Bells Ringing for Deaf Ears

Bells Ringing for Deaf Ears
By
Michael Casey

Well the bells ringing are in my ears, my tinnitus has got worse recently, at night the volume seems to go up so much so its hard to get to sleep. So I sleep with Taylor Swift, or rather her music playing while I try and get to sleep. I did try sleeping with John Denver and Simon and Garfunkel, I'll have to get a bigger size bed soon. You have to get the music just right or you cannot sleep. Too loud and it's too loud, yes it drowns the hiss from Tinnitus, but then it's too loud to sleep. I still wake every two hours, sometimes after deep sleep so I awake like a vampire. No, Taylor, John,Simon and Garfunkel thank their lucky stars that they really are not in bed with me.

It's much colder today, and the weather is overcast we are back to proper February weather. The hiss is there but I have Taylor singing to me while I try and talk to you all. It's really good I've expanded my music collection and no ads too.  The way some modern radio stations talk over the music and cut it short is criminal, and then the ads too. Remember we have BBC radio over here, which has no ads,  though other stuff between the music is just as annoying, and I won't name a certain presenter. I do listen to just speech radio as well, and that's fine Radio4, but there are other speech radio stations which are dire. Then you get a howling in your ears, caused by the bad programming. I've been a listener for over 50 years, so I know what I like.

Now radio is a companion, when my brother left home in 1974 and was a coal miner for a year, before going to Cambridge University that was when  radio came to the rescue. I sat alone in the middle room of the family house struggling with my Latin, but with an old Bush radio for company. You would get funny noises on the radio, and static like tinnitus as you turned the dial. DAB was not even dreampt of, I was an early adopter of DAB maybe 12 years ago and the quality was amazing, it was like having your ears syringed. Yes I'm sticking with the ears metaphors.

In Life there are moments which stand out, where bells rings, weddings bells maybe, this is joy. Or the bells on a fire engine when the fire brigade arrive to save you and your house, stopping for  a second right now if there was a fire do you have an exit route? I taught my kids their escape route when they were toddlers, I also had 3 smoke detectors. That's the sound you never want to hear in the middle of the night, Taylor Swift singing or John Denver singing to drown your tinnitus is ok, but a cheap smoke detector will save your family. So go out and buy 3 right now while I make a cup of tea.

Well I've made a cuppa, though I'd never speak the word "cuppa" myself, there are some words I use here on the page that  I don't use in normal speech. Are bells ringing as I admit that?One of us is PC and it isn't me. I hope what you are reading/listening to today makes sense as I am  a little dazed and cold, the weather suddenly changing maybe behind that, or I'm just an old fart, ready for the undertaker. You are so cruel, I heard what you all said. Go make your own drink, while I finish mine.

I only drink tea so that I don't drink too much coffee, though I only drink instant these past 55years maybe, I don't waste my money on expensive stuff. All this coffee in Starbucks just isn't me. Now settle down again, did you install and test those smoke detectors? Good you'll never need to thank me, you'll only ever have Taylor Swift in your ear, not a smoke alarm at 3am. Now the term "alarm bells ringing" means something, we have our own gut feelings which help protect us. If something doesn't feel right, then stop and retreat, whatever it is. Throw a bit of Salt at it was what my mother used to say. It'll keep.

Buying a house can only take 15 mins, you look around and decide you want it. No alarm bells rung because you fell in love with it. You should look for the negatives, walk and I mean WALK around the area. Does it feel right, do people smile as you walk around? Or is it a war zone?
 Or is it the  one you can only afford?  We've just gone through all that these past couple of years. So take your time, and listen for any alarm bells.

Choosing a mate, using an old fashioned word, you look for lots of different things. Is he rich, does she have great curves, is he hunky, does he  make you laugh, has she got great eyes, do you feel comfortable with him around, can you talk to him? She was the only one left, he was a compromise candidate. Whatever the reason it leads to wedding bells, and nagging and ringing in your ears for life. A Chinese doctor once told me he could not believe how much she nagged him once they started living together. So with that in mind, listen to the bells, listen to the sounds of silence, and choose wisely.

Our Politicians are the most important of all, because they can send us to war. So we should watch and fact check them  all the time. If there is a little tinkling bell like the bell on Totoro our cat we should being to watch and listen for more. We should not turn a deaf ear, because he wears nice suits, or he's so good a churchgoer and all. He believes in this and he never does that, so we trust him, we forgive him everything. The other lot are harlots and bankrupt of ideas and make us full of fears. So we'll  stick to what we have got, we'll turn a deaf ear. The question is what does it take before the wax falls, which could be a Taylor Swift song, before the wax falls. When will Jesus say "be opened"  and only then will we realise we are worshiping a golden calf?
When will we hear the bells ringing out the truth, pride comes before a fall, are we all too proud to realise we have been taken as fools? Fall 2020 is a when the Bells will Ring Loud.