ACCOUNTANT BY DAY

I think I’m in some kind of club I didn’t bargain for, now that I own a Volkswagen. In the past two weeks, two different people in Volkswagens have smiled and waved when they saw me in traffic. It’s not like I’ve gotten miraculously cuter after I bought the car. This has never happened to me before. Then today when I was merging into traffic gridlock on I-35, the lady driving the car on which I would depend to let me in before the ramp ran out waved and slowed to let me over. When I looked in the rear-view I realized it was a Jetta. Significant? I couldn’t say.

I am now going to do an informal statistical analysis to determine whether this is all in my head. I’m going to watch carefully for other drivers (of all types of car) who seem to show me any kind of favoritism or unusually good treatment. I will keep a small legal pad and tally things like waves and letting me merge quickly. I’ll see what makes of car I get this stuff from. I may create a spreadsheet once I accumulate sufficient data.

I suspect this is a trick of perception. Why would Volkswagen drivers give me mysterious special treatment simply for being one of them? Nobody told me about this at the dealership.