Earlier this month Mary and I celebrated our 44th wedding anniversary. A couple of weeks after that, I added another year to my age.
I bring up both of those milestones because with our aging we have noticed some not-so-subtle changes that are starting to creep into our daily lives.
Body aches and pains are more frequent, and I can handle that. But the hard part about those aches and pains is that they hang around a lot longer than they used to.
Stronger prescription glasses or bi/trifocals are no doubt on the horizon. Having had some sort of corrective eyewear for the better part of our lives, a visit to the eye doctor for a stronger prescription doesn’t really heighten my aging denial way of thinking.
Admitting hearing aids may be in our future, on the other hand, would be like throwing in the towel on the anti-aging fight.
During our 44 years of marital bliss, Mary and I have had our share of, let’s say, minor disagreements along the way. Those disagreements, like many married folks usually have, deal with parenting issues, money matters, home décor decisions or how many hunting outings I go on, and so forth.
Recently our disagreements have been focusing on whose hearing is worse.
Lately our recent conversations have been going something like this: It doesn’t really matter who starts the conversation, but for this column let’s say I start the conversation with “Hi Honey, I’m home. How was your day?” Mary responds with “What?” I come back with “What?” She says in a much louder tone, “What did you say?” After shaking my head, I say even louder, “I said, ‘Hi Honey, I’m home. How was your day?’” Then she would say something like, “Why do you need money and a comb for the hay?”
Then I would say, “Oh, (insert bad word of your choice) just forget it.” She then closes out the conversation with, “OK, Honey. You have a nice day.”
The problem with those conversations – and I am not throwing Mary under the bus here because I am just as much at fault as she is – but they are more the norm than they used to be.
We are working on what I call our hearing aid denial plan.
When Mary starts to talk to me, I lean in toward her with my right ear (the better of the two). She tries to help by facing toward me and begins to talk. This has helped but only if we are sitting next to each other.
So, until one or both of us get hearing aids, the “What did you say?” will continue and the louder than normal conversation will be just the new norm.