In the short story Apologize, the scene read by the professor sounds to me like Wallace is mentally done with life as it has been.  I think he feels like basically been there done that but he has no idea how to stop the train to depart and start to do something else.  Seems like his ex knows that he is dragging his old self along, long after he should have separated.  During their conversation about him afraid of getting in trouble for pushing the man down that called him out for smoking the weed, she states clearly to him that it is way overdo for him to be continuing with all the old kid stuff.  She makes him completely aware that she is disappointed in his behavior and that now there daughter will be viewing and knowing the same poor behavior that he has demonstrated unless he cleans up his act.  I think he is beginning to get it that while he has stayed still and stuck the world is moving on without him.

So now Wallace is speaking with the wife of the guy who contested his smoking of grass in the estuary.  The guy who opposed his smoking portrayed himself so different than he was actually in real life.  Wallace expected to see the guy's wife as his age and probably a flashy kind of a gal.  He quickly found out after meeting the wife that they had no children.  Therefore the reason for his beef and the smoking of the grass was not valid.  The guy had made light of Wallace profession and dismissed it for something insignificant when in fact he himself did not have a job.