It's not old age, he's mumbling.....isn't he?

(I'm 55. And while I know my hearing isn't as good as it was 10 years ago, it's still good. I don't have much trouble with it during my workday and errand-running.....)

Me 15 minutes ago: something along the lines of "I thought I could turn the oven on by now for cornbread to go with beans, but boy it's still too hot isn't it?"

DH: "yeah, condu zzu AFF but alla nu go ttff so freendd appa see cond'e. No krnnd alamapap to condolizarice".

Me: "sorry honey, what?"

DH: "Zuzzu the oven, markkkkkky sephed tutu yull tammined cornbread, alamapap oven, zrashha prappa tff nu see. Just yenn zzhe warggarder....."

Me: well, silence. I gave up. There was no understanding what the man was saying. I swear he's just mumbling to me lately.

Is it just me? Or is there a lot more mumbling going on lately? I think that's it.

Chime in.

:)

OK, first of all, are you sure he's just mumbling? I mean, this is a humorous thread, right? Cause , mumbling incoherently is a sign of serious stuff. Brain stuff. Please tell me this is just a kind of joke thread. OK?

Oh yes, I can always hear the subject of his sentence but what exactly he wants to convey about, for instance (the topic tonight) the cat's tail, I don't know. I heard mumble mumble Cat's Tail.

It's very annoying. And then, we always have at least one of these noise distractions going on at the same time: radio or big dog barking or little dog barking or tv. In our youth we could overcome the simultaneous noise, but not now.

For the record, he was commenting on the fact that the cat's tail had been shaved at the groomer.

Peggy: humor. No brain problems (beyond the usual). :)

At least he is responding. My husband usually says nothing. If I want/need an answer I will say 'hello, did you hear me' to which he will the answer 'yes'. Okay, so what did I say? He will either repeat what I said or just smile because he was ignoring me. Or something like this 'do you want burgers for dinner or should we get pizza?', his response 'okay'.

I have the opposite problem, and spend half my life--it seems--wearing earplugs--the reason my next house will have soundproof windows.

I have Meniere's syndrome, and spend a good part of my time in mumbleland. Unfortunately for me, hearing aids are not an option, but they can be a real blessing. Especially to your partner: I try the patience of my local saint frequently with requests to repeat. Not hearing clearly is stressful and frustrating.

One thing my ex did that really annoyed me (and he accused me of poor hearing) was walk off or turn away while talking to me. Then I couldn't hear all of what he said. Passive aggressive sh*t, if you ask me.

My DH mumbles in the middle monotone range. Hard to hear him above the fridge running or water coming out of a tap.

However, I did get my hearing tested (twice at competing offices) and discovered that I was missing the higher frequency range of sounds like birds, crickets etc., plus I was missing the first letter of some words.

Hearing is like reading apparently.
When you learned to read, you eventually got the first letter and the last letter and figured out the word and context. If you didn't understand the first letter, you could not read. It is the same with hearing. If I don't get the first letter of the word, I cannot figure out the word being spoken. This is normal with the usual hearing loss, it seems.

I also wanted to be tested by an audiologist but the best info on the actual aids came from the Hearing Aid Specialist in the same office.

My dad mumbles everything and complains that we don't listen to him anyway. How can we. He'll mumble something, then repeat it by yelling it with exaggerated diction. He doesn't listen to anything either. Or pay attention to anything, even while driving. Scary stuff, but he is 78.