Hard of Hearing

I have never really given much thought to ears. Strange funnel-like objects that look like the designer got bored, or just had a bit of a scribble and submitted it to Mother Nature. However, ears only do half the job (or less really) as the transfer from sound waves to something we interpret as noise sound is far more complex than simply directing the waves into our heads. The ear drum is a very sensitive bit of equipment, able to work in various extreme conditions such as being emersed in water, below freezing, and strangley can become super-sensitive the night after a skinful, while the rest of your body is still less than useless.
Loss of hearing is very frustrating. I often find myself unable to hear what is being said because there is a louder noise nearby. Traffic, running water, a washing machine (undoubtedly somebody else switched it on) or anything that makes a loud and continuous noise - all seem to have my mind distracted from the task of filtering out the garbage and working out what is being said. Invariably it is "Can you do something" or "Why haven't you done something else". Because I didn't hear you. I never believed in 'selective hearing' before, but now I think about it I guess it is possible to ignore people who are communicating with you, especially when they are saying "Can you do something" or "Why haven't you done something else". I don't conciously do it, and I am sure that at the time I hear it and reply, perhaps have a lengthy conversation, but in my brain there is little space left for storing the things that are said, so I either have to purge the useful things I like to remember (PINs, passwords, enemy locations in my current Xbox game, etc.) or I can choose to only store the dialogue in my short-term memory. And even then sometimes I ignore that choice too.
Choosing not to hear (or forgetting you have heard) is very different from not hearing. I suffer from sometimes not hearing everything, as most people do, and for those that suffer from this constantly certain communication mediums can become very difficult - namely telephones. This is the sort of thing you can expect from a telephone conversation with someone who is hard of hearing:
"Hi Grandma."
"Hello ducky. What can I get you for Christmas?"
"I'd like some balti dishes."
"Some what dear?"
"Balti dishes."
"Can you spell it?"
"B-A-L-T-I."
"Oh Balti. Right you are."
I'm sure everyone has a similar conversation on the phone at some point, maybe with someone in a noisy area or a bad line. It happens. In this instance though, I should have gone on to spell out the second word, as a few days and several shop assistants later, my Grandma was unable to find any 'Balti scissors'. A pity, they would have been fantastic.