When all else fails, go to the grocery store.

For 27 years I couldn't drive my car because my grandchild screamed in my sensitive ears and then the car motor was too loud.

Couldn't go to any store because they all had that high-pitched functional music which my ears couldn't tolerate.

about 6 months ago I got where I could drive, probably because the central air ducts in my house had a certain low pitch that re-conditioned my ears to where they could tolerate more sound, such as my car motor and functional music. (It's called something like Ear Retraining Therapy. Ear doctors have a device like a hearing aid that emmits a low-pitched hiss and over some months, a year or more, can recondition sensitive ears.)

I've now gone to the grocery store about 4 times. It is absolute therapy, physical and mental.

I see more people in 5 minutes they I saw in 27 years of captivity.

I even get to talk to some of them, "Can you tell me where the aluminum foil is?" is always a good line. I've even used the powered buttermilk salad dressing as my opener. I've used a store clerk for that, but that's not the same thing.

There's even that person in produce who I'm looking to get a discount on tomatoes from.

But I love it. I can even walk for almost 2 hours around this huge grocery store, while I cannot make it for 15 minutes around the block. I can't explain that, except for my fellow shoppers.

So give it a try. Go shopping. And I'll even tell you where the aluminum foil is: It's on aisle 21.

That's interesting I like grocery stores also and am averse to loud and odd sounds. I also don't like light. I could go around with sunglasses and earplugs and be happy.

You said,

"That's interesting I like grocery stores also and am averse to loud and odd sounds. I also don't like light. I could go around with sunglasses and earplugs and be happy."

As for the grocery stories, the sunglasses sound good for the light.

What might also be good for the sound of the functional music are headphones playing a talk tape or a hiss sound, not music. Talk will have some gaps, but the hiss will not.

Ear retraining therapy, the ear doctor has a hearing aid looking device that plays a low "hiss" for hours of the day. I saw improvement in my ear sensitivity with those devices. In the last year, I saw improvement to where I could drive a car by having my house fan on at all times to reduce sound that was too much coming in from the outside. My guess is, that house fan helped.

I think what also helped was driving my car for the first time in 20 years by first using ear plugs and over the head ear protectors, and with my car fan cut on to block the motor sound. Took short trips, which acclimated my ears to that motor sound. Then got to where I could take out the ear plugs.

My ears got use to that, then I took off the over the head ear protectors. It was step by step.

My ear sensitivity came from gun fire.

As for walking outside noises, that was one of my problems, also.

On a real slow, quiet street, I could do that. What was tough was a faster, louder street near me.

What happened was, I got to the point where I would wear only one earplug, where the occasional cars were. When I heard a car coming, I would then hold my other ear and both ears would be blocked.

Oh, the laughter. I don't have problems with that sound. But one time I was walking my dog, and a teen girl riding in a pick up truck with her boyfriend, leaned completely out of the door, and waved and said, "Heyyy!!!" like I was the town idiot. I played the role and exclaimed that back in the same tone of voice and with the same hand waving.

I also hold my ears if I'm walking and a loud car comes by.

My extra problem for 27 years was a loud train which would blow the whistle without warning, without even moving.

Oh, July 4 is always fun, as is January 1. As is neighbors. And the ballpark. For 27 years.

I use box fans to slow down the noise for those "special occasions."

A quote I saw was, "It's OK to live a life that others don't understand."