Wednesday 5 August 2015

The Radio is Blaring!!!

If you're a HOH, you'll probably cringe at this story.
If you're a 'hearing person' who lives, or has lived with a HOH, this may sound familiar.

Disclaimer: This is a true story. It happened to us in September 2013, when I was 7 months pregnant and starting to really have trouble sleeping at night.

Imagine someone screaming (or maybe just mouthing) in the dead of the night to you  saying the following words: "THE RADIO IS BLARING!!! THE RADIO IS BLARING!!!". You might think that this person was crazy. That was my first thought. That person - my sister in law (SIL) - was going postal for a very good reason, as my bedside table clock/alarm/radio was indeed blaring away.


Photo courtesy of Flickr

Let me back up a little bit on the story here.

Two weeks earlier, we FINALLY moved into our bedroom, after a 6 week renovation in our en-suite bathroom. It was absolutely wonderful to sleep in our bedroom given that sleeping in the family room meant we woke up whenever the sun shone in our eyes (there's a garden window and ceiling window that cannot be covered up, despite our best efforts). Naturally, we plugged up all our techno gadgets - phone charger/dock, dri-aid, bedside lamps, and of course, the digital alarm clock. 

Unfortunately for us, we didn't realize that our alarm clock had a radio setting that could be turned on by timer! Seems when you unplug the clock, it goes to default settings (how I didn't know that baffles me...). So, theoretically, the radio COULD have been going off  full blast every NIGHT for the last TWO weeks. It doesn't help that we're HOHs and that absolutely no sound will wake us up, unless you rev up an airplane next to my ear.

Crap. What a way to welcome your very FIRST house guest! I can only assume that my SIL laid in her bed debating whether to just tune out the noise, or decide to call us. I bet she waited like 15 minutes or something to that effect. Interestingly enough, she chose to wake us up by switching on the main lights on and off repeatedly. My first thoughts were: "Holy Lights Batman! Is this a dream???" 

A dream it was not. My eyes caught a glimpse of the open door and a blurry vision (at that point, I didn't think to put on my glasses) of my SIL screaming (or so I think she was - mouthing words and screaming looks the same to a HOH, honestly!) the words:

"THE RADIO IS BLARING!!! THE RADIO IS BLARING!!!"

Once I deciphered what she was saying, I'm pretty sure I went: 

"Oh my!" goes to check the alarm clock. Feels vibration of the sound (hello, I'm NOT going to put on my cochlear implant when my brain is half asleep!), and finally figure out how to shut off the darn thing.

To this day, I'm pretty sure my SIL considers this episode memorable - funny from her perspective, but very embarrassing from my end! (and, I can only imagine how ridiculous I looked getting out of bed in a panic - big belly and all)

Note: the reason why I bring this story up nearly two years after the fact is because our sweet daughter figured out how to turn on the radio on a timer in the guest bedroom. For the longest time we couldn't figure out where or what the sound was! (After a significant period of time and racing around the house, we managed to pinpoint the culprit)

Oh, the things that happen only when you're a HOH!

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