Here we are on a vacation weekend with all of Jake's family in celebration of his parents' 50th anniversary. It's evening and the Dodger game is on... the men are all sitting around the tv watching the game and the women are gathered around the dining room table, chatting about the men.
We kept yelling at the guys to turn down the volume on the tv, which kept creeping up and up. And then rolled our eyes and talked about the similar problems we're facing with the guys and their different levels of hearing loss from the job. Jake's an officer, his father was a career officer, his brother just went to too many loud concerts over the years.
Jake's mom, my sis-in-law and I all commiserated about how crazy the guys drive us with the too-loud tv and too-loud radio. This is all damage from the years of shooting without ear protection (for Jake's father) and some of the same for Jake (although now he's very careful about wearing protection when qualifying).
Jake's dad told us an example of why his hearing is shot. Several times over the years he was near to a gun discharging and suffered the consequences. Once early in his career he was training a rookie. Jake's dad was in charge of a field unit and the rookie was instructed to stay in the car and listen to the radio, relaying all important messages. At one point Jake's dad sat back in the car to rest and warm up a bit. He tipped his head back to stretch, closed his eyes for a few minutes and -- BOOOOMMMM!!!!!. He said that after the initial few seconds of shock he did that thing where you are checking your body for injury. He didn't feel like he'd been shot, but had no idea where the gunfire had come from - just that it was so close that all he could hear was the very intense ringing of his ears.
His rookie partner, nervous and a little too gung-ho, had been adjusting his gun and had accidentally discharged it into the radio and glove box of the car. (This was way back in the 60's, the radios in the cars were positioned in the glove boxes then). He was sitting there in shock, Jake's Dad was wondering if his hearing was gone and another officer came up to the window and asked if they were ok. Except all Jake's dad could see was the guy's mouth moving - no sound.
Is it any wonder that his hearing is so bad these days? yikes. Jake's isn't that bad, but it still drives me nuts how loud he plays the tv. I've joked with him (but am a bit serious, really) that the only way we are going to reach 50 years is if he eventually has a "man cave" built with sound proof walls in our old age. I want my own tv-watching room. He can have his. This is my idea of paradise in the home - and one of the secrets of marital bliss.
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