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I almost lost my hearing from the lid on the tank of a toilet

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Re: I almost lost my hearing from the lid on the tank of a toilet

#111

Post by kirse »

cschneid wrote: post #94
macintux wrote: post #83

I very recently thought I might have permanently damaged my eyesight. I was working from a library, and stood to start closing up for the day. As I started to close my laptop, the screen (hi, glossy MacBook Pro) directly reflected the sun behind me. For the next 15-20 minutes a significant portion of my vision in both eyes was wavy. I could still safely drive home, thankfully, but it was a severe distraction. While I…

My biggest fear right now as a developer is losing the ability to work due to an injury. I recently bought long-term disability insurance, which is expensive for sure, but makes me feel so much safer. (what I got - after 6 months of self-covered disability, it'd pay a significant amount every month until age 65) My main worry is falling while biking or skiing, and knocking my head. But now I'm worried about eyesight,…

Max out the LTD insurance and enjoy life. I ride a motorcycle, there's only so much you can control in life. If you're that concerned about the chance of freak-odds events happening in your life, you might as well be buying lottery tickets too.

I know a dev who is paralyzed and types/codes (quite well, too) with a pen attached to his forehead, you'd find a way to adapt.

Re: I almost lost my hearing from the lid on the tank of a toilet

#112

Post by lostlogin »

gowld wrote: post #97
lotsofpulp wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fixing a toilet is dead simple, as are most household tasks. Either you'd have to be very rich to not have it be worth 1 hour of your time, since a plumber will surely be $100 at least, or you can't be bothered to watch a couple short videos on youtube.

Handyman is more like $50, and it's insurance against permanent hearing damage, breathing fiberglass, etc.

Yes, and then you have to book them, be there when they come (possibly taking time off work) and call them when they are late or don’t show. Then you find the counter top scratched and the problem reoccurs 3 days later, except when you look there is a massive goop of some crappy sealant instead of an actual part in there. Do it yourself, it’s quicker, cheaper and you don’t get as angry when it goes wrong.

Re: I almost lost my hearing from the lid on the tank of a toilet

#114

Post by lotsofpulp »

gowld wrote: post #97
lotsofpulp wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fixing a toilet is dead simple, as are most household tasks. Either you'd have to be very rich to not have it be worth 1 hour of your time, since a plumber will surely be $100 at least, or you can't be bothered to watch a couple short videos on youtube.

Handyman is more like $50, and it's insurance against permanent hearing damage, breathing fiberglass, etc.

As an independent contractor, if you're charging $50/hour, I question your finances/skills unless you're in a very low cost area and even then it's pretty unbelievable. The risks for household tasks are so rare that they do not come into calculations, it's like worrying about tripping every time you take a step.

Re: I almost lost my hearing from the lid on the tank of a toilet

#115

Post by lostlogin »

Keverw wrote: post #8

That's insane! Never would of thought it would mess with your hearing. I figured just a nasty mess to clean up. Our toilet seems like it wants to run every so often but usually wiggling the lever helps. I hate lifting that thing up, always imagine what a mess it would be if you dropped it. I wish they made the tank lids out of plastic.

They do. They delaminates and discolour. The plastic doesn’t like various chemicals and doesn’t like UV.

Re: I almost lost my hearing from the lid on the tank of a toilet

#116

Post by psyc »

macintux wrote: post #83

I very recently thought I might have permanently damaged my eyesight. I was working from a library, and stood to start closing up for the day. As I started to close my laptop, the screen (hi, glossy MacBook Pro) directly reflected the sun behind me. For the next 15-20 minutes a significant portion of my vision in both eyes was wavy. I could still safely drive home, thankfully, but it was a severe distraction. While I…

I've had occasional ocular migraines for about 20 years. They aren't painful. They show up as golden, wavy distortions in my visual field. I can't work or drive when it's in effect. Typically triggered by staring at a screen for a long time without a break.

Re: I almost lost my hearing from the lid on the tank of a toilet

#117

Post by scarecrowbob »

jads wrote: post #82
abakker wrote: post #78

I work a lot in a wood shop/metal shop. I’ve always been a big proponent of ear protection. Recently, I’ve been using shure in ear monitors for blocking small sounds and supplementing with ear muffs when real tools are on. However, I’ve started to just wear those in ear monitors around even without listening to anything. The ear plug feature is actually really great. I can get on muni or bart in the Bay Area with the…

I've tried Shure (and other) earphones like this before, but could never stand the rustling of cable noise. Does that bother you at all, or do you have any recommendations for stopping it? I've tried shirt clips and cable loops, but nothing ever worked. For now, I use either over-ear noise canceling headphones or just AirPods.

I like the Shure's quite a bit and have used them professionally as a musician. I've experienced similar issues

Part of the issue is solved by running them over the backs of the ears so they exit down your neck. Additionally, mine have a cord pair keeper, and when I push that closer to the ends, that helps.

Another thing that's helped has been to get picker about which inserts I use. My ear canals aren't the same size (which I thought was strange, but whatever).

Re: I almost lost my hearing from the lid on the tank of a toilet

#118

Post by eaandkw2 »

astura wrote: post #81
ryandrake wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s often a cost/risk trade off. A lot of things do fix themselves with time and if you default to going right to the doctor every time you’re injured or feel sick it’s going to cost a fortune, unless you have some kind of gold plated insurance. Some things have to be looked at right away, but for some things it’s unnecessary, and it can pay to wait it out. (of course the above reasoning is pretty specific to the US…

It's not even a cost, I have free healthcare through the military and I hesitate to visit doctors. First off, 99% of the time whatever it is fixes itself with time. Going to the doctor requires lots of time and effort, outside urgent care or the ER you're going to have to be going during the workday. Then they might refer you to other doctors and each one wants more and more of your time. I know a guy who goes to the…

Going to war in Iraq a few times I have heard and experienced a lot of loud sounds. Being about 20m away from the impact of a 105mm canon from an AC-130 was pretty loud. Being right next to a M1 Abrams was probably the worst. A Marine near me actually had a collapsed lung from being in the blast zone. I also RSO’d for a range that shot off 41 SMAW rockets. I had a bad headache for a couple of days after that. Then there was that time that I parked my LAV-25 about 100m from an artillery battery right before they fired a mission where they had to be using a charge 8 or something because a kept losing my train of thought for a minute or so every time they fired a volley.

And yes my hearing is pretty bad now. Hopefully I can get hearing aid later on.

Edit: changed ear plugs to hearing aid.

Re: I almost lost my hearing from the lid on the tank of a toilet

#119

Post by rootusrootus »

LaGrange wrote: post #27
krupan wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That looks much harder to get into the tank to fix things. Is it?

I thought so too when these started to get common, but for one reason or another I _never_ had to fix one of these in like 15 years I've lived with them, compared to the almost regular maintenance the old stuff required.

I think the 'regular' style toilet tanks only require more frequent maintenance because they're inexpensive and people use crappy home store parts in them. You can buy five regular old toilets for the price of that wall-mount Toto.

My policy is to use high quality parts in the tank and I've found it pays dividends -- it's been years since I've had to do any maintenance on any of our toilets aside from cleaning.

Re: I almost lost my hearing from the lid on the tank of a toilet

#120

Post by macintux »

psyc wrote: post #116
macintux wrote: post #83

I very recently thought I might have permanently damaged my eyesight. I was working from a library, and stood to start closing up for the day. As I started to close my laptop, the screen (hi, glossy MacBook Pro) directly reflected the sun behind me. For the next 15-20 minutes a significant portion of my vision in both eyes was wavy. I could still safely drive home, thankfully, but it was a severe distraction. While I…

I've had occasional ocular migraines for about 20 years. They aren't painful. They show up as golden, wavy distortions in my visual field. I can't work or drive when it's in effect. Typically triggered by staring at a screen for a long time without a break.

Interesting. Definitely in my case it was an afterimage, but my family is prone to migraines.
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