fatdavid8

Slobby Bobby, my office-mate, who's a remarkably messy, oblivious, obnoxious, and self-absorbed Boomer (in some ways he's an apotheosis of the Boomer clich and in other ways he seems to be the embodiment of Asperger Syndrome), and I are experiencing some intergenerational tension in the ol' shared office. Today, he was working in the office late in the day with the lights off, and when I came in I turned them on because I needed to see to work. He started muttering to himself and hunching himself into his chair, and I was beginning to consider whether he ought to be outside with a shopping cart arguing stocks and bonds with the dumpster when he suddenly turned around and sort of addressed me, but without making eye contact.

"Well, you're here!" he boomed with false joviality, and I really couldn't tell whether he were greeting me or making a declarative statement. For all I could tell, he may have been in an indicative mood.

"You're here, and I'm here." He then paused for a bit and pondered, as though he were collecting his thoughts. "You like the lights on," he continued, "and I don't. I like to be in the dark."

"How do you mean?" I asked. "Is that an ontological or an epistemological position? Or were you merely referring to the lighting?"

He didn't laugh. In fact, he looked a little puzzled.

Later on, I noticed that his dictionary was off of the bookshelf and on his desk. *sigh*