My Dad is not a phone person. Our conversations usually consist of idle chit-chat related to sports and television shows, long periods of silence and concluding with or a paraphrase of the line, “Here is your Mother.” Last night we had a conversation that went something like this:

Dad: What are you doing?
Me: Watching TV.
Dad: What are you watching?
Me: Nothing. I am just flipping through the channels.
Dad: I am watching TV, too. There is nothing on.

…30 seconds of silence…

Dad: Total Recall is on.
Me: Nice. What channel?
Dad: The Spanish channel.
Me: Are you going to watch it? (Dad does not speak a word of Spanish).
Dad: Yeah, I guess. There is nothing else on …pauses… I’ll have your mom call you when she gets home.