Hello said Fred

The carpark attendants name is Fred. He works afternoon to night shift at the carpark where I park, about a block from work. He is a nice guy, early 60's probably who works in a boring, low paid job with shitty hours. And he likes to talk.

Since he started working there, I have always said Hello or Goodbye. As the months passed that grew into a brief exchange along the lines of "How was your day?" as I left the carpark at night. And now it is growing towards full blown conversation. Fred is interested in traffic, the weather, religion, cars people drive, other people who park there, the restaurants that back onto the carpark, politics, dogs, international affairs, the latest news headlines - pretty much anything and everything.

This is understandable. He must be bored out of his mind working there. Trouble is - and I know this is uncharitable - I just want to go home. I don't really want to have even a two minute discussion on religion, I want to go home. It has got to the point where I hope someone will queue up behind my car so I can cast a meaningful glance backwards and say "Well, I'd better go now." I'm even beginning to try and hurry to my car and get to the boom gates before others so that I can use queue excuse.

Oh, the alienation of modern life...