Random crap with Uno.

[Rusty Edge]

As for the hunting, when I got a degenerative nerve condition in my right ear, I found out how much noise damage I'd done to my left ear by shooting every day( practicing when I wasn't hunting), even with protection.

I quit to preserve what hearing I had, while I still had it. That's the big reason.

I don't have land or crops anymore, so no varmints to hunt.  I might get frustrated and infuriated  not being able to hear the game if I tried to hunt with a bow or something. I don't have any family in this time zone, so there's no social aspect of going hunting or camping any more.

My wife is more of a cabin person than a camper, and a fisher rather than a hunter. So spending a couple of weeks a year sitting with her in a small boat, catching fish and watching the mink and eagles, etc. usually satisfies that urge to get back to nature. She's serious about it and doesn't chatter in the boat, so I do get a chance to clear my head.

But we're usually within a mile of a  cell tower,  the cabin has a tv, and there are relatives in the rest of the cabins on the street. So it's like a small noisy house.

To satisfy my urge to get off the grid, I get a better fix at Disney or on a cruise ship. On the cruise ship we turn the phones off, so that we don't get pinged and hosed with international rates. We don't watch tv in either place, unless it's to check the weather,  so we are blissfully unaware of the news, sports, and financial markets.

[Geo]

Debating how to respond to the inevitable "oh, I'll take your picture" from a kindly tourist that offers to use my camera.  The average joe isn't going to be able to even attempt to operate my camera.

Just say its either a specialized instrument, or the settings are too sensitive to explain in a hurry.

As for the hunting, when I got a degenerative nerve condition in my right ear, I found out how much noise damage I'd done to my left ear by shooting every day( practicing when I wasn't hunting), even with protection.

I quit to preserve what hearing I had, while I still had it. That's the big reason.

Did the nerve condition happen because of the noise damage, or was it something that simply developed as you aged?

[Rusty Edge]

As I aged.

The nerve condition is Meniere's disease-
 

Perhaps you've heard of it. They say it's about as miserable as you can get without being terminal.  Getting on a carnival ride drunk and being unable to get off again is a pretty good description of what it feels like , too.
 
I have the classic case in my right ear- so it affects my cognitive function , too.
I believe that it is a caused by a latent herpesviridae , which tend to imbed in cranial nerves and lie dormant for decades.  Then burst forth with something surprising like shingles or Bell's Palsy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herpesviridae

I have had the 4 symptoms-
1) rotational vertigo, often followed by nausea, vomiting chills, cold sweats, and diarrhea
2) hearing loss. It varies from day to day, but the trend is worse.
3) tinnitus that never goes away.
4) fullness or pressure in the affected ear.
And the optional
5) drop attacks.- sort of like suddenly being pulled over backwards or tripped. That's the painful part.

It's what you call ideopathic- there is no definitive test, cause, or cure.
It's determined by differential diagnosis- ruling out everything else.
So doctors often take the good news/ bad news approach- We finally know what's wrong with you. We can't cure it or stop it from getting worse.  You'll have to figure it out on your own.

In life, some people take the "fight it" approach and strive for full recovery.
In this case, I took the "roll with it " approach. I  expect crap to happen and I prepare for it and try to otherwise adapt to a new reality.

The 24/7 tinnitus and vertigo and drop attacks cause people anxiety, and progressive deafness causes depression, and a lot of people go on valium. Valium is a drug I would be addicted to in no time at all, so I refuse to have it prescribed.


Anyway, I've rearranged my life, and I haven't vomited in years. That part really gets old once the stomach is empty. I retired in '04, and got this syndrome in '07, in my late forties.
I haven't vomited since '09. So the other dizziness is easy.

That may sound like it sucks, but my Dad died of cancer when he was 33. Life is kinda relative. 

Probably more than anybody wanted to know. Any questions?


Well, I didn't mean to highjack the thread, but I guess it is random crap. Buncle can always split this off.

[Buster's Uncle]

Why?

I can attest that the thing about deafness and depression has something to it.  Being a little deaf so it doesn't really show is still a horrific social barrier - the misunderstandings, the actually minding noise more because it makes you functionally deafer, the related impaired enjoyment of anything involving crowds or music at much volume -which leaves out an awful lot of restaurants- that lonely feeling of realizing everybody knows the words to songs but you...

Being self-reliant is great, in concept, but there just too many of the things you might want to do in this world that you can't do alone.

[Rusty Edge]

Because this is Uno's thread, and that is sort of random crap with Rusty.
I'd respect his wishes.

[Geo]

Definitely more then I expected to hear.
I assume you had to retire due to this condition. Is your spouse still working? I can imagine money is hard to come by if you're not still working.

[Unorthodox]

So, I was loading the car, and between a couple trips with bags, someone pulled up and stole the luggage right out of the rental car in our driveway. 

The boys lost their clothes that were packed, but mostly had replacements.  I pretty much lost everything I had that wasn't the nice pants they make me wear at work.  Had to do shopping on the way up, which turned a planned arrival of 2 pm into 6 pm.  Oi. Awake in the wee hours right now before the rest of the family, sunrise in an hour.

[Geo]

So, I was loading the car, and between a couple trips with bags, someone pulled up and stole the luggage right out of the rental car in our driveway.

Bloody hell.
Do you think someone from the neighbourhood stole it?

[Rusty Edge]

So, I was loading the car, and between a couple trips with bags, someone pulled up and stole the luggage right out of the rental car in our driveway. 

The boys lost their clothes that were packed, but mostly had replacements.  I pretty much lost everything I had that wasn't the nice pants they make me wear at work.  Had to do shopping on the way up, which turned a planned arrival of 2 pm into 6 pm.  Oi. Awake in the wee hours right now before the rest of the family, sunrise in an hour.

That's terrible! Was it just clothes, or did you loose camera and electronics, too?

[Rusty Edge]

Definitely more then I expected to hear.
I assume you had to retire due to this condition. Is your spouse still working? I can imagine money is hard to come by if you're not still working.

1) I misunderstood your original question. For about 6 weeks, I was frequently misunderstanding my wife, asking people to repeat themselves, and turning up the TV.

Then as I was getting out of bed one day BANG! Worst vertigo attack of my life. We feared it was a brain tumor or something. So, in hindsight it was a gradual onset, but in experience it was as sudden as a muscle cramp.

2) No, I retired a couple of years before that.

3) Money? Don't feel sorry for me. My wife is great with it. House and cars and Disney time share are paid for. We have great investments.  In fact, she was Chief Accounting Officer for several divisions of Viola North America. I used to work as an insurance adjuster, and she never did like me traveling working late and unpredictable hours. She said the money I made only went to pay taxes, and she would rather have me home getting dinner ready and running errands so that she had her evenings and weekends free. I was clashing with my boss, over ethical issues, and got let go.  She said don't find another job, and I've lived happily ever after.

True, her parent company sold everything piece by piece to raise cash, and she was terminated to cut costs. She had the last laugh, because once she was gone one of the Vice Presidents committed $40 million in fraud.

So the fact that I'm too inconsistent to hold a job if I needed one doesn't cause a problem. She liked to keep 6 months salary as a cash reserve because she's been laid off before in her career. While my wife hasn't been able to find another Chief Accounting Officer job locally, she could get project work if we really needed money, but we're enjoying spending all of our time together.

Thanks for your concern.

[Buster's Uncle]

I don't have any trouble seeing you clashing with your boss over ethical issues - I have trouble seeing such an utterly lovely person (complement) being an insurance adjuster - that sounds no more fitting than when my grampa, who loved dogs and desperately wanted no one mad at him ever, worked for a while as dog catcher.

Incidentally, I put a lot into understanding my friends here, and I'm confident that Uno doesn't mind a little letting the flow of conversation go where it goes in his "Random" thread, provided we don't keep it up forever or drift into talking forum politics.

---

Uno, good luck with Yellowstone, and I'm freaked out by someone pulling into your driveway to rip you off - the open car clearly says you thought you'd be right back, and that sounds like druggies cruising your neighborhood looking for quick opportunity crimes.  You need to call the po-po then you get back, for purposes of getting more patrols in the neighborhood.  Dude.  Seriously.

[Geo]

Good to hear you guys are still on top of things, Rusty.
Out of curiosity, did I phrase my question in a weird way or something? English isn't my first language, so...

[Rusty Edge]

You write pretty well most of the time.

I think it's probably a matter of

1) it's a peculiar syndrome, and doesn't fit either/or categories very well.

2) I can deal with the syndrome better by ignoring it, or parts of it. If I acknowledge the tinnitus/"ringing in the ears", for example,  it's harder to tolerate. So I focused on the "it wasn't part of the noise damage". The right ear masked the noise damage until the Meniere's started up.

[Unorthodox]

Just clothes.  We've had people take stuff from garages before. 

Neighbor across the street:  "Ya know, I wondered if I should go get that license plate.  It was a bald guy in a white car." 

You WONDERED?  Really? 

Whatever. 

I had taken the two out, then had to bring Talia's bag back in because something wasn't packed yet.  Was taking the computer out after that when I found the empty car.  Hope they enjoy the socks and undies. 

Idaho Falls has a decent mall, better than the Ogden and Layton ones, who knew? 

[Rusty Edge]

I don't have any trouble seeing you clashing with your boss over ethical issues - I have trouble seeing such an utterly lovely person (complement) being an insurance adjuster - that sounds no more fitting than when my grampa, who loved dogs and desperately wanted no one mad at him ever, worked for a while as dog catcher.

Family handed me the job. I turned it down at first, but when my Mom asked me she cried, and I folded. Didn't want it at the time, put it paid well with benefits, I got to travel and be alone most of the time. Lots of times you get to be the hero. I was tops in the exams, and was going to specialize in the part I enjoyed the most- getting the clients inspected, inventoried, documented, and organized  before they had a claim. That way everything was quicker and easier when they did have bad luck. But it was never to be.

 It wasn't until the 3rd boss that I had problems, when I moved to be in the same city as my future wife.  I liked to see as much money as possible go to the people who had bad luck, rather than the ones who were negligent, fraudulent, or just felt entitled. My 3rd manager was more interested in pleasing the agents who wrote the most business. As you can imagine, those who sell the most aren't always the most honest about their products, or careful about taking the time to match them to the needs of their clients. When I say I was let go, they gradually stopped assigning cases to me. Nothing formal.

Well, in the graft vs. Bureaucracy thing, you need the complex paperwork for insurance, or the greed takes over quickly. Almost everybody is acting in self-interest, and don't think of it as stealing from their community by driving up costs.