I went down a couple decibels during the war. Two IED's, a mortar, some small arms fire and some miscellany gave me some moderately jacked up ears. Took me until 2013 before I could use a phone without shouting and/or asking people to repeat themselves embarrassingly often. Yay texting.
(Yes, I went to the VA. Yes, they were useless. Yes, I know about the 3M lawsuit. No, I don't care enough to bother with it. Moving on.)
Since then I've been equally curious and nervous, wondering if I lost my musical ear along with the range.
Welp, tonight I went out to karaoke with those most wondrous of people: loved ones I trust to tell me if and when I'm fucking up.
And, near as I can tell, still got it. Needed neither bucket nor forklift to carry tunes. Kept up with both Elvis and Meatloaf before calling it a night to go home and feed the cats.
Nice to know that tool's still useful, if I ever need it out of the box again.