First: On election day we all went to White Trash Fast Food for dinner. Although the two could be connected, they weren't really -- we just wanted a good burger.

This morning Cy came in to cuddle after he woke up and he looked over at me and said, "Dad, you're white trash."

!

Second: Road rage. I never believed that thing about how people get road rage because they feel safe in their cars. For me, it's always been more that some incompetent boob is keeping me from where I'm going through their incompetence.

I've always just wanted to avoid that kind of stuff altogether -- turn the other cheek and all that -- but I didn't always know how to.

On Saturday I was waiting for someone to leave their parking spot on Rykestrasse so I could parallel into it. I wasn't in the middle of the road but I wasn't as far to the right as I could have been. Suddenly, a 5-Series BMW came the other direction and stopped astern with our Volvo, concerned he couldn't get by. Then, a big van came behind the 5-Series. The dude pulling out of the parking spot was taking forever and I couldn't really move to get out of the BMW's way.

The van flashed his lights again.

I was confident the BMW could sneak by me if he really tried but I didn't want to get into any arguments so I just looked straight ahead, waiting for the guy to get out of the parking spot. I could feel the BMW driver looking over at me. And the van kept flashing his lights.

I couldn't move. The BMW driver was scared to move and the van driver kept flashing his lights.

Usually at this point a lot of honking occurs. But instead, the guy in the van got out. Uh oh, I thought. He casually walked between the BMW and my Volvo. He walked in front of the BMW and, with a smile on his face, guided the BMW on through.

Smiling.

"That was awesome," Sabine said. "What a way to solve the problem," I said.