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A LITTLE PERSPECTIVE - Time ticked on

Putting a digital recorder down next to a ticking clock proves the value of the importance of location - location - location!

My ears are shot.

I mean seriously shot.

I am sure that it was working for 30 years in the sawmill that did me in, but there is also the possibility that marriage was what really pushed things over the edge.

I’m pretty sure that I didn’t get the hearing aids until after Special K and I had tied the knot. So maybe she was to blame.

The two of us talked a lot – or enough - we were comfortable. There has to be a balance in the amount of time each person talks in order for a relationship to last.

If both sides of a couple are hopeless non-stop blatherers then they’ll probably drive each other batty.

On the other hand if both have taken a vow of silence that won’t work too well either.

I did meet a couple of elderly sisters (siblings – not nuns) several years ago when I was working at Vancouver General Hospital. The two old gals had lived their entire lives together under the same roof. One of the pair had developed an infection and was doing solitary confinement in an isolation unit.

She only ever had one visitor – her sister would come in every day, put on an isolation gown and sit with her for hours. But they never said a word to each other – I guess they had already said it all. They both seemed quite comfortable.

As I remember though Special K did most of the talking in our relationship and, if I was to put some polish on the facts, I might try to make a case that I could never get a word in edgewise.

Most of the time she’d just be repeating what she’d said already – at my request. Ears this bad really need to be given time for the old tubes and other ancient circuits to warm up.

So I record almost all of the meetings I attend.

It’s a good recorder – it should be for what it cost. Not to mention the fact I was so intent on buying only this particular recorder that I was totally unaware that it is only a recorder – it doesn’t come with speakers. You can plug some in or use headphones but there aren’t any exterior speakers built in.

So I thought I’d bought a busted unit when it first arrived. It wasn’t broken though – it was just designed to be a recorder – a high quality one to be sure.

My hearing being what it is though I still sometimes have to put the digital sound file through a program on my computer to amplify it.

But last Monday night when I arrived at Greenwood City Hall to set up my machine I didn’t take note of the wall clock that was sitting on the shelf where I put my recorder. This is a battery operated clock but for some bizarre reason they programed it to give a tick every second.

When I got home and started listening to the meeting it was rather annoying. I finally decided to use the same audio editor program that I use to amplify some files to try to filter out the ticking noise.

I managed to do it but the mayor must have a bit of a tick in his voice himself because what came out had some noticeable gaps in the conversation. That was no better than trying to listen without benefit of hearing aids – so I had to go back to the ticking version. Listening to that tick for almost and hour and a half. I was boggled – still am.