During the Covid-19 self quarantine and beyond, a home-bound body becomes captive of repetitive and trifling activities that used to be confined to folks who have reached a respectable old age, including, according to word definitions of dictionary.com, to:

— Dawdle: To waste time, be slow
— Doodle:  To scribble absent mindlessly
— Patter:  to talk rapidly, chatter
— Diddle: To pass time aimlessly or unproductively [cite]
— Fiddle:  To touch or fidget with something in a restless or nervous way
— Piddle:  To spend time with unimportant matters; to work in a trifling manner
— Piffle:  To talk in a trifling and ineffective way.
— Dither:  To be indecisive.

Because of pure monotony and boredom, one could easily become immersed in many innocuous topics, thus being receptive to dither, dawdle, doodle, diddle, fiddle, piddle, piffle and patter — ad nauseam.  Importantly, if you live alone, it does not matter; but if you live with someone, then a mutual exchange of piffle could lead to an unpleasant squabble; i.e., a noisy quarrel about something petty or trivial, leading one to be likened to a dottle:  a remnant of used tobacco left in a pipe — a burned out remnant long past it’s usefulness, with little kick left.  

In addition, the lack of exercise reduces needed vibrant oxygen to one’s brain cells, which could bring about an unsteadiness in speech and movement, causing one to:

— Dodder: tremble, usually because of old age  
— Totter:  walk unsteadily
— Tottle: to walk in a wavering unsteady manner.

So what do dawdle, doodle, patter, diddle, fiddle, piddle, piffle, dither, dodder, totter, tottle squabble have in common?  Each comprises a two syllable word, accented on the first syllable, which drones on like iambs, suggesting that one has too much time on their hands with not enough to do — a common result of isolation. 

Finally, I sense that I have diddled, piddled and dawdled in piffle long enough, so I will totter and tottle on, ending this post, like a dottle.