The "how are you's" used to annoy him more than anything because he saw so many were just putting on a facade of "christian love" to an old guy and couldn't wait to keep moving through the crowd of robots.
That used to irritate the hell out of me too. Most of the time they'd say "Hello, how are you?" and keep walking so you didn't have time to answer. After one particularly tiring day at work I was at a meeting and the PO came to me with such a greeting. I answered "I'm fine, just a little tired." He said, "Just keep it to 'fine'. We don't want to get negative now, do we?"
4JWY, I'm truly sorry about the loss of your father.
Walter