didn't used to bother me....

[FREE866]

I may be a grumpy old lady--the music in restaurants is way too loud for me! DH and I often leave before even getting to our table if it is bothersome.
We try to avoid any shopping on weekends, and even go later in the evening during the week. We often do our grocery shopping at 7-8 pm. If we go to the local mall, it will be right at stores opening hours usually on a Tuesday, we have found them the least crowded then.
And, as much as I love having our kids and grandkids over, the quiet in the house afterwards is a breath of fresh air for DH and I, lol. But I wouldn't have it any other way.

yeah, the music in restaurants grates on me.......same thing at ball games....the constant music between innings and even between at bats....ugh...
and kids? they never shut up lol

 

[mountainsoft]

the music in restaurants is way too loud for me! DH and I often leave before even getting to our table if it is bothersome.

I haven't really noticed loud music in restaurants, but maybe I've just been lucky or avoid certain places (i.e. sports bars with dozens of TV's). However, I find many restaurants are just way too dark. They hand you a menu with microscopic text and expect you to read it in the dark. Then again, I don't have the greatest night vision.

We quit going to the large multiplex theaters years ago because the sound was just too loud, to the point of being painful. I complained to the management a couple times but they never turned it down, so we just quit going there. We only go to small local second run theaters now. The sound levels are tolerable, fewer crowds to deal with, and can usually get better food and drink options. They don't always have the latest releases, but if I haven't seen it before it's new to me.

I am a lot less tolerant of crazy drivers these days. Everyone is in a hurry and it's all about me, me, me. It seems common manners, courtesy, patience, and respect don't exist anymore.

 

[Gumby]

Noise conveys information, as does the absence of noise. Back in my submarining days, often the first sign of trouble was a sudden loss of some component of the ever present background noise, which meant something had gone wrong - usually a motor or pump tripped off. That sudden loss of noise was palpable and alerted us to look for the problem. There were alarms, too, but you could usually 'hear" the problem before the alarm sounded. To this day, I am attentive to the ambient noise in my house. For example, if it is cold and I don't hear the furnace running down in my cellar, I check on it to see if something is amiss. If it is raining and I don't hear the water coming down the downspout on the other side of the wall from my desk, I go look to make sure the gutter isn't clogged. I wouldn't want to live in a silent world.

 

[Lorenzo]

I have left a restaurant without ordering after asking them to turn down the music and they didn't turn down the music enough. Just last night, I asked a server in another restaurant to move us to another table as one of the speakers was right above our table and the music was too loud. I have also left a restaurant without ordering when one of the lights in the room was flickering and it bothered me.

I was never like this when I was younger, not even 5 years ago. It's not like my hearing got better in old age.

I think you do get used to the quiet, but I also think something happened in the last 5 years or so where retailers equate loud music with better sales or something.

I believe the music in restaurants and pubs IS louder nowadays than it used to be. Even when I was younger I enjoyed the ability to have a conversation in a restaurant or pub--when I went to a music venue or club I did NOT expect to be able to talk much--and this has not changed as I have gotten older. Nowadays, I often see a table of people all staring at their phones--they are not there to have conversations with each other, and they don't care so much if the music is loud. When DW and I or my friends and I go to a restaurant or a pub, we go there to chat over the food or drink. We hardly take out our phones--that would be rude. If the music is too loud for that, we leave, or if the problem is we're too close to a speaker, we move to another table.

 

[Koolau]

Noise conveys information, as does the absence of noise. Back in my submarining days, often the first sign of trouble was a sudden loss of some component of the ever present background noise, which meant something had gone wrong - usually a motor or pump tripped off. That sudden loss of noise was palpable and alerted us to look for the problem. There were alarms, too, but you could usually 'hear" the problem before the alarm sounded. To this day, I am attentive to the ambient noise in my house. For example, if it is cold and I don't hear the furnace running down in my cellar, I check on it to see if something is amiss. If it is raining and I don't hear the water coming down the downspout on the other side of the wall from my desk, I go look to make sure the gutter isn't clogged. I wouldn't want to live in a silent world.

Your submariner's story reminded me of daily false fire alarms in our lab one month. We had to file outside into the snow. Folks eventually started grabbing their coats and scarves as they shuffled out each time the alarm sounded. Then came the day we all heard ba-BOOM! and a second later the sound of the fire alarm. We all cleared the building in record time - no coats, no scarves and the sounds of feet on the steps sounded like stampeding cattle.

Returning you now...

 

[statsman]

For quite some time, I've had a small wall clock in the computer room. Not sure why I need it if I am on my PC and/or have my phone with me. I've just like having one. Sometimes, I will read in that room, and I don't have the PC on.

A couple of days ago I was getting irritated at some "extra" noise in the computer room. I thought it was coming from the PC or an external drive case, but I isolated it to the wall clock. It is a clock that ticks every second.

It never annoyed me before, but once I figured it out, I wanted to take a hammer to it. For some reason, I have been able to block the ticking sound until this week.

I now have a silent, non-ticking wall clock.

 

[Koolau]

For quite some time, I've had a small wall clock in the computer room. Not sure why I need it if I am on my PC and/or have my phone with me. I've just like having one. Sometimes, I will read in that room, and I don't have the PC on.

A couple of days ago I was getting irritated at some "extra" noise in the computer room. I thought it was coming from the PC or an external drive case, but I isolated it to the wall clock. It is a clock that ticks every second.

It never annoyed me before, but once I figured it out, I wanted to take a hammer to it. For some reason, I have been able to block the ticking sound until this week.

I now have a silent, non-ticking wall clock.

I've had that happen. Once a small noise irritates me, I can't ignore it. It may have been an issue for years but I didn't notice it. Leaving the room for a while or putting on some soft music might help.

 

[SnowballCamper]

So far in the thread, it all bothers me. The worst is the leaf blower! Smelly gas cars (even though I own two of them along with an EV). We leave a restaurant if its too loud, and about half of them are. little dogs barking are worse now that my neighbor has three of them. Loud exhaust, extra bright headlights, people hanging out in my blind spot... ugh it goes on.

The turning point was when DW and I went back to the bar where we met. It was after about 10-15 years after we married. We were both very uncomfortable with the noise and stickiness of the furniture and haven't been back even though its a short walk from our house.

OTOH I was probably very annoying when I was young. oh well.

 

[G POP]

Talk about irritations. Sometimes when I go out there are people. I know, right? How dare there be people to ruin my day. Sometimes these people even say things to me. How dare they.

 

[audreyh1]

We typically travel over 600 miles a day and I want to get where I'm going and not wait around for a car to charge. Besides my hybrid gets about 36 mpg on the highway.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/i-rented-an-electric-car-for-a-four-day-road-trip-i-spent-more-time-charging-it-than-i-did-sleeping-11654268401?st=gmk2uC

OK I remember that article a while ago, and it was ridiculous. Experienced and written by the clueless.

We picked the car and infrastructure to support our long distance requirements and only use superchargers on the road, charging stops are more like 18 to 21 mins, and we rarely charge past 80%. None of this 8 hour silly business or trying to use L2 chargers for long distance.

 

[Stormy Kromer]

When I used to live in town, on a subdivided neighborhood on 100' lots we had a couple neighbors who would spend their entire Sunday afternoons mowing, leaf blowing and then vacuuming their cars from 1:00 pm til dark. All the time arguing with their spouses.

Made me move back to the farm. Cattle are much easier neighbors than people.

 

[Koolau]

When I used to live in town, on a subdivided neighborhood on 100' lots we had a couple neighbors who would spend their entire Sunday afternoons mowing, leaf blowing and then vacuuming their cars from 1:00 pm til dark. All the time arguing with their spouses.

Made me move back to the farm. Cattle are much easier neighbors than people.

Heh, heh, DW and I always seem to have our own way of doing things which can lead to arguments during "chores" or maintenance. SO, we try to pick our own more-or-less exclusive tasks and only "help" the other upon request.

 

[Stormy Kromer]

I grew up when Sundays were sacred quiet times of rest. My neighbors would spend their long weekends starting on Thursday's at their lake cabins and come home around noon on Sunday to make noise for the rest of us that worked 6 days a week, wanting to rest on Sundays.

These same folks complained when I started my snow blower to clear my driveway to get to work on a weekday while they were still sleeping...guess we all bothered each other.