5 Days 14 Hours xx Seconds

No my blog has not been sponsored by Jack Bauer and the 24 TV Production Team. It’s the time I’ve gone without speaking to anyone (excluding our son). I’m not sure if I should be proud or a tad worried. Maybe both.

So almost a week without a phone call, chance meeting or random conversation. Even on two long runs – didn’t bump into a single person. Its one of the prices you pay for living in a small village.

It’s an odd feeling. Have I been secretly ostracised. Has my liking for Nickelback finally caught up with me…….

I had assumed my streak would have ended today as today was the food shopping trip. However I managed to get round the aisles without uttering a word. I did smile a few times at random folk. Surely a conversation will be struck with the assistant on the cash till. But no. All the tills were full so I opted for the self service lane. No scanning problems encountered so the streak continued.

Tomorrow I have to go to the work unit but that is in a largely deserted industrial estate and I will be the only person in our building. So the streak may continue into Thursday. Hang on a minute Thursday is Valentines Day. Wow am I going to be seriously cranky by the 14th…

Anyway we have started a little wager, who will break my streak. I’ve gone for a random cold caller with my first words being “will you just bugger off”. Son is going for the postman or randomly a lost Donald Trump.

I will keep you posted…..

105 thoughts on “Silence….”

      1. I have a talking clock, the vox clock 2 that my sister got me as a Christmas gift from radio shack in 1985. It still works and I use it daily to wake me up in time to get the little ones up for school. When it finally dies, I suppose I’ll compose an album about it, you never know. I’m guessing there’s another post that talks about the origins of the streak of silence?

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  2. Sorry to hear your isolation. When I worked in the high street bank, I was aware that several of the elderly people who came to my till lived alone and probably didn’t see anyone from one day to the next. Hubby and I strike up conversations with everyone, especially walking the dog, though some days we see no-one on our walks, so I guess it’s a matter of timing.

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  7. Oh dear! I know the feeling. Used to be like that for me so I can relate. I would say “Hi” to you and have a cinversation, hubby would too. Wish we lived nearer, we coukd at least say “Hi’ then,mm

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      7. On no … OH NO you don’t!!! We have our share of idiots over here … you can keep ol’ Nigel! I hear, though, that Trump greatly admires him, so perhaps you could put the two of them together on a deserted island somewhere?

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  11. If it comes to it you could always acquire a serious but non-life threatening disease, then you get to talk to the doctor(s), the chemist, the clinic receptionist, other patients with whom you may have at least one thing in common… so many bonuses! 🙂

    Or you and your son could take a bus/train somewhere and not have the correct change…?

    Perhaps a less drastic but longer lasting conversation could be had by calling your current gas/electricity provider and say you are going to change providers and wish to cancel your account?? 🙂

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  12. That is serious isolation. I use a Mac complete with Siri, which I never use. One day I must have clicked on it by mistake. Up he popped. “Oh, do go away”, I whispered quietly. Quick as a flash came the reply: “That’s very rude”.

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  14. Oh wow, yes I can relate to this. I have gone days as well. I think Declan does as well – yesterday I listened to him ask Ok Google what her favorite color was and when her birthday was. Maybe the conversation comes today (and good luck with it! 🙂 )

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  15. Sometimes, out of the blue Alexa talks to me and says “I’m sorry I didn’t get that” I usually reply “I wasn’t talking to you!” Eavesdropping of all things! So now, when I remember, I switch her off until needed again.

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  16. Is it strange that I don’t think I’ve ever gone a 5 day streak without speaking to someone? I mean, I’ve had 5 day streaks when I haven’t WANTED to speak to anyone but it’s never actually happened. This is gonna sit with me today…hmm…

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  18. You need to get out. And be yourself without your son now and then.

    Just like Mom’s and Dad’s need to remember they are not just parents, they are also husband and wife and need to do things AS husband and wife.

    It will recharge you. Good luck!

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  19. Pingback: Silence…. – A Dad trying to cope with the loss of his Partner and becoming a single parent. – International Badass Activists

  20. I would rather stick a fork in my eye than use the self service checkout, for two reasons. Firstly, I am not being paid by the supermarket to do this work.
    Secondly, if I were to do this work I am potentially putting someone out of a job who may be in great need of the money it provides.

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  26. Oh yes. This happened so damn often before the kids were in school. Unless I left the house, I would speak with no adult for day, after day, after day. The lack of words, it weighs down hard.
    Though I will say that going out into the humdrum world sans kids, and being able to be quiet *by choice* instead of having to answer a million questions and listen to multiple threads of conversations and fights and such–a chosen period of silence is a luxury. 🙂

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  29. How about taking up something gentle like Pilates? We are in a mixed group that meets at the local rugby club and its good fun – not too demanding but makes you know you’ve done something good for the body. And you do meet people… and the nearby supermarket has a coffee shop where some from the group go afterwards… just a thought.

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  30. I’m surprised you don’t bump into people to talk to in a small village as it’s the first thing I noticed when moving from town how if you walk to the local shops everyone says “good morning,” and in the shop you often bump into people you know. In some respects it’s easier not having a child to worry about as a single man you can pop to the pub for a bit of company.

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