Daily Prompt
Sound
Write a new post in response to today’s one-word prompt.

Harmful Sound

The daily prompt word for February 15, 2017 was sound. We are living in a world where you cannot get away from sound, sound is everywhere. At this very moment I can hear my wife attempting to talk to me from the next room. Proverbs 27:15 “A continual dripping on a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike.” King James Bible “It is better to dwell on the corner of the housetop.” I couldn’t dwell for long on the roof! I hear the ringing in my ears above all other noises. I never would have thought of that as being a blessing.

My tinnitus is from working with jet engines. The refrigerator in the kitchen sound is 24/7. The flushing toilet sound is loud and frequent. The chimes sounds emitted by the old mantle clock, accentuates the complete nocturnal quiet very well. During the silence between the chimes sounds coming from the old clock it might be quiet enough to hear my own heartbeat but the infernal, internal, tinnitus ringing in my ears is usually the sound in control of all decibels.

The noises in every household are numerous, on any city street they increase by a hundred fold. Sound is all around, yet people want more. People everywhere are walking, running, strolling, riding bikes with ear buds protruding from their ears.

If cell phones do create brain tumors the world does not have to fear overpopulation, people cannot get enough cell phone time. Young people have woofers and tweeters blasting in their vehicles all the while they drive. The ground shakes when they stop at a stop sign. Many of them will have serious hearing loss as they get older. We expose ourselves to extra loud sound all through our lives, many times without even thinking about it.

When using a chainsaw to cut up a tree the wind blew down, it is a good idea to wear earplugs, that is not a very long noise exposure but it could damage your hearing. Gun collectors and shooters use rifle ranges for hours at a time firing their weapons, they usually wear ear plugs and ear muffs to protect their ears from the loud sound.

I was in the U. S. Air Force, aircraft maintenance, we run up and tested out the engines after working on them. We would tie the aircraft to a concrete slab with three inch thick steel cables hooked to the landing gear to keep the plane from taking off. Then run them up to full power while checking everything out, standing right beside them, crawling under them sometimes. Heavy intake screens were put on to keep us from getting sucked into the intakes. Each engine was run for several minutes.

Our ear protection was ear plugs and heavy ear muffs. During this time the sound was deafening. We would then run the afterburners momentarily, you could feel the ground vibrating. Your teeth, skin and eyeballs vibrated too, the sound level increased to the hurting point. A jet engines thrust is increased by almost 50% while running in afterburner. They only run the afterburners during takeoff, or for emergency use in a dogfight to keep from being shot down. The extra fuel consumption would find them running out of fuel in a very short time. In flight refueling equipment was added after the F-101 A,  B and RF-101C came out of the factory.

It is no wonder I have had tinnitus ever since those Air Force days, working around that much loud sound. Working on the flight line was constant engine noise but a little further away, aircraft were landing and taking off almost constantly. I was in the U.S. Air Force, I cannot imagine being on a aircraft carrier in the Navy, close quarters and jet engines are a bad combination.

https://lghoelson.wordpress.com/