Cursed with Good Hearing

There’s a free dance concert at the stadium around the corner from our hotel. It’s in a place that reminds me of my old high school gymnasium. Where we played basketball. But of course here there are soccer nets. We noticed a sign about the concert the day we arrived. So I really tried. I really wanted to see the dancing. And hear the music. But as we sat waiting for the folkloric dancers, the recorded “music” from the speakers assaulted us. Gene was enjoying it, I think. He should have stayed for the concert. I couldn’t. I was in physical pain. First my ears felt like they were bleeding. Then my stomach started doing flip flops. We decided we’d rather do lunch…
But I’m wondering, short of having my hearing surgically destroyed, so that I will be “normal” like everybody else, and be able to go to concerts and things – there has to be another way. What about that gizmo that they advertize on tv? The thing that allows the old geezer to hear his television without disturbing his attractive but bitchy wife. Do you supposed it works in reverse? To turn the sound DOWN for the user without disturbing anyone else? I’d be willing to pay good money for that.