Half dumb

About a month ago something happened to my ears.

I went from hearing perfectly (or at least as well as I had my previous year of life) to hearing almost nothing. It was a scary time. Both of my ears had clogged and I could only hear about 20% of my normal abilities.

Since then my right ear has completely come back, but my left ear (the one that had previously ruptured) has barely come back at all. You know that feeling when you get water in your ear and in won't come out? Maybe you might be hearing a bit of a ringing in your ear, or you can hear your own breathing or the crunching of food? That's constant for me on my left side.

So on my left side I can barely hear anything.

It's tough because in the morning if I'm sleeping left ear up I won't hear my alarm going off. When people sit to the left of me I usually have to ask them to repeat themselves or speak up if they're speaking too quietly.

Suddenly when I'm riding in the car I miss a lot of "left speaker" things and have to turn the TV up a bit to make sure I'm catching everything that is said.

Last night at dinner I was watching people's lips and wondering if I could develop a skill for reading lips. It'd seem like a pretty fun skill to have - being able to read lips when you can't hear what a person is saying across the room.

One of the weird things about this is that I'm not scared at all. I'm not afraid that I'll lose the hearing in my left ear. And I know I should get checked by an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor but I've just been lazy. In some ways, not being able to hear out of my left side has kind of made me change a few things in my life already:

-I talk less because I don't really want to hear my own voice in my head - and I don't really want to have to strain to hear others talk.

-I try to get the most immediate, relevant information out of people. Not being able to hear very well gives me the ability to more easily ignore the standard fluff that people spout off.

-I'm reading more than usual. It's the only way to get words in and out without being annoyed.

-My ears don't multitask as much. Sometimes I might get distracted by a conversation in the distance, a cell phone ringing, a police siren or even a song playing in the background. Not so much anymore - my brain for some reason is now focusing much better on whatever is in front of me.

-Call me half dumb but the world is a lot more dull when you can't hear half of what is going on. So for that reason alone I'm hoping this goes away soon. I know someone who went through the same thing (not sure about the ruptured ear drum - but definitely loss of hearing) and they have to go through a couple surgeries just to get 70% hearing back.

And I'm not so sure 70% is good enough for me.

Now I Won't Be Able to Sleep

Remind me not to read anything to get my blood boiling before heading to bed.

First this awesome article about giving raises to our hard working state employees.

And now, to cover those raises?

Well, we've definitely got to find some form of revenue.

And what better way to tax people on things we don't want them to have anyway?

We've got to make up a much bigger short fall than that though. We've got to keep our state worker's ridiculous overtime going! And the pensions! And don't forget about the other bountiful benefits!

So how about charging people more for property they've already assumed they paid for?

Remind me why I live in this great state of ours?

And for me, that isn't the worst part of it. The worst part of it is always the apathy. Out of over 100+ links and facebook updates not ONE of my friends mentioned any of this.

No one cares. The tax bills go up and people just shrug at the necessary evil.

I'm in the same boat. I can't do anything to change it. I guess it's the cost of living where we do. The sad thing is, the less people care (especially those in my generation) the more and more the government will take from us.

Because if no one protested the sin/vice tax - who would complain about a tax on the amount of garbage we produce? That's a win win for the government too right? Or how about a tax on foods over a certain calorie amount per meal? Is that the reason why all of these restaurants have to display their calories now? Maybe a tax on people who want to drive their car on their own and not carpool everywhere they go? A tax for sitting on the couch and watching TV? So many ways to make money off the tax payers who don't care.

They can't force us to do anything. They'll just shape the way we live our lives by paying themselves with our money.