Category: Getting Older

bookmark_borderGoodbye for now. I am going to enjoy some quiet time in my garden. (As if.)

Posted on by Christine Elias

We’ll be travelling to the U.K. in a few weeks, and I’m determined to pack lightly.

I have never been an especially strong person, but now as I settle into middle-age — when does that start anyway? — I absolutely cannot carry a large suitcase up stairs and on and off trains. And we will be on a train! I love trains…

And so, this post was supposed to be about some packing tricks I learned on YouTube and about the electric train we’re taking from Edinburgh to London.

But then I googled middle-age, and now I don’t feel like typing with my aged, wrinkly fingers anymore. According to this one website I visited, I will be middle-aged for just a few more months.

I thought I had five years left! I mean I don’t think it starts at 55 like this article says — but surely it doesn’t end there!

  • Mature (55-70):Your kids are young adults or grown-ups and you’re finding comfort in neutral colours. Retirement is on the horizon and you’re looking forward to some quiet time in the garden and the grandkids making an appearance.

Does not having kids extend the period for me? I’m not ready, or interested in, being a “mature” adult. (What kind of dumb euphemism is that anyway? Mature sounds like I am plant that has reached is full height or something.)

Goodbye for now. I am going to enjoy some quiet time in my garden. (As if.)

bookmark_borderAnother thing to potentially blame on the broken AC

Posted on by Christine Elias

I woke up this morning thinking there was construction or drilling happening on our roof as there was a really loud rhythmic humming noise in both of my ears.

I can’t hold a conversation easily without my hearing aids in, so I don’t engage my loved one in conversation in the morning, because while I can talk just fine, I can barely hear the answers — so we avoid that for martial harmony. But today I could not help it and asked about that horrible noise.

So after some loud talking right into my ear, I learned that only I could hear the noise. No construction. No drilling. Nothing. Just regular house noise, which I can’t hear anyway — especially with no hearing aids.

Oh no! Was it back — but way worse?

About 15 years ago, I developed severe tinnitus and after getting new hearing aids, using a white noise machine at night and some CBT, I got some relief.

It took about six months to get “better” but it never really went away, but I almost never notice it now. Except this morning!

I freaked out, it was extremely anxiety-inducing and I was very worried — like last time — that it would not stop for a long time without some serious intervention. And maybe would not stop at all.

Thankfully it did stop after about an hour. (And some calming words from my also very worried beloved.)

After it was all over, I used my good friend Dr. Google (as one does) and I think maybe it was “reactive tinnitus” — a type of tinnitus that gets worse with exposure to mild to moderate levels of sound. We are sleeping with a huge noisy fan in our bedroom (thanks heat wave) … so maybe that caused it? Mind you, some audiologists say it’s not really a thing — all I know is that it was loud and very real.

So far so good, it didn’t start up again today. But I am worried now it will come back any minute.