"Did you take the thing to the place?"

Why, yes. Yes I did.

It can all be summed up by this movie clip:

Yep. 35 years now.

A couple of times I even suggested “why don’t we just sit on the porch and relax?”

That was in the first year of marriage. I haven’t bothered to suggest it again in the last 34 years.

The 2 minute story that goes for 20 minutes with full histories and motivations of all involved plus side stories that might relate to the main story. Very detailed but a roundabout way of getting from A to B.

I once told a much younger female cousin that silence doesn't have to be awkward and two people can sit somewhere in silence and it's just fine. She was blown away, thought about it, and told me I was right and that she'd remember that it can be ok to not talk.

quote:

Originally posted by navyshooter:

quote:

Originally posted by HayesGreener:

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
I have a pretty severe hearing loss. Often I cant kids or womens voices.
And I make that fact very clear to anyone I have any real contact with.
I used to work with a chick who talked non stop. I told her often I could not hear her. Did not register at all. She kept yammering on. It finally dawned on me that, to her, it did not matter if I heard her at all. She was essentially talking to herself.

High frequency hearing loss is God's gift to old men.

This

So true. My ENT doc told me as married couples grow older, that the men lose high freq hearing WHILE the wifes more frequently try to talk from other rooms in the house. I quit yelling "what?", and she needs to come talk face-to-face when she wants to ask "did you..?" or "could you not...?" etc.

Makes things easier.

I have hearing aids but dont often wear them. I figure if after my declaration of hearing loss is made clear, all following unheard speech is low quality.
And as a cop, it was my customers who yammered on and to boot, lacked concise narration.
Example:
Me: What happened here?
Customer: Well, I got up this morning and had a bowl of cereal but I was out of coffee so....
Me: Stop! Just tell me what happened in the last 30 minutes!
Now I know why Jack Webb just wanted the facts.

The ones that do not talk are a much greater problem. You do not know what they are thinking or feeling until you feel that sharp blade in your back.LOL

There is an art to acting as if you are listening. It is a skill that can be taught. It takes time and practice.

my wife has started talking to me as soon as I've opened the door, not set one foot over the threshold.
She also has a very annoying habit of talking to me with out saying 'scuse me...…,as if I am waiting on her every word.

I certainly talk more than Mrs. P.

However, as FishOn mentioned, what she lacks in quantity, she like to make up for in degree of difficulty, i.e. from different floors/rooms, distances in tens of yards, facing away, while I'm doing something noisy, etc.

I don't think I talk too much since it's not unusual for my husband to comment, "You're awfully quiet; what are you plotting?"

I told him early in our relationship that one of the things I liked about him was that I enjoyed our discussions but also the silences weren't awkward.

I have a few friends that I have told I will not sit by them at a movie because they can't stop talking. A couple of them also talk so slowly and take so long to get to the point with so many detours along the way, I fear if they ever need to call 911 for me.

Yep, I do! Enough said

I guess I'm lucky, my wife can go hours and not say a word. Sometimes I think she is mad at me, lol.

The Japanese invented a camera with a shutter speed that's so fast, it actually captured a picture of a woman with her mouth closed.

quote:

Originally posted by HayesGreener:

High frequency hearing loss is God's gift to old men.

Indeed. And I have it in spades.

I'm in the process of trying to get hearing aids via the VA. Part of that was a VERY thorough evaluation by an audiologist. After all the testing (3 separate types of tests not just the tones) he fitted me with a demo set and did a quick and dirty tune based on the loss curve generated during the tests.

The difference, while not "amazing" was certainly significant, particularly in the ability to carry on a conversation in the presence of background noise. Without them that borders on impossible, especially with a female voice.

I'm a little ambivalent about the whole deal tho. I place great value on peace and quiet and truly understand and believe the quote above. OTOH, it's really frustrating not to be able to understand either of my great grandsons when they speak to me. The 7 year old sort of understands and works with me. The 4 year old doesn't and I think he gets a little mad at me thinking I'm ignoring him.

My wife is not (usually...) an incessant talker and for the most part works with me to communicate. I have gotten to the point where if she mumbles (at least from my perspective) I figure it must not have been important and don't bother to ask her to repeat it. If it was important (at least from her perspective) she'll get a little grumpy but at least she'll speak up.

I identify with the guy, who said that his wife says things that make no sense at all, until he remembers that it's a continuation of a conversation they were having two weeks before..

quote:

Originally posted by NK402:
I identify with the guy, who said that his wife says things that make no sense at all, until he remembers that it's a continuation of a conversation they were having two weeks before..

Or, like my wife, something she's been discussing with herself mentally and needs my opinion/input without bringing me up to date on what the hell she's talking about.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
There is an art to acting as if you are listening. It is a skill that can be taught. It takes time and practice.

My grandfather had two hearing aids. Probably due to decades running a factory. My new grandmother talked ALL the time. Non-stop.

He would walk around the house, nodding frequently. She thought he was listening.

He had his hearing aids off. Much of the time.

BOY when she figured THAT out!