My husband recently got hearing aids, and it has taken some time to learn how to drive them. Gone are the days when you just had a dial to turn them on and off and adjust the volume. Today's hearing aids are run by an app on your Smartphone. There are programmable settings for different environments and to get direct feed from microphones or TV sets. So you end up with the scenario of him plugged into the TV, watching a show fed directly into his ears, and me sitting beside him on the couch reading a book, and I don't have to hear the TV at all. Unless I want to, and then I can turn up the external volume. However, it also means that if I want to comment on the show we're watching together, I have to pause the TV and he has to grab his phone and change over to allow himself to hear "background" noise. I am now relegated to being background noise. I suspect I'll have fewer comments to make in future. I do think it's an improvement, though, not having to stumble down from the bedroom at 1 a.m. to ask him to turn down the volume of the TV. Silence is bliss!
The hearing aids nestle in a little recharging box, content to be together as long as the power is charging them. If you turn off the power or remove them from the box, however, and they are anywhere near each other, they let off an unpleasant high-pitched squeal, like distressed canaries. Are they wailing for sustenance? Feed me! Feed me! Or are they throwing temper tantrums? How dare you confine me to this stupid box with him! It's deafening even to me, from across the room. They settle down once they're in place in Hubby's ears or if they're separated, like children being sent to their respective Time Out stools.
The weird thing is that he can't---or hasn't figured out how to---adjust the volume. You'd think that's a pretty vital feature, no? So when he plays his bagpipes, the sound is amplified to a truly painful level, and he has to remove the hearing aids and put them in their travel case. Except the travel case doesn't recharge them, only holds them. Together. My husband could hear them screaming in the trunk of the car all the way home.
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