Sick and Tired

There was a story on NPR this morning about kids listening to music too loud on their iPods. The experts said that ringing in the ears meant hearing loss. That is very true. I've heard that many times. The whole story reminded me of my grandfather. He went through WWII. He had three ships shot out from under him. Then he went into aviation. He flew Corsair airplanes. Those are the ones that had such a huge prop, they had the bent wings to keep the prop from hitting the ground. he told stories of flying around Washington DC towards the end of the war on patrols. He got spot-lighted and might have gotten shot down if he hadn't gotten the hell out of there. He also landed on carriers. He made an emergency landing in Galveston at one point after the war.

Then he got old. Then one day he went shooting with my dad. He had hearing protection on, but it didn't work for some reason. From that day on, he was very hard of hearing until he died a couple of years later.

I remember listening to him tell stories when I was fifteen.