Still Talking??? 07/23/25

Last week I wrote that John had the idea to make our comic about a person who can’t get off the phone into a two part series. Then we made it a three-parter. We could go on (as these incessant talkers do) but I’d run out of things to blog about so we kept it to three comics. This tendency to not shut up is even more annoying when you speak to one of these people in person, because of two things: 1) they can’t “read the room” and tell by your facial expression that you are cosmically bored, and 2) you can’t hang up on them. But having said that, these constant talkers do have an amazing ability to not come up for air. I think these people might be fantastic underwater swimmers. You can be on the other end of the phone just waiting for a pause that enables you to interrupt so you can make one of your 10,000 clues that you’ve got to go, but the chance never comes. My other technique for how to cope with this onslaught of verbal diarrhea is to put the person on speaker phone and carry them around while you’re doing what you hoped you would be doing when they interrupted you in the first place. This technique requires a subtle skill. The ability to time out your, “Uh huhs, you don’t says, reallys and wows at two to three minute intervals so the person thinks you’re actually listening. The other phrase to watch out for is, “..which reminds me.” Which reminds me is a lame excuse for, “I better not stop talking because then they’re going to want to get off the phone.” Here’s an example: “Oh we had the most spectacular dinner last night at that new place, which reminds me, did I tell you about the time we went to a restaurant and saw Nathan Lane?? He looked right at me and waved hello. To me! He ordered chicken parm by the way which I thought was too dry, but you can never account for taste, right?”

Enough!!! Unless you’d like me to keep going.

Our other effort this week is about hydroponic gardening, but is really about counter space. I don't know how many friends have raved to me about the wonders of an air fryer, a frozen drink maker (Ninja Slushie, which you have to admit is a very cool name), espresso maker, ice cream maker, pasta extruder, panini press, etc. They all sound wonderful and I can envision a use for all of them. But where the hell do you put them??? Who has the counter space?? Especially when you move from a house into an apartment. You have to ask important questions of yourself. Is it worth moving the Nespresso coffee maker every time you want to refill a seltzer bottle with a SodaStream? How often do you use each? If you’re retired, you have more time to devote to making coffee that doesn’t come from a pod, so maybe the espresso maker takes a back seat to the seltzer maker. All of which makes me think I spend way too much time thinking about trivial stuff compared to when I was working where I thought about important matters like how many rooms can you clean with one Swiffer Sweeper pad.

That’s it for this week. We wish you all a wonderful weekend and…uh oh, I’m getting a phone call…

Andy and John