-A-Y down.
That damned 3″ gun is the worst — makes a sharp POP!ping sound. The 5″ and 8″ tend to make more of a sustained roar. I can only imagine what the grunts operating the 108s and 155s in WWII, Korea, ‘Nam, and the Gulf Wars must be hearin in their earpans today.
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so now Trump is going to sue over the elections…things aren’t going QUITE HIS way so it’s everybody else’s fault……….what kind of ‘man’ IS he? (I can’t write the kind I think he is)
I actually thought just now “is this planned? What kind of people DO this wife insulting and horrible name calling?” Only Republicans? Only Conservatives? WHAT THE……….??
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bocopro: I’m a fellow member of the tinnitus club. Years of comm facilty rack fans and generators, but what brought it out full-blown was my year in the Middle East. I filled my explosion quota for the rest of my life (I hope).
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Glad you’re back! Country living is the best in my never-to-be-humble opinion. It’s just as you describe here at our home. We live way, WAY out in the country with ‘no’ neighbors. Recently, I had most of our DirecTV pared back, so, the news stays off except at 6 pm. I like it this way. It’s better for my health.
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bocopro…I have it constantly, too…and I’m too young for this. It’s sometimes the worst thing I think that can happen to anybody, and I’m not foreign to bad things happening. I miss quiet. VERY VERY MUCH. I’m sorry that you, too, have this.
I haven’t mentioned that it’s me who suffers with this here on my blog but I have mentioned it in general hoping someone had some relief.
Some pills help some people, with Ginko in them, for example, but my Doc doesn’t like the idea, etc.
So, if you can, try stuff…..the truth is, no matter how many videos we get tricked into watching and no matter how many pills we try; there is no cure for tinnitus. Period.
I have been tested with remarkably good hearing still but have only the last six months recognized that the kids where I sub-teach need to say things twice…I often don’t hear them well and have to say “say that again, please?” which worries me!!
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SF! NOT YOU, TOO! I am SO SORRY…..there are days that are fairly okay and other days I think i just can’t take this anymore…….it’s been permanent for about four years now.
Sparky, thanks! News at 6pm..HEAVEN! I often have said here at GeeeZ that I long for “News at six, film at 11″….remember those days? I’m glad you enjoy your home and neighborhood so much…it sounds idyllic. I have to admit I kind of like the busy-ness of my West L.A. neighborhood, 3 miles from the beach, etc., but that quiet did start to grow on me at Mom’s.
Re Tinnitus, I actually think it was less there and am going to look into that….I read two books and I don’t usually like to do the voracious reading I have done all my life because it’s never quiet enough…. Today, i do most things with the TV on because of the tinnitus…the noise helps somewhat.
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Here’s how one guy deals with it:
Tinnitus O
By Gerald B. Frank
The bells are ringing in my ears
As they’ve been ringing all these years,
And as I listen to their peel,
I wonder if they’re really real?
The bells are ringing in my ears –
Unreally real for all these years!
Tinnitus C
By Gerald B. Frank
This morning I can hear the roar
Of whistles deep inside my craw,
The hiss of steam is most insistent,
I hope today I’ll prove resistant
To its constant noisome noise
Lest it dampen this day’s joys.
If I live a wholesome day,
Will the ringing go away?
Ha! As I rise to write this poem,
The hissing stops – leaves me alone!
I’ll live this day as best I can,
Until the hissing starts again.
Tinnitus A
By Gerald B. Frank
The hissing in my ear goes on
Like an operatic song,
One by Verdi, not Bellini,
Led by Solti, not, Guilini,
Sung and played in monotone
On my ear-drum gramophone!
Tinnitus X
By Gerald B. Frank
As I lie here on the floor
To exercise my back once more,
I just relax – sometimes I dose
(As he who’s done it surely knows!) –
The quiet and the silence reign
Except I hear that hiss again,
The constant hiss of Tinnitus;
Now, tell me why he makes a fuss –
He comes with me where e’er I go,
Summer, winter, sun or snow;
I keep him warm inside my head,
He reads with me each book I’ve read,
He shares my meals, my kids, my walks,
My jokes, my triumphs and my talks!
So why, I wonder, does he mess
With my quiet happiness?
Tinnitus Z
By Gerald B. Frank
The constant hiss of Tinnitus
is growing more and more,
Its getting louder worries me –
I wonder what’s in store?
I wake and hear my Tinnitus,
the hissing in my ears,
I walk and hear that Tinnitus
exacerbating fears!
Please, tell me what is Tinnitus,
and tell me, please, why me?
And tell me what I have to do
to be of Tinnitus free?
Tinnitus ZC
By Gerald B. Frank
Hissing, hissing in my ears
Makes me feel so very queer,
Makes me wonder will I be
Losing soon my sanity,
Makes me wonder what comes next –
Who implanted this mean hex?
Yet, when I think of other things
My Tinnitus in silence sings!
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Well, now that everyone mentions it, my wife has it, too. Oddly enough, it began immediately upon moving here to Vegas the end of ’03 and has remained since. Hers was a constant hum that had everyone listening to the walls in our new house for the source, but no one else could hear it. It developed into a squish-squish heartbeat sound that drives her nuts, esp. when retiring for the night because it becomes intolerable when its quiet, so she comes out to the family room, turns on the TV until she falls asleep.
Last week, following bouts of spinning head and vomiting, she was given an MRI where they found fluid on both sides of her brain. We will be seeing a Neurologist on Thursday for his take.
Growing old sucks, but NOT growing old sucks even WORSE!
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bocopro, I see no humor or cuteness in this….absolutely none. But I appreciate the cleverness of Gerald B Frank!
WELL…You are MAL, yes? (what’s WELL?) The tinnitus will have nothing to do with the fluid, but I wish her well!!!! And yes, TV at night is a must…
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Mal, thanks for your House Clinic information; I’m well aware of it. There is no cure. Period. They’ll put me through a lot and charge a lot. Maybe, someday, I’ll do it, but not right now. I trust my ENT doctor implicitly, particularly for all his years in the business (and he’s a conservative :-)…he knows. Not saying nobody’s been helped, but it’s very rare and only when Tinnitus is caused by things they know are causing it. If all else is healthy, this is a bi*** to cure.
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I wondered about the “well”, also, Z, then remembered I typed my opening words twice when it appeared it didn’t appear the first time. I didn’t notice it till it showed up on your blog. (an ooops moment). I agree it would cost money but felt they must have something going for them, given how large they are, but perhaps you are right. They’ll probably come up with a solution eventually. You know, after we’re gone?
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Scherie and I walked out of a Christian concert and watched it on TV in the lobby to avoid further damage. We weren’t alone.
What?
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