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2000-02-06 - 07:20:06
I hate noise. Which is odd, considering I have some hearing loss, so I'm a little hard of hearing. Basically there's no such thing as really quiet for me. I hear a constant ringing in my ears. Like how you could tell a television was on in the old days, even if the brightness and sound was turned all the way down. There was always that high-pitched "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee". That's what I hear all the time now. Unless other noises take precedence. You know how we have selective hearing, tune out other noises to concentrate on what we WANT to hear. It's sort of a drag, it could drive you crazy.
I heard that William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy both had their hearing damaged during Star Trek because some special effect went awry. I think it was Shatner that was driven crazy by the ringing in his ears.
I'm pretty sure most of the damage to my ears was done at two particular times. The first was a Hawkwind concert around 1978 at the Riviera. Oy, we walked out of that show deaf! Talk about yer Sonic Attack.
The second was an ear infection that I had in 1991 that went untreated for about a week. What massive headaches. It sucks to be poor. It was after that infection that my ears started ringing constantly and noticeably.
Anyway, so pretty much I hate noise. Can't stand banging noises. Vacuum cleaners and hairdryers are particularly noisome. My upstairs neighbors are bringing out my homocidal tendencies. (Those bastards!) Any place where there's a lot of ambient noise, I'm completely useless to talk to. I'll have to get hearing aids eventually. Drat.
But one noise that I'm actually fond of is radiators. Do you have radiator heat? It's pretty common in older apartment buildings in Chicago. I've lived with radiator heat for most of my life. Steam heat.
Radiators, when they come on, make these clanking, banging noises as the hot steam rushes through the pipes to the various radiators in your apartment. Bang! Clank!
Then once they get going they start hissing and sputtering, and whistling. I mean, they can really get going!
The thing is, I really like that noise. You would think it would drive me crazy, but it doesn't. It's comforting. It's a comforting background noise.
It reminds me of home. If you're home is a big-ass apartment building in Chicago. Mine is.
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So, how do you like them apples?