Learning Patience

I'm at work, and I'm blogging rather than working, yes. A bad thing by most standards, but I need an avenue to vent.

My boss is 70 years old.  He's been at the business he's in for over 30 years and, he lost his wife of 50 years a little over a year ago.  He's survived lung cancer and though he doesn't seem to want to take care of property that he owns - he's a salesman and takes good care of the customer's and the business relationships he's cultivated over the years. 

With that said, and to try and remind myself of his redeeming qualities, before I begin to list the things about him that frustrate the hell out of me and make it difficult to do my job.  I know that he's lonely because he's never really cultivated any personal relationships with anyone but the wife who is no longer with us.  And he won't.. he'll say he can/will, but he won't - he just doesn't have it in him. And, I think, for reasons he'll never admit to. One of those is the fact that he's completely toothless - got dentures, was told by the dentist to leave them in for a full 24 hrs, but they hurt - so he took them out.  They didn't fit after that and so somewhere among all the other hoarded things he keeps, is a brand new set of teeth that weren't even worn for a full day. 

He loves to talk, and the most frustrating thing about him, on a day to day basis, is that ANY conversation, statement, comment etc., is immediately turned into a lengthy story about him.  If you've done anything, he's done it too, and a whole lot of other stuff that you really don't want or need to know.  Most times I can allow my intent for conversation fall off, and give him the platform, but after a while it really really does get annoying.  I know that he doesn't do it to make another person feel bad, but he really just doesn't know when to shut up.  And he's one that will NEVER learn to let silence do the heavy lifting. 

Age, is that it? is that, and the loss of his wife what makes him believe that nearly all conversations should revolved around his 70 years of experience (unless he's trying to sell you something, then he'll listen with intent before he goes off on a tangent to relate to you HIS version of the same story/situation). 

I'm just tired of it. To me, most of it is noise but I still feel badly because when I ask him to stop, or try to point out that he does this, I feel almost as if I'm disrepecting an elder... or being mean somehow. 

Perhaps it's time to make a concerted effort to learn to really tune things out... before I go nuts!