One of the biggest downsides of piloting is that you show up to sit here.
For at least a couple hours.
Sometimes more.
And everyone has noise cancelling headsets and nifty mics. And a lot of people are very uncomfortable w/ “silence”.
Should you ever be in this position, just say “I’ve been running ragged lately” or “I’m just out of it, man, didn’t get much sleep” and hopefully the other guy will take a hint