It is rare for my wife and me to do a midweek dog walk together, but on this particular afternoon I find myself at a loose end, and volunteer to come along.
Joint walks require a bit of negotiation: my wife expects a minimum level of conversation, which is not a normal feature of my weekday afternoon. To solve this, we take turns delivering monologues of complaint – my wife going first. Because I’m a good listener, I can’t help but notice that a lot of my wife’s complaints are about me. Finally, she exhausts herself.
