I think my classic of how women give direction is when my wife asked me to pick something up at a certain business. I asked where it was. She said "It's across the street from the yellow car I always see when I take the kids to preschool." Since I only took the kids to preschool a couple of times a year because I was usually already at work by that time, I had no idea where that yellow car was. She got a little upset when I got out the phone book and found the street address instead of going by her directions. I saw that yellow car by the way. It was not across the street but on the same side of the street and down a block and a half. I guess women process directions differently than men.
A speech pattern my wife shares with her sister is that they will speak in a soft but fairly understandable tone of voice until they get to the key word in the statement, usually close to the end of the sentence. Then they drop their tone and face away from you. I'd put it down to my hearing loss except that their father commented on it when they were both present. I did not prompt him in any way, he just said it out of the blue but I understood exactly what he was talking about. I didn't have any trouble understanding what he said either. They just looked at each other and gave a silly grin. I'd mentioned it to my wife before but of course she denied doing it. How could anything be her fault? She's a woman.
Another classic is when she is sitting in the den watching the news when I'm in the kitchen washing dishes; splashing water, rattling dinnerware and pots and pans, and generally making noise. She'll say something in a conversational tone while facing away from me so I stop what I'm doing, dry my hands, and walk around so I can see her face. Then I ask what she said. A regular comment is that she was just talking to herself. So I say good, that way she can have an intelligent conversation.
If I don't check out what she said to the TV she will come back later and say that I forgot something she told me. That reminds me of a Dagwood comic strip where Dag comes home and Blondie asks where he's been, they have a dinner date. He denies knowing about it and she insists she told him. She's doing the dishes with her back to him. Dag goes to get ready and Blondie, without realizing he's gone, tells him about another appointment they have later in the week. Hey, she told him, it's not her fault he will forget.
Steve I do have a hearing loss, the classic hearing loss from working in a loud environment. If there is any background noise from a TV, music, or in a restaurant from people talking I can't hear very well. When we go to a gathering of people say for a dinner the first thing they do is usually to put on music which means I can't join in a conversation unless I go outside. If we go to a restaurant I'm seldom part of the conversation. I've made an appointment to finally go get a hearing aid. Hopefully that will help. I'm really not looking forward to having to wear a hearing aid. hopefully I'll get used to it so it' not always uncomfortable. I'm not sure how It will work when I'm outside working in the summer and sweating a lot.
I know I speak fairly loudly at times. I think it is out of frustration to try to get the person I'm talking to, usually my wife, to look at me when they are speaking. It's so much easier to understand when I can see the lips move and the words are projected in my direction instead of to the wall. But that's just a man looking for the easy way out.
When he unloads the dishwasher, I can't decide if he puts the dishes away randomly to annoy me, or because he really doesn't know where anything goes.
