Bad Manners and Brimstone

Well, we all know that what we want is often not what we actually need. Clearly she has got so depressed in lockdown that she just didn’t have the energy to go online and buy what she needs to walk the dog comfortably (and heaven knows most of us have been in that state at some time in our lives). She called you wanting a warm cosy dose of sympathy for her suffering, but instead encountered your sincere puzzlement that she hadn’t taken the easy obvious step that would solve it. If that impels her to just sit down at her computer and put an order through, you will have done her more good than you would have done by helping her have a good comforting wallow in her misery.

Perhaps call her some time for a nice kindly chat about the difficulties of working from home and Life in General, so she doesn’t come away with the impression that you’re fundamentally not sympathetic. But don’t feel badly about your response.