on October 1 I became a hard-of-hearing (as opposed to deaf) mute. I achieved the hearing impairment simply by wearing earplugs and became mute simply by not saying a word for the rest of that day, as well as the following morning. The first discovery that I made was that my family (and probably everyone else) listens to the television at a ridiculously loud volume. Even though both of my ear canals were blocked, I had no problems understanding what was taking place on the programs that we watched. However I did run into some trouble around dinner. We (my future in-laws) were saying the blessing, but I had to keep one eye open so I would know when the prayer was over. Another interesting thing was that while driving with the ear plugs in, I became more aware of the vibrations of my truck, the tires, and the bumps in the road. My tires are not the “normal” highway tire-even though they are perfectly legal-and they generate quite a bit shaking. This shaking is odd to me though because it isn’t so obvious that I notice it any other day, but only when my hearing is impaired. The music in my truck also took on a new role. Usually I use my speakers to drowned out the moaning of the tires, but now I have discovered that they can be used as a massage. I have felt them thump against my back before, but that thump absent from sound became an aggressive back pounding. As for my driving experiences as a mute, everyone should try it as a way to defeat their road rage. It certainly stopped my meaningless comments, not to mention I felt better about myself when I got home.My biggest, yet far from profound, discovery in this experiment is related to speaking. Since speech was no option for communication, I opted for the dry erase board as a form of communication. When writing is the only available form of communication ( I am ignorant of sign language) I tend to pick and choose carefully what is important enough to wr...
