My area is supposed to get an ice storm overnight and into the morning tomorrow.  The alerts are saying we could have one quarter inch layer of ice.

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I’ve stopped back home briefly after my hair fix.  Lisa seemed ok with fixing it and it is much better; though not exactly as Sharyn does it.  Nor the quality.

As I was leaving, I saw Sharyn driving down the road toward the shop and I turned around to get a chance to talk to her about it.  When I pulled up next to her car, she looked at me in what I would describe as a very cold and possibly contemptuous manner.  She was on the phone with someone and seemed upset.

When she finished and got out of the car, I rolled the window down and she said, “What’s up.” I said, “I just wanted to make sure that you are ok with cutting my hair.” She said, “Mark, I didn’t have any openings.”  I said, “There was a misunderstanding.  I had asked her to check with you to make sure it was ok with you.” She said, “Lisa misunderstood.” I told her that I don’t like misunderstandings and I like things to be clear.  I wanted to be clear, “if you are ok with cutting my hair.”  She said, “As long as I have an opening, yes, absolutely.”  And we parted.  She was very cold and distant.

Take it for what it’s worth.  Apparently, even supposedly straight answers are qualified.  I’m not sure of the purpose of the “as long as I have an opening” statement.  Am I to presume that she would cut my hair when she DOESN’T  have an opening? Am I to figure that she will just never have openings when I call? Does she think I want to call and say, “Cut my hair tonight, wench!” or have her cancel other clients to cut mine?

It should be easy to say, “Yes,” or even, “Yes, Mark.  I’m ok with cutting your hair.” I don’t get the need for qualifying.  She may as well have said, “Yes, as long as Mars is in alignment with Venus.”

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…. for miscommunication. It started before the haircut appointment incident.  And it’s not getting any better. Even yesterday, I had people at HP waste a good bit of time because they didn’t understand.   And, I had to ask GG if she was ticked at me.  She had sent me an email to which I replied.  I saw her on xbox and her IMes seemed….. short and curt. When I asked if she was ticked, she said she thought I was ticked at her because of the tone of my email.

What I am…. of late…. is frustrated by the nearly universal misunderstanding of my written/spoken words; or intentional distortion of them.

I had a falling out with the WV Patriot Guard Riders members on the Yahoo Group.  Two of them started a topic about people not attending missions. They have done it before and it starts out someone complaining and ends up a kudos fest with some “I’m better than you because I attend missions 4 hours away” thrown in the middle.  My contention with it is that when you make a statement to the group, you are addressing the most likely to attend missions and be active. The recent disagreement was prompted by one person  posting a message in which he said things like, “where were you” and “you have a job, so do I.” I said it just serves to alienate people and that people have various reasons that they don’t attend.  And these types of postings are not read by the “paper members” who never attend or never even read the postings. The yahoo group membership is about 25% of the total “paper members” in the State, which proves my point. Even out of that 25%, I doubt even a quarter of those actually read the posts. When I gave my reasons for not attending of late as examples; they then started accusing me of whining and looking for pity. They actually personally attacked me.  The moderator — the state captain — said that I had no right to complain about their posts, but they had a right to complain about mine. HUH????? If public comments are made, they I have a right to comment on theirs. He said my posts were attacking them; but their PERSONAL attacks were to not… and besides I brought it on myself by posting my posts.  It makes not one bit of sense.

He even called me a child because I said that what was happening was essentially the same as someone speaking to a group of Harley owners and saying, “Harley owners are stupid,” and then saying, “Oh, but that doesn’t apply to you bunch of Harley owners.” He said my comments about Harleys was childish because he didn’t care what I ride. It’s like I could hear the sonic boom from the speed at which my point went above his head.  When you speak to a group of people, you are addressing that group… not those who don’t read/listen.

In addition to all of that…. and that’s just part of the examples…. I have a bad haircut.

Even GG has mistaken my issues with getting my haircut as unfinished business on my part.  And… she agreed that my “wants to cut my hair” question was a personal question because of the word “wants”. 

My only unfinished business with it/Sharyn is that I want a definitive answer of whether she doesn’t want me as a client. If I’m going to get bad haircuts, I don’t need to drive that far and take out that much time to get them.  I also don’t want to keep calling and getting told that she’s busy or changing appointments or making appointments with someone else because she doesn’t have the guts to just tell me that she doesn’t want to do it.

Even someone on my political blog posted a comment that completely missed the point of my posting. It was an old posting from the middle of last year.  This one was almost so bizarre it was funny…. and I think it’s because it was a liberal, global warming loon.  I’ll write more about that later.  I’m about to head out the door to get my hair fixed, if possible.

Anyway…. the common thread here is my frustration at being misunderstood or distorted.  I choose things I say carefully to make sure that I am getting the exact message across that I want to convey and it is often taken completely opposite of what I am saying.  This month…. it is multiplied many times.

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