[Silveredwings]

To RH77,

I'm sorry I came on so strong. Maybe "be a man" got to me, but that's more me than you. I think this thread is a metaphor for road rage: I said... you said... and so on. I made what I thoughtlessly believed was an off the cuff remark about the 1911 and then helped escallated it to where it ought not to have gone. Before long, it was I, not you, who opened up my sordid baggage. I can't blame anyone for taking my strong comments any way they did.

You are indeed a voice of well moderated reason. If, as you say, you were once a sort of poster child of road rage, you either reformed admirably or hide it well. I supect the former. Kudos to you. I hope you can accept my appologies for having flamed you as I did.

To other gentle readers:
In my road altercation, I did what many hypermilers do: go the speed limit or otherwise slower than desired by traffic. Some people get really angry about this. Know this: some percentage of those people will be violent (and probably do carry). We often think we're anonomous or even safe within our metal cars. That's complacency. Any indication I gave earlier that a handgun would have improved the situation or ensured my security is pure fantasy marinated in my own issues.

Before a situation gets out of control, you need to treat it extremely carefully and do the right thing as best you can: don't react with emotion, get out of there, call authorities. Even if you have major trust issues as I do, you'll atleast be covered legally and maybe get the assistance you need. YMMV.

Humbly, Dan