Grumbles: Switching Hats
So... this isn't really personal, but it's not exactly public either. But it's messed up enough to write about in case anyone in particular wants to know what's really going on with this bit of messed-up-ness.
(My hat is President MVCLR)
Several months ago... or maybe a year ago (I don't remember), our club decided to 'sell' our broken wood splitter to my father on the condition that if he could fix it, he would let the club use it, so long as it was used at the club, not at someone's house. Well, who knows who did & didn't get the memo, and I sure as heck didn't remember that detail in among all the other stuff we talked about... but it's in the notes somewhere.
(My hat is Me)
Well, anyway, he put all this money into it this year, got it running & parked it out back with a plastic tote over it. Then it's not running again... some problem with the oil or something. Whatever. I really don't care. He cut wood, I load wagon, unload wagon & go sew.
(My hat is President MVCLR)
Then we get all this stuff sorted out from the past year & everybody is pretty much good with everybody else (great meeting guys!)... and I think everything is going to be /just fine/.
(My hat is Me)
Dad gets home from PA yesterday & says "where's the wood splitter?" and Mom & I are like "where did you leave it?" And he's all freaking out.
Calls R&D, nope. Calls E&C, nada. Calls L, no answer. Calls J, "yup, L took it to split wood, don't worry Bob, we're taking good care of it" (which they were).
Dad FLIPS... more yelling. Threatening to call cops. More yelling. Temper. Angry silence.
(My hat is STILL Me).
Calls L this morning screaming at him about taking stuff, etc.
Oh boy.
Tells me to call J & ask him to tell Dad where it is so he's not yelling at J (who did nothing wrong), but Dad's too angry to talk reasonably... and btw, he doesn't have the right number, so call the parent's.
Gail rolls eyes, has too much shit to do today & just wants this to end.
Gail makes phone call (against better judgment) as polite & reasonable as possible with Dad yelling in background... apparently Dad needs translator to prevent 'friend malfunction.'
Translator fails.
You see, unfortunately, even though I was careful to state that I was calling on behalf of my father (not as club President), invisible hats cannot be seen over the phone.
Now, Dad, me, and the club are the bad guys.
So J & L have officially quit the club due to this total SNAFU in communications & property rights.
___________________
Now, completely from my perspective & opinion, L didn't do anything wrong. Yes, he took the wood splitter off the property, which he should have notified the house about. But this is something any of our club members have done for YEARS without permission from us. And we have always let him use anything of ours, (ours personally) as long as he brings it back. So why would he think Dad would freak out about this? He wouldn't.
J certainly didn't do anything wrong at all. He was doing his job exactly as he should have been. Even going over & above what had to be done to help my father out with the club.
So apparently I really did lose some friends today (Me hat).
The worst part is that I though we were cool after the meeting (Pres hat), and thought it might actually be comfortable talking to these guys again. No such luck.
So this sucks.
Uurgh! Boys & their toys!
(My hat is President MVCLR)
Several months ago... or maybe a year ago (I don't remember), our club decided to 'sell' our broken wood splitter to my father on the condition that if he could fix it, he would let the club use it, so long as it was used at the club, not at someone's house. Well, who knows who did & didn't get the memo, and I sure as heck didn't remember that detail in among all the other stuff we talked about... but it's in the notes somewhere.
(My hat is Me)
Well, anyway, he put all this money into it this year, got it running & parked it out back with a plastic tote over it. Then it's not running again... some problem with the oil or something. Whatever. I really don't care. He cut wood, I load wagon, unload wagon & go sew.
(My hat is President MVCLR)
Then we get all this stuff sorted out from the past year & everybody is pretty much good with everybody else (great meeting guys!)... and I think everything is going to be /just fine/.
(My hat is Me)
Dad gets home from PA yesterday & says "where's the wood splitter?" and Mom & I are like "where did you leave it?" And he's all freaking out.
Calls R&D, nope. Calls E&C, nada. Calls L, no answer. Calls J, "yup, L took it to split wood, don't worry Bob, we're taking good care of it" (which they were).
Dad FLIPS... more yelling. Threatening to call cops. More yelling. Temper. Angry silence.
(My hat is STILL Me).
Calls L this morning screaming at him about taking stuff, etc.
Oh boy.
Tells me to call J & ask him to tell Dad where it is so he's not yelling at J (who did nothing wrong), but Dad's too angry to talk reasonably... and btw, he doesn't have the right number, so call the parent's.
Gail rolls eyes, has too much shit to do today & just wants this to end.
Gail makes phone call (against better judgment) as polite & reasonable as possible with Dad yelling in background... apparently Dad needs translator to prevent 'friend malfunction.'
Translator fails.
You see, unfortunately, even though I was careful to state that I was calling on behalf of my father (not as club President), invisible hats cannot be seen over the phone.
Now, Dad, me, and the club are the bad guys.
So J & L have officially quit the club due to this total SNAFU in communications & property rights.
___________________
Now, completely from my perspective & opinion, L didn't do anything wrong. Yes, he took the wood splitter off the property, which he should have notified the house about. But this is something any of our club members have done for YEARS without permission from us. And we have always let him use anything of ours, (ours personally) as long as he brings it back. So why would he think Dad would freak out about this? He wouldn't.
J certainly didn't do anything wrong at all. He was doing his job exactly as he should have been. Even going over & above what had to be done to help my father out with the club.
So apparently I really did lose some friends today (Me hat).
The worst part is that I though we were cool after the meeting (Pres hat), and thought it might actually be comfortable talking to these guys again. No such luck.
So this sucks.
Uurgh! Boys & their toys!