There’s a guy in the grocery store who is really mad at a guy he works with. It seems the other guy is getting the “cake” jobs, and it really bugs him.
This I know because we happened upon each other in a couple aisles. I was looking for rice. He was wandering around holding on a speakerphone conversation.
Is there truly anything more annoying than people who walk around and broadcast their telephone calls?
The only one that gets a pass at this is my darling bride. She’s known to broadcast her phone calls but only because she’s a master multi-tasker. She’ll set the phone down and whip together dinner while catching up with family. It allows me to catch up with family too. When she presents my dinner to me, she’ll offer news from the conversation she had.
“I know. I heard it,” I tell her.
We were at a large retail store on Saturday that took about a half hour to pick up some things. It wouldn’t have taken quite as long, but it’s a place that has food samples, and there were some really good ones. I sampled some kind of chicken multiple times. I feel like I was pulling something over on the guy putting out the samples. I went the first time with my hat on and then made another pass a few minutes later, posing as a guy with no hat. My third attempt was as a guy with no hat and no glasses. Truth is, I’m sure he didn’t care how many times I passed through. He just needed to get through the chicken to finish his task. I repeated the same “scam” on the pirogue guy. I hit the jackpot there, because after the guy with no hat visited, there was a staff change, which brought the guy with glasses and a hat back to the line.
Anyway, I happened across a fellow multiple times just walking around the store holding his phone an inch from his mouth and broadcasting for all to hear his conversation. I know a little Spanish, but not enough to figure out what was so important to warrant wandering around a big box retailer putting out your personal business – albeit in another language – for everyone to hear.
There are times when a speaker call may be necessary. Say there are a few of you that need to get in on the call. In this instance, a speakerphone call is a necessity. When I was a kid, my dad would call my grandparents every Sunday. The kids would line up for their turn with the handset. Invention of the speakerphone was perhaps a decade or two away, so we were only to wander as far as the cord on the phone handset would allow. It sure would have come in handy, especially for my grandpa, who probably had to repeat the same thing multiple times. Every time when it was my turn to hold the phone, he started the conversation the same way: “You think the rain will hurt the rhubarb?” I never had a good answer at my young age. Perhaps if my siblings had been able to listen as well, we could have come up with an answer to that riddle.
For some reason, people need to caution me when I’m on a phone call. “Hey, you’re on speaker, just so you know.” Apparently, that’s meant for me to refine my choice of words.
I don’t, for one reason. I don’t want to be on speaker.