How many times have you been on the phone waiting and hoping to hear a human voice as the “digital assistant” keeps asking you what the issue is so they can “better direct your call?” You know what’s worse than that? Getting the actual person on the line, finally. Now I realize these people are only supposed to answer in a certain way, that they are held to some sort of script, but still…

The thing that I find most infuriating is the circular argument where absolutely nothing gets resolved. In my case, it went something like this: ME: I received a box from Fresh Direct that I never ordered and I’d like to return it and get a refund. THEM: You can’t return food and I can’t issue you a refund because we already sent you the box. ME: But I never ordered the box. THEM: But we already sent it. ME: Did you hear a word I said? THEM: Is there any thing else I can help you with?

I recounted this story to John and we developed the situation you read in the comic, where the item was delivered a day late. John, being much more polite than I am, came up with the scenario of the bakery apologizing and giving Al the cake for free. I would have had Al smash a slice of cake into the telephone in frustration, venting his anger while destroying his phone, but that’s just me. Oh, and John’s solution led to a funnier ending so that decided that.

Onto our second strip. I’ve often noticed that as life goes on, all our contemporaries have similar milestones at similar times. First was people getting married, followed by having kids, followed by bar mitzvahs and confirmations, followed by kids getting married, followed by kids having kids, followed by funerals for our parents, followed by transitioning from tennis to pickleball and softball leagues to golf and eventually to physical therapy, which is where yours truly ended up in April. And no sooner did I start attending twice-a-week sessions, than I started running into people I know. I ran into one person who I always thought was a pain in the neck even though I was there treating a pain in my neck. Anyway, we thought it would be a fun contrast in our Then and Now series. Hope you guys agree.

See you next week, or maybe sooner if we run into you at physical therapy.

Andy and John