Hi, all. I've just joined there are so many stories I'd like to tell, to see if anyone else here has been through the same, that I might write several posts. First, this: competing with other sounds. I'm told that people with good hearing can filter out unwanted sounds, but it's more like they are the ones who are deaf and not me!
Example 1: I was in a group, and the leader of the group was playing something to us through speakers. I sat myself down right near one speaker to see if I could decipher what we were supposed to be listening to. A man I know came and stood speaking to me from about 12 feet away; it was obvious, as he was looking right at me and no-one else was nearby, that he was speaking to ME. I shrugged and pointed to the speaker, as if to say, "You expect us to hear each other - over THAT?!" He walked away immediately and actually left the building, as if I'd said, "I'd rather listen to this, than listen to you," which hadn't been the case at all.
Example 2: Recently, the love of my life's "mortal remains" were buried. Thank goodness that only happens once, but you want to remember it and don't want a sad occasion made worse than it has to be. The priest was talking in front of this hole in the ground in the graveyard, and someone in the road nearby started using a pneumatic drill. I could hardly believe the priest carried on as if nothing was happening! In his place, I would have either paused, or asked the user of the drill to kindly stop for a while. I was right next to the priest and couldn't hear a word over the noise of the drill. I looked around and everyone else present seemed oblivious to it too. I had to take my aids out as I found the situation unbearable.
In neither of these examples was the competing noise an unobtrusive background noise. Anyone else here been similarly bewildered by other people's attitude to noises?
