Gerald and the Ringing

I Woke Up Today

Just like any other day.

There seemed to be a strange ringing in my ear this morning. I noticed it the moment I woke up.

I made a coffee, lit a fire, turned on the television.

Nothing interesting. People, dressed in their best to speak about the worst. Then the happy man with the excited voice talks about how there will be weather outside, again.

-28°C, damn that's cold. I was still going to dress the same as I did when it was -24°C though. -34°C, same clothes. I only have one winter jacket.

These numbers. What's the point? When I go to the store today, I'll ask where the -28°C hats are. Then I'll ask what they have in a 27.

The ringing seemed to be getting louder. I could hear it over the TV volume. I thought it might be my hearing aid, so I took it out.

I could still hear it, but not as loud. The volume seemed to increase in certain areas of the house. I thought my brain might be picking up wifi, so I unplugged the router.

That didn't help.

I put my hearing aid back in, in case the phone rings. Doing that made the ringing worse. I tried to forget about it.

I thought it would be wise to have a shower before I head out but I decided to eat breakfast first. I ate the entire bowl of cereal while the ringing became a constant nuisance. I could hear it over my Captain Crunch clear as day.

I shut everything off in the house thinking maybe something was interfering with my hearing aid. That didn't help. I took the damn thing out and left it on the counter. The noise was still there, within my ears, driving me mad. The closer I listened, the more it sounded like a pulsating beat of sorts. Some sort of rhythm. Very strange.

I hopped in the shower. This seemed to make the ringing stop. That is, until, I shut the shower off. Then once again I could hear this damn racket. Very faintly though. I dried up, got dressed, put a new battery in my hearing aid. I thought that might help. It didn't. That made things worse.

Dressed with extra layers and all ready to go, I opened the door.

My son was standing there with his usual scowl. That startled me. I wasn't expecting him today.

He looked cold. He starts giving me shit about not answering the door and thinking I was dead. Just because I'm old, that doesn't mean I can't take care of myself. When will these damn kids learn.

He asked me if I could hear that sound. I was baffled how he knew and asked him if he could hear it too and to that he responded with a really sarcastic, "of course I can hear it, dad!"

He motioned to the old doorbell and started pressing it aggressively. Again and again, asking me if I can hear it. That thing hasn't worked for nearly ten years but he disagreed.

I'm not sure what his problem was. He left after giving me shit. I thanked him for dropping off the dog food but ignored his speech.

Nothing was going to bring me down, I was too impressed with the day at that point. The ringing finally stopped.

End

Today's cover is titled Gerald. A Higher Quality 8K version is available.

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All images seen here were produced by me. "Huh? What? Speak up!"
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