DID YOU HEAR THAT?
from Catherine Castle
The other morning while having breakfast my husband said, “Listen. Do you hearthat?”
"What?” I asked.
“That whoosha whoosha sound.”
I listenedintently. “Nope. All I hear is the ticka ticka ticka of the refrigerator in itsthaw cycle.”
“No,” he replied. “It’s definitely a whoosha whoosha.”
Icocked my head toward the fridge. “No it’s ticka ticka.” “Wait,” he said.“It’s changed. It’s now zzz zzz zzz, like the vibrating sound my toyfootball players used to make on their metal field.
“That’s more of arooma rooma rooma noise.” I replied.
“No. It’s zzz zzz zzz,” heinsisted.
Breakfast was on hold and the cereal got soggy in our bowls as weargued back and forth while the sounds of the thawing cycle of the fridgechanged every few minutes. Neither of us heard what the other heard. Finally,the debate ended with a ka-thunk at the end of the defrost cycle. Silencefilled the kitchen.
“I don’t hear anything now.” I spooned up a serving of mushybran cereal, anxious to get back to my breakfast before it dissolved any more.
“Tick tock tick tock,” hubby said as the Mickey Mouse clock second handrounded the clock face.
“I hear that,” I said. It was the only sound we agreedon, and it’s one that is universally known to represent a clock.
Now, I know menare from Mars and women are from Venus, and we are different in sooooo manyways. But I always thought hearing was hearing. After all, our ears, male orfemale, are built the same way. We have the same little ear canals connected tothe same parts of the brain. I knew, even when I couldn’t hear the sounds, whatthe writers meant when Batman and Robin fought the bad guys and cartoon balloonsappeared on the television screen screaming BAM! POW! SOCKO!
But that morning in the kitchen I had a revelation: I wasn’t to blame when Icouldn’t get a mechanic to understand me! All those years I failed to fullycommunicate with male mechanics wasn’t because I lacked something.
When myhusband describes a funny sound in our car, the mechanics all nod their headsknowingly. But when I describe the odd sounds, the male mechanics look at melike I have two heads. I always wondered why I could never get my point acrossto them, no matter how many times I repeated the explanation of the sounds.
Now,I know why. Apparently, men lack the finite hearing of a woman. They don’t hearthings right. A rattle rattle, clatter clatter, boom boom boom probablysounds like chicka chicka, sissa sissa, thunk thunk thunk to them. Andanyone with a pair of ears can hear that there’s a world of difference betweenthe two sounds.
Hummm. Maybe I need a female mechanic. She’ll get it. Unlike aguy.
What about you? Does your man hear the same things you do? And I don’t meanwhen someone speaks to you. That’s a whole ’nother blog post.
All my best,
Catherine
Multi-award-winning author Catherine Castle has been writing all her life. A former freelance writer, she has over 600 articles and photographs to her credit (under her real name) in the Christian and secular market. Now she writes sweet and inspirational romance. Her debut inspirational romantic suspense, The Nun and the Narc, from Soul Mate Publishing, has garnered multiple contests finals and wins.Catherine loves writing, reading, traveling, singing, watching movies, and the theatre. In the winter she loves to quilt and has a lot of UFOs (unfinished objects) in her sewing case. In the summer her favorite place to be is in her garden. She’s passionate about gardening and even won a “Best Hillside Garden” award from the local gardening club.
Learn more about Catherine Castle on her website and blog . Stay connected on Facebook and Twitter . Be sure to check out Catherine’s Amazon author page and her Goodreads page . You can also find Catherine on Stitches Thru Time and the SMP authors blog site .
