Resistance is Futile

I was going down my list of blogsites and got to Resistance is Futile, another member of the LLP group of exceptional writers. I mention this because yesterday I had to work in our Houston heat a little longer than normal, having to make keys to several cars without a break. When I finished and drove down the street and all I could think of was inhaling a chocolate milk shake. It was so hot and humid that I had removed my hearing aids to avoid ruining them as the sweat poured off my head. I have learned that the small batteries quickly corrode and it only takes an hour or so for them to dissolve and so I take special care not to destroy such expensive units.

There was a line of young women, all wearing some kind of sports jerseys trying to decide what to order as I dripped all over the floor, the beads of sweat pouring off my skin. I placed my order and observed a few of the patrons sitting around eating their lunch.

One fellow was sitting all by himself, apparently talking to himself as he occasionally sipped through a straw and went back to talking to the invisible person directly across the table from him. A further study made it clear that he had some sort of device attached directly to his right ear; how silly of me, he was talking into his cellular telephone. The more I looked over in his direction the more agitated the man became, as if I were eavesdropping or maybe he might have a huge zit on his nose. He could not have known that I am almost deaf without my hearing aids, the ones that were in my pocket until I cooled off a bit.

I finally got my chocolate shake and began to enjoy it. The fellow with the large plastic lump on his ear got up and started to walk to the exit. I couldn’t help myself, being a Star Trek fan, “Resistance is Futile”, I blurted out. I quickly forced a smirk of a smile and waved innocuously so that he wouldn’t take a swing at me.

I don’t have to wear a silly ear gadget ever since I purchased a “loop” transmitter that plugs into the base of my cell phone. I have no idea exactly how it works other than it sends the audio information to my hearing aids and now I can listen in stereo. It looks quite a bit like a country western bolo tie and it permits me the luxury of “hands free” communications while working or driving.

I was standing in line at the post office to mail a package to my folks, all the while talking into the microphone located in that “loop”. The lady in front of me had no idea that I was in the middle of a conversation with a “real” person via my fancy gadgets. She actually took a couple of steps to move away from the crazy guy behind her.

“Resistance is Futile”.