Sumac’s still in Antarctica, where people are awfully damned nice. They say sorry a lot, but not because they’ve done anything worth mentioning. Then when they secretly zip-tie a person’s leg to a chair leg, they just laugh.
Sumac used the satellite phone to call her husband. There’s a five hour time difference, and she was tired from snowshoeing up the glacier, and hadn’t wanted to call earlier while he was at work.
The Marr Ice Piedmont glacier.
So he took the call on the BART train. Even though he generally finds it rude to have phone conversations on the bus or train.
They had a good conversation, with only a little more than the usual amount of “What?” and “Say that again?”
After Sumac got off the line, Mr. Sumac, as SorryWatch has permission to call him, turned to a guy next to him who was working on a laptop, and said:
All those people have stories.
I apologize. But my wife is in Antarctica, and I thought I should take this call.
Pause. “No problem.”
The apology was accepted. We think that’s a good apology.
But then we would, wouldn’t we?
I’m usually such a curmudgeon about such things that it surprises even me that I actually don’t object to people having phone conversations on the bus/train/etc. It’s rude to one’s dinner partner, for example, to participate in a phone call that excludes them, but on public transit there’s no expectation that one will be conversing with one’s seatmate; if anything, it’s exactly the opposite. And nobody objects to conversation between 2 parties who are physically present in the car, unless it’s the “quiet car,” so there’s no expectation of silence either.
Now, if it’s a conversation that’s conducted at top volume, audible from one end of the car to the other, making it impossible to concentrate on anything else, particularly if the subject matter is at all squicky, I’d happily sic Miss Manners on the perp.
It is not as if we actually engage with STRANGERS (aaaaagh!) anyway.
I dunno, it might be considered a form of humblebrag. Is an “apologybrag” a thing? 🙂
Oh definitely. Hmm — future post on apologybrags?
Needs penguins.
Let’s pause for a second and reflect on two things:
1. Sumac called her husband FROM ANTARCTICA.
2. Mr. Sumac took the call while on a moving train in California.
…wow…life is amazing sometimes…
Okay, done reflecting.
Really good point!
Thumbs up on that. (from below deck on the NB Palmer… 🙂
I think that’s an appropriate apology — and it was appropriate to apologize, especially with all of the “WHAT?” “HUH??” that accompanies those types of calls. I remember when my sister was a social worker in Nome – we could get into stupid arguments solely because the time lags and various other phone distortions were so weird and made it so hard to communicate. That he actually managed on BART would be something to celebrate!!!
I’m going to snicker about the zip tie for the rest of the afternoon, though.
Zip-ties are readily available outside Antarctica.
Just saying.
That is Mr. Sumac right down to the bone…