The big serious headphones remind me of a Halloween costume I made for hubby.
I was gone for the evening.
He was planning on watching tv with his huge black ear phones.
I bought him a black cheap spider cape.
When he answered the door to give out candy to kids he wore 1) a cape and 2) massive headphones.

He did this for two years and then refused to hand out candy the third year.

I thought his costume was a step up from answering the door with only headphones -- weird enough by itself to kids who walk around with those stupid ear buds.

M.

mine are definitely wax, not silicone. also, while i said i would use them multiple times, the package says not to. i think that's because they gradually start to heat up and melt gradually. i do notice the outside is slippery when i take them out - the same way as a candle gets when it is warmed up.

i will have to look into the memory foam ones. i thought that wax would be more protective, but that may not be correct... since used in the military.

lol... i sometimes have that concern about the slipperiness after wearing the wax ones a while. but they don't melt to liquid so i'm ok i think.

moisture in the ears is bad because it can offer a comfy environment for fungal infections. my guess is this is the reason. otherwise... water would actually block more sound than air does.

i wear them under these circumstances too - and when my sleep schedule is upside down which means my parents will make noise, OR, if i have a migraine - then all noises are heightened. as for my alarm clock, i have a soft toned one, with a gradually rising volume. and i cannot hear it with plugs but if i need the plugs i am usually in conditions where i turn my phone volume (doubles as alarm clock) off altogether. unfortunately there are much louder noises which can happen - like the condo intercom, and the landline phone, or my father's cellphone (loud enough for ME to hear WITH plugs and asleep, even tho he doesn't WITHOUT plugs and AWAKE), and the plugs need to block those or at least stifle them. so plugs mean, no alarm for me. should i need to be up at a certain time, i arrange to be awoken.

whew. i'm glad somebody else notices this stuff. i try to remember that they are "good noises" too, but they are still too LOUD when trying to get to sleep at times. at the table it is annoying because i can't follow conversation between my crunches. but if i take the plugs out my family's volume can easily rise beyond my tolerance if i have a migraine. plus, sometimes i get tinnitus with plugs! always somethin, huh.

i would tend to agree. interestingly many ppl with bp also have migraines, and during a migraine light and sound sensitivity can be heightened greatly (can worsen pain during headache phase) - to intolerable degrees at worst cases. however i find i am more sound sensitive than most even without a migraine. i can also hear higher frequencies than most people.
That sucks!!! I hope you were "covered." And i hope you gave hubby a talking to about closing the door before leaving you untended with possible strangers coming into the house. actually i would want to be awakened if repairmen were coming. i would have been scared.

LOL. That's funny.

i know the headphones you mean. we used to have those ... back in the 70's and 80's when we still had vinyl-listening capabilities. since then, many "moves" happened. i think they went with the stereo/player.

i don't know the kind of "muffs" BF has but the ones i've used at firing ranges are not big and poofy like the serious "stereo" ones. they are like beige or grey, and sit more flat all around the head. also somewhat harder all around. that is why i can't imagine sleeping with them on. maybe there are different kinds if one buys one's own.

~ waves ~

Hi,
More lawn mowing.
Seriously.

Last time it was a neighboring business outside the property line. Today it is inside the property line of the apt complex.

Following the usual pattern, the driver of this mower will keep circling around. I'll hear him and then I won't hear him and then I will hear him. . . .

You'd think we live in a place that rained everyday and that grass grew out of control. Oh. We do.

Although closer to my building and me, this machine is slightly less obnoxious than the one I was listening to the last time I posted.



Unsettling certainly.
Not hubby's fault.
I purposely kept the door open so that I would HEAR the repairmen come in.
If there is a next time, I will close and lock the door, knowing that I won't necessarily hear anyone working in my apt while I am sleeping.
. . .So much for sensitive ears.


M.

Hi,

Just in case this is helpful:

A person does not simply stick these in the ear.

I watched my father roll the ear plug until its width is very small -- maybe almost like a pencil lead -- but not quite.

Then you are to put it in the ear and hold it in place with your finger while it fills up with air and expands -- according to something I saw on a web site years ago

That is how I do it.

And now that you explained it Waves, I will be sure to change them every so often so as to keep away mold.

M.

sorry you've got another mower going on, Mari. i don't know which is worse, the intermittent just when you think it's gone for good it comes back, or the constant argggghh. i think i would take the intermittent even with the frustration of the coming back. the breaks would be worth it.

kinda reminds me of an old song... (70's? older?)

uh, i "adapted" the lyrics for ya tho...

Here it comes again!

Just when i was calm enough to say,
- Forget it...
It's tickin' me of so
That all i really know
Is, here it comes agaaain
And here i goooooooo!!!



today has been my first day without plugs at all for quite a while.

sending calming thoughts.

~ waves ~

Waves,

Dolly Parton sang that. I like your version better.

Good luck with your no ear plug day.

After the lawn mower, a team of guys carrying leaf blower machines came through to blow around the grass cuttings.
Those machines are loud -- but the team moves quickly.

'Sending calming thoughts your way too.

M.

I sleep on one of those Tempur-Pedic pillows,so that when my cat meows,I reach over,and put the Sound Barrier Ear Muffs on. They are not bulkey. They are sort of small,and flat,and light green. The part that joins my ear muffs slips on from the back of my head. Then I just roll over on my side on the pillow,and the ear muff sinks right down in the pillow. After snoozing for awhile,I take them off to see if the cat has stopped meowing.

If someone breaks into my house while I have the muffs on,I will hear them. I have these loud alarms on my doors,and the body feels shock waves. I'd be up,and running for my fire arm if someone was busting into my House/apartment. I'd be calling the police also,but you can't depend on how fast they can get there. That's the element of time that they cannot guarantee. BF

HI,
This morning some one (more than one?) is trimming / cutting trees with a noisy machine.

Maybe these guys could coordinate better and do all the noise making on the same day.


M.

Dear Friend,


Your cat sounds amazingly persistent.
You ignore her and yet it sounds like every morning she does the same behavior.

I'm guessing that she (he?) is quite charming and cute.

I'm glad that you have a system in place that helps you feel safe in your home.

M.

hmmmm. how annoying. i've often had that wish in complexes or communities with a shared landscape management.

unfortunately, i can see where the logistics of that might be more difficult. a landscaping service might be more easily able to provide 1 person 3 days a week than 3 ppl 1 day a week... whether or not it is the same person, which at times it might be.

unfortunately, knowing that doesn't make it any less noisy, does it?

............. digression

i see i have just done what my pdoc/T does TOOOO frequently... and recently too, which ticked me off. He explains to me (sometimes when i already know) WHY something is the way it is, rather than:

a. listening and allowing me to voice fully how upsetting it is to me, and perhaps how and why it is upsetting me.
... and ...
b. helping me with some coping strategies, whether physical (like earplugs, getting away... etc), bureaucratic (call the management, ask questions, make suggestions...), or psychological (techniques to reduce my own upsetness at what is going on somehow).

seems like he sometimes thinks if understand why somthing happens it won't upset me... end of story. huh??? grrrr. i mean explanations can be helpful, but along with the other elements which are essential.

sorry. i have a one track mind about therapy lately.

............. end digression

Mari, back to you ... you might call mgmt-maintenance and ask about their landscaping schedule mentioning the degree of noise and see if doing it all on a single day is possible. HOWEVER

my concern then would be, Mari,

are you SURE you could deal with ALL that noise, ALL on one day? decibels are cumulative you know... the sum of the noises would be overall much LOUDER noise than you are now getting on three separate days.

~ waves ~