Ira Goldberg

Thank you, Ann, Gail, and others who demonstrate how harsh life changes can become more positive when we are determined to find a way. Also, high praise to everyone dealing with new normals. It's helpful to learn from others as we go and not always about rising to the highest, but just staying airborne. 

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Dear friends - It has been amazing to hear how and how many of us have dealt with harsh life events, illness, loss of dear ones, and other challenges during our discussion of "normalcy". Although I have said several times somethings about dealing with the hand dealt to you, I think a more honest, elegant, and sursum ad summum word would be "resilience". BTW, my two little granddaughters in Modiin had sirens from 6 am today until a bit after 8 pm (Israel time), so the parents decided that the girls sleep tonight in their reinforced security room. Even my 7 month old little one had a siren in the small community where he lives, near Netanya. All is well. That's all that matters. Israelis are *resilient*. You should hear how matter-of-fact the 6 year old was about going to shelter. But then, she's an awesome child, and somewhat scary. She like remembers everything everyone says, even just once....... 

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Hi Nancy. Nope, not tinnitus, thank goodness. Those flutey sounds are like single note of a flute and just occasionally. Actually pretty, but I like knowing what things are.  

David Buchholz

Birds chirping, background noises, air hissing...I put out my tinnitus with the thought that it's a lonely experience, and I wondered if anyone else might know about it.  I hear the sounds but no one else does.  Now that I know that Larry and Dick experience it too, I'm wondering if we could form a band.  Bruce Fette, with so many patents, no doubt could figure a way for us to make the sounds audible.  Euge Katona has a doctorate in audiology.  He can be manager.  Larry doesn't drink, so he can drive while Dick and I inhale single-malt scotches.  Phil, you can be a groupie and share in the scotches. We could call the band "Tinnitus", but since the Beatles, who, inspired by Buddy Holly and the Crickets chose to spell "Beatles" with an a, we could change a letter or two and go on tour.  Tippitus or something like that.

Larry Klein

Steven Levinson

Ann and Gail:  A series of self-reinventions, yes?  We think we can't go on, and then karma intervenes. It would be uncanny if it weren't so recurrent.  How lucky we are.

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

For anyone interested - a video with "special needs" kids who volunteer for the Israeli army. Talk about dealing with the hand dealt to you, or my "resililience" !! And I know this is not some propaganda stunt for sure. My next-door neighbor's oldest son was born with severe health problems, and has been in a wheelchair with paralyzed legs since they moved in when he was a child. He served in the army as a volunteer too. And once I took one of my kids to the army recruitment center for a round of testing when he was in high school, and one of the guys doing office work had only one arm. 

The kids in the video (has English subtitled, so don't be frightened by the gibberish spoken) just want to be "normal", meaning like other kids in Israel, almost all of whom serve in the army. 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152172754143717&set=vb.19793423716&type=2&theater

Stay safe, everyone.

Judy Holtzer Knopf

Chuck Cole

I love the idea of a tinnitus orchestra, as long as the only requirement is having tinnitus, not being able to orchestrate.  Mine shows up as chirping crickets, inside my head, since they are there even when I cover my ears or its winter.  I find I'm mostly not aware of it unless I focus on it, but it does mean that even in midwinter, when I'm out cross-country skiing early in the morning after an overnight snowfall that the true silence I used to treasure is no longer there.  I think this is jsut one of the many losses we become aware of as we age.  I'm sure there are others we share so our orchestra could turn into a full-fledged Walnuts production.

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

My apologies for misspelling. I lost my reading glasses, and because of missiles, afraid to leave house alone unless absolutely necessary......sigh.

David Buchholz

Chuck, welcome to the band.  Before we go any farther I have to know if your birds are like "Rockin' Robin" ...

"He rocks in the tree tops all day long/Hoppin' and a-boppin' and singing his song/All the little birdies on Jaybird Street/Love to hear the robin go tweet tweet tweet"?  

Or is it more of a power bird song?  Remember the Trashmen?  "A-well-a, everybody's heard about the bird.  Bird, bird, bird, b'bird''s the word."

If we're going to have a band, and you and Larry hear bird sounds, I'll probably have to write a score.  I love harmony.  Can you chirrup in thirds?

Richard Murdock

Yes, I absolutely remember the Trashmen.  And if you have not seen the Family Guy episode that's entirely about that song, you have to Google it and watch it.  It is hilarious especially to someone who remembers that sound from their childhood. 
 

Stephen (Steve) Dixon

I thought I was starting to have that "chirping birds" thing but, it turns out, I just keep forgetting to empty the dryer.

Richard Montague

Dick,

Been a while since the old days at Kilgour. One of the members of the Trashmen band was in my Air Force electronic classes. They were a one hit group. Add me to the tinnitus club, Crickets and frogs chirping !

Rick

Philip Spiess

Adding to the "Is normal 'normal'?" conversation:  For years people have been asking me to "please think back inside the box."

As to names for the tinnitus band:  the "Rin-Tin-Tins," or the "Tin Ears," or the "Cin-tinnati Tinners."  I'll be happy to be a groupie, because my head is as clear as a bell -- in fact, I hear it ringing!

Jean Snapp (Miller)

I also have tinnitus - the Crickets. Mostly noticeable when all else is quiet.  Luckily it doesn't seem to interfere with hearing my piano students and their missing B flats.  I do notice, though, that I'm especially bothered by loud sounds.  I have earplugs that filter out the harshest sounds - like piano students who are big on forte but not so much on piano.  Also wear them during handbell practice, on the 4th of July and during 21 gun salutes.  I figure I'd better protect what is left of my hearing.  Bye for now.

Nelson Abanto

Hey Folks,

I've been really busy the last week with my Dad's 93rd and I haven't been able to participate in the polemics or the sharing of life experiences but I have followed your discussions.  They are profound.  I guess I would expect no less from this group but you all keep raising the bar.  I was very impressed with Gail's qoute from Lao Tzu.  Any time I'm racing for the Wikipedia button I know it is good.  

I have a lot to share on the grief thing but I have to think it through.  I'm headed up to the mountains for a few days and, hopefully, I will receive inspiration from such a beautiful, pristine envonment.

Nelson

Philip Spiess

I feel I must share a moment from my working career concerning hearing loss.  My boss at the Smithsonian Institution, Jane Glaser (Walnut Hills, Class of 1940), a really beautiful, fun-loving, and elegant woman, who helped develop standards for children's museums across the United States, and, at the time I worked for her (1980s), was head of the Smithsonian's Office of Museum Programs, the professional museum training arm of the Smithsonian in those days, was losing her hearing.  Her particular problem was not tinnitus per se, but the fact that all noises came together in her hearing, so that she could not distinguish one person's talking in a discussion from another's; it all blurred together in a cacophony of sound.  In committee meetings this became a real problem.

Jane was chairman of an international working group, funded out of Princeton, that sought professional connection between American museum professionals and those of East Germany (behind the "Iron Curtain").  The group had met several times before I was asked to join it.  Our next meeting (1988) was to be in East Germany, in East Berlin, in Dresden, and elsewhere.  Formal papers were to be presented.  I'm sure one of the reasons Jane (who was a dear friend) asked me to join the group was so that I could be her amanuensis, hearing for her and writing down what I thought she needed to know.  Of course, for the formal papers (of which I presented one), we had professional translators present and earphones for all.  All went well at first, but suddenly Jane turned to me in consternation and said, "Oh, my god, Philip, I've just gone completely deaf!"  In command of the situation, I looked around, looked at the desk in front of me, saw what I suspected, and replied, "Jane, you've just accidentally turned off your earphones!"

Larry Klein

Dave - we're going to need a really BIG bus for this band.  I'm designated driver; Phil the groupie rides shotgun (good news Phil - you get my share of the drinks); Jeannie accompanies on piano; Chuck gives the beat; Rick, you, and Dick provide the chirping chorus; Paul does rhythm; and Steve will do the laundry (since he keeps the dryer running).  Anyone I missed will provide a robust background (I suspect we'll have a whole bunch more band members).

Nelson - nothing better than a jaunt in the mountains for collecting thoughts.  Be sure to remember all the good times.

Philip Spiess

Larry -- that is good news!  With all the drinks, I'll be hearing whooshing, whispering, chirping, clicking choruses in my head like you wouldn't believe!

Barbara Kahn (Tepper)

I arrived home today from a family reunion in Ohio but I didn't get as far south as Cincinnati.  We met at my niece's home in Medina.  This was the trip to finally have my grandchildren meet my sister's grandchildren and it was fun for all of us.  

About the hearing loss....my husband's hearing has been steadily decreasing but he refused to do anything about it.  Last August he had an emergency triple bypass and his attitude has changed about many things.  He now has hearing aids.  He says he needs them for work so he likes to take them out when he gets home.  He also sometimes puts the batteries in upside down and complains they don't work.  The first time he got his hair cut after he got them he lost one.  They're very expensive to replace but he did it.  I was tired of our conversations being, "Huh?" and "What?".  When he retires at the end of the year I am telling him I want him to please keep wearing them.

Larry Klein

Barbie K - I wear my aids now all day except when sleeping and showering.  Mine are VA issued Phonak for behind-the-ear with eleven adjustments for volume.  I used to hate putting them in and taking them out as well, but now they're just like my glasses - can't go out without them, and hardly notice them at all.  I got tired of all the "huhs" and "please" (Cincy, you know) as well.  I also carry a set of foam earplugs for loud places, which, when inserted properly, can drown out a High "C" at the opera.  Glad hubby came around.

Larry Klein

Phil - seems to me, for purposes of this milieu, that the "box" has no boundaries.  Please feel free to think "in" or "out" of that unboundered box.  We love the unexpected, even as we expect it!

Philip Spiess

Buchholz:  I remember "Rockin' Robin"; don't remember The Trashmen, per se, but do remember their song, "Bird's the word!"   Then there were the Byrds. . . .

Jonathan Marks:  Getting back to opera (Nelson, take note!), I suddenly had a vision of you at the Zoo Opera as a supernumerary in Puccini's La Boheme, serving as a very officious (but effective) waiter in Act II.  Is this a false memory, or no?

Larry:  Okay, you've claimed in these comments that you don't know opera, never went there, etc., etc.  Now you state (and I quote):  "I also carry a set of foam earplugs for loud places, which, when inserted properly, can drown out a high 'C' at the opera."  Well, yes, the opera is always most exciting when at its loudest (remember Mark Twain's comment that "Wagner's music is much better than it sounds"), but -- when the hell did you ever hear a high "C" (sounds like a soft drink) at the opera?  Perhaps one day I shall tell you about the time my mother, trying to annoy the cat, was playing the piano and singing an extremely high note -- which did, in fact, annoy the cat, who bit her -- when her high note shattered a glass ornament on the Christmas tree (yes, just like in the lines in My Fair Lady).  (Oh, I just did tell you, didn't I?)

Nancy Messer

I have hearing aids I don't wear also so I'm really good at "Huh?" and "What?".  The first pair were the behind the ear type and would fall out.  A number of years later I got the in the ear type - much better but I stopped wearing those too.  I know everyone at the pharmacy wishes I'd wear them.  They're tired of saying the same thing 4 times.  I'll be watching a movie on TV (usually an old cowboy movie)  and when it's over I know I didn't understand much of the dialog at all.  You'd think I'd put the hearing aids in!

Margery Erhardt (Schrader)

Nancy... The old westerns wouldn't perchance star Robert Middleton, would they? A terrific actor!