i've been waving at the same guy on my morning walk for two years and today he said "hey dave". my name is not dave

so theres this guy who walks a very old beagle past my house at like 7:15 every morning. we started with the nod, then moved up to the little wave, and somewhere around last spring it turned into full "morning!" territory i figured that was as far as it would ever go and i was fine with that

then today he goes "hey dave, beautiful day" and just keeps walking i said "you too" like an idiot. so now i guess im dave

i cant fix it. two years in, correcting him would mean admitting neither of us ever bothered to ask. it would wreck the whole thing. i'll be dave forever and someday his beagle will outlive me and theyll put dave on my headstone out of sheer momentum

my sister says just tell him. my sister also once let a barista call

yeah youre dave now, thats the law two years of waving is basically a contract lowkey at this point correcting him would be WAY weirder than just answering to dave until one of you moves away or dies

also you said "you too" back to "beautiful day" which i'd call a pretty solid recovery tbh. mine would've been "thanks you too" to a waiter saying enjoy your meal, and i've done that like four times this year

the real worry is the day someone else on the route yells your actual name and he hears it. then you're living a double life. i'd just get ahead of it and start calling him something too. pick a name. gary maybe he's earned a Gary

i guess you could say this whole thing has been a real identity walk. no? intellectual humor, look it up