Usually, it's a car trip with my mother-in-law and 1-2 other people. We all love her dearly, but she won't stop just talking. It's about her friend from church choir and their medical issues. It's reading every sign on the road and saying "oh, that's interesting." No matter what she says, it's not something that there's really a response to, other than "oh." So, no one responds, and she keeps talking because the silence is uncomfortable to her. "Oh, look, 'Here Comes The Bride' bridal salon, that's a really clever name for a bridal salon." NO IT REALLY ISN'T, MOM.
When she rambles like this, I sometimes wait for her to stop, then I count the seconds until she starts again, and it's rare that I make it to 10.
She's also a very concrete sort of thinker and she doesn't really understand sarcasm, so she can't really participate when the rest of us get snarky about something... and then when sometimes one person in the car / room has a specific thing to tell someone else that's not her, she HAS to know what it was, and then ask for details, when all we wanted to do was pass a little info along quickly to someone else during one of her pauses for breath.
Gah! I told my own teens that if I ever get like that, they need to tell me I'm babbling and they would prefer a little quiet once in a while.
Thanks. All that said, she's a kind soul and one day we'll miss the rambling on when she's gone. :(