Huh?

I went to a birthday happy hour last night.  The event was for a lady that I haven’t seen in over a year, probably since her last birthday.   The bar was very noisy and I couldn’t hear very well.   This is annoying for a lot of reasons.   It’s annoying that I can’t participate very well in the conversations.   It’s even more annoying that I mishear things and then say completely non-relevant stuff because I think we’re talking about something else.  Consider the following conversation, as heard by me.

“We’re … to be go…  to ... pa next month”, my wife says to the lady across the table.

“… love … pa, we’ve … … of times”, she replies.

My wife continues, “… great time … were … last.  We … … couple … that were … fun.   We also … … Leap.  It … that great. “

“… … not nice?”

“… exactly, … more that … seemed full of themselves.”

“Oh, … … good … at Maragas.   It … nice.”

I jump in, “Oh, Maragas, that’s just outside of Madras.  I’ve been meaning to drop by there.”

“No”, the lady says, “… in Napa.”

“What did you think she said”, my wife asks?

“Sorry, I thought she said Maragas”, I say.  Meanwhile I’m thinking, “I’m just going to shut up now and drink my wine.”

I think I’m going to have to investigate hearing aids pretty soon.   I’m not too happy about it.   I suppose I shouldn’t have spent all of that time in my teens and early 20s shooting guns and standing around jet engines without hearing protection.   You don’t really appreciate something like hearing until it starts to fail.