Re: [St] Ear plugs, noise reduction and music

[Matt Knowles <matt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I can't stress enough how important it is to protect your hearing  
folks. I watched my Dad go deaf in his later years and I hated it.  
But even worse, my wife suddenly lost her hearing at the beginning of  
this year. Within a few months her hearing went from just slightly  
below normal to almost completely deaf. The doctors (and we've seen  
some good ones at Stanford) still don't know what caused the severe  
loss but we are hoping she can be fitted with cochlear implants later  
this year.

But her loss of hearing, while not related to loud noises, has made  
me realize how precious our hearing is to our enjoyment of life. I  
think only blindness would be worse.

I've filled my life with loud music, electric guitars, power tools,  
motorcycles, and fire engines, and because of that I've lost about  
50% in my left ear.

Just like when I caught a metal shaving in my eye one time taught me  
to always wear eye protection when doing anything that might impact  
the eyes, I now have an assortment of hearing protection devices and  
make sure they're always worn when riding, or operating power tools.

I miss cranking the Zep, but I know if I lost my hearing, that would  
be the end of motorcycles for me, and that's more important.

I would get the best sound attenuating ear plugs you can find and  
leave it at that.
>

Matt Knowles - Ferndale, CA - http://www.knowlesville.com/matt/ 
motorcycles
 '99 Sprint ST - for going fast and far (2CZUSA)
 '01 KLR650 (A15) - for exploring the North Coast backroads
 '97 KLX300 & '01 Lakota - for playing in the dirt
 '79 KZ400 - just because it was the first vehicle I ever owned

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