Can You Hear Me Now?

First off, let me get the happy new year out of the way. Happy new year! There we go. The holidays have been jam packed for me, and even though I've not been at work much, I've been pretty busy just running around, or with company over. For the few days that I had neither of those going on, I just sat around and rested. The break was not nearly long enough, but it was certainly a lot of fun. I hope that everyone else had a safe, and fun Christmas and New Year.

As for the topic of my post, I'm fairly certain that people are going deaf. Not only are they becoming hard of hearing, but it is their own doing that is causing it. A lot of people that I know have a hard time hearing things that are softer. They always seem to not hear the same things that I can. I don't think that I necessarily have better hearing that I should, but that they have worse. The primary cause of this, is often what they are having to turn up: music and television. They spend a lifetime of listening to loud music, and blaring TV sets, and as they get older they just turn them up even more, perpetuating it.

One of the biggest problems I have with bars is the noise. They are usually quite loud, and I have no desire to sit there and have my ears assaulted. If I'm out at a bar, I'm going to want to talk without having to shout. Most of the places I go have a fairly low level of noise, usually. There are people talking and rustling around, but they don't blast music, or turn the TVs up past a sane level. Last night, however, that was not the case. One of my usual places, a place I visit pretty much weekly, was overrun with crazy OU and WV fans. Instead of being able to watch my Mavericks and Stars in peace, I was subject to a barrage of cheering and a speaker system blasting the TV broadcast loud enough that I'm sure the apartments down the street could hear it clearly. Of course, I'm sure that the only reason they needed to achieve such a volume was to compensate for their loss of hearing. Had these fans grown up appreciating sound in moderation, there would be no need to turn the dumb thing up so loud.

I know what you are thinking at this point: "Jeremy, if you're just going to complain about this, why don't you just not go to the bars in the first place?" That's simple, I have a good time going out with friends. Also, I just like to complain. Really, though, do yourself and your hearing a favor. Turn the volume down a bit, and start enjoying your tunes and your shows at a more reasonable level.

This post was brought to you by the crotchety old-man Jeremy.