Tales from the trenches (part 20)

A few days ago, someone answered an ad I have (does this sound familiar? Sorry.)
with a picture and an (infuriatingly vague) "hi"
I thought I recognized the picture as an acquaintance (I think) of a friend.
How's that for 6.34 degrees of separation?

That said, I knew a bit about him already. So, I wrote back. Politely.
He asked for a picture. I sent one. Politely.
And poof.
That was that.
No word. Nada.
Of course, don't think this is the first time this has happened, far from it.
It's more like the straw-that's-making-the-camel's-back-really-want-to-throw-someone-to-the-ground-and-stomp-on-his-bloody-corpse.

Sorry, I meant "break"

Of the two most recent such rejections, I'm not sure which is worse, but, yeah, I think this one is
here

Maybe it's just bad karma from my avoiding you-know-who-down-there the other day. (Though to my defense, I did meet him, never once said anything that was not completely complimentary to him, and I gave a very polite and reasonable reason for why I couldn't see him for a while(ok, ever).

But I'm not out of the fight just yet.
I have two tentative leads right now. God help me.