Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 42, commute, deaf, driving, life the universe and everything, music
My daily commute to work has become one of my favorite parts of the day. I actually enjoy spending 20 minutes in traffic. Why? Music. Loud Music. My commuting ritual is this- remove hearing aids, hook iPod up to car’s sound system, turn volume of iPod and car stereo to max, enjoy.
With severe/profound (90+ dB) hearing loss my hearing aids and I have a love-hate relationship. I enjoy being able to communicate more easily with co-workers and family but because EVERYTHING is amplified I absolutely hate wearing them. I wear them the absolute minimum time necessary. Basically, whatever is closest to me is what I hear no matter how annoying it is. Music sounds awful. The bass line is lost to a cacophony of high pitched noise (that some might call flutes, violins, sopranos and other fancy words for “annoying high pitched noise”). And my hearing aids are getting into their twilight years, no longer powerful enough to help out that much but a new pair are way out of my reach. Insurance doesn’t cover hearing aids (which cost ~$1,000+ each). So I wait.
Back to driving. Road noise is annoying but I have the luxury of turning it off. Thus the really loud music. Music isn’t loud enough until I can feel it vibrating the floorboards.
Living in a large urban area people are used to hearing the deep bass of hip-hop blasting from neighboring cars. What people aren’t used to is hearing punk, classical, or reggae blasting from a car driven by a very unassuming young woman.
The other day I noticed that my hand crank window-roller-down-things (do those things have a name?) were throbbing with the awesome baseline of “My Ancestors” by Jimmy Cliff. Even my car knows good music when it hears it.
Another evening as I was listening to my favorite Scottish punk band, The Real McKenzies, I noticed that a young lad (maybe 3 years old) in the car next to me was rocking out to my music. It warmed my heart to see a youngster appreciating the greatness of the Real McKenzies.
Am I a menace to society with my loud music? Maybe.
But I could also be doing the public a service by broadcasting quality music to the masses.
In the end it doesn’t matter. It makes me happy to rock out in the car, people around me smile when they see me sing along unabashedly and I am one less angry driver talking on a cell phone.
I just wish my stereo could go louder than 25.
And to all those people (well, all 3 of them) who have told me to turn it down or “you’ll go deaf” all I have to say is “Too late”. Genetics took care of that for me.
