hehehe....if I had a choice, I'd prefer to have done it by shooting.....
I have a consistent slight ringing noise in my ears, enough so that with much background noise (like, say, at a cocktail party) I tend to not hear clearly higher pitched voices. And how did this wonderful event occur?
When I was 19 or 20 (26 now), my family was boarding a plane in Europe. We were flying to somewhere else in the same local, and it was a somewhat older plane...the one's where you can get on from the front, or from a stairwell that drops from the tail of the plane. It's engines were not on the wings but extended outward from the sides of the tail. Well, here I am, stuck with most of the family luggage...two bags in each hand and my own heavy backpack. They decided to board the plane from the rear...RIGHT IN BETWEEN THOSE TWO RUNNING ENGINES!!! I had no way of covering my ears, and they hurt like hell for about 3 days following. Ever since then I've had the noise........
If I'm outdoor, I do with a pair of muffs (31db)...indoor it's always double up with plugs and muffs. I figure I got off rather lucky, and I don't want to make things worse.