My weekly apology involves a math error, apparently. Gary and I will be running Falmouth Road Race together in 2036, not 2037. Thanks to the dozens of people, the one guy who used all his fingers and toes to figure that out for me.

The photo above is the original Dunkin Donuts, about 5 miles from where I grew up. In those days, people actually dunked the donut in their coffee, hence the name. In fact, the Old Fashioned Donut even had a handle to make it easier. Would I make that up? That's really where the name comes from. See below.

Know anyone under stress these days? Me neither. Lots of middle fingers being used on the road recently, but there is another trend going on, at least in my part of town.

As one of my personal habits to

I try to make it a point to generally ‘let other cars in’ when I am driving.

That might mean flashing my lights to signal to another driver, or it might mean slowing down so that a car entering the highway can merge easier, or it could mean letting a truck change lanes in front of me, because it must be hard to change lanes in a tractor-trailer.

Now, don't get me wrong, I can deliver an artistically appropriate gesture to someone who has earned it. After all, I am from Massachusetts.

Earlier this year, I had something happen to me in a Dunkin Donuts drive thru. It started me thinking about how a way we could all make the world a better place, one coffee at a time. Deep, I know, but occasionally I do take a deep breath and think even deeper thoughts. I promise it won't happen very often.

The incident that triggered this unusual meditative state for me took place about six in the morning as I was on my way to Starbucks. Only kidding, on my way to Dunkin Donuts. (When I get a Starbucks gift card, I give it away). No offense to Seattle coffee, but I grew up on Dunkin and I'm not sure how they legally call that other stuff 'coffee'.

As I approached the restaurant, I noticed that there was a car trying to make a difficult move across two lanes of traffic into the Dunkin parking lot from across the street. Without thinking, I flicked my lights twice to signal to the other car she was good to go, and she did, right into the drive thru lane ahead of me.

I did what everyone does in the drive thru lane while waiting: act bored, change the station and check email. When I finally arrived a the window after placing my order, I reached for payment, but the cashier told me ‘the woman ahead of you took care of it.’ Bang. 6:02 in the morning, in Rutland, Massachusetts and someone I can never thank, ‘took care of it.’

I started thinking about the dominos in this sequence of events:

The simple flick of headlights to let someone in became contagious. Better world, one coffee at a time.

While I won't claim ‘let someone in’ while you are driving and you'll get a free coffee', I can recommend that if ‘let someone in’ while you are driving the world will be a better place, and you might get a free coffee.'

If the next time you are in the drive thru, you try it and it feels good paying for the car behind you, let me know, because you can help make free coffee a better kind of contagious.

After writing the first draft of this Weblog, my wife, with no idea of the subject this week, shared that when she was at Dunkin that morning, she had planned to pay for the person behind her in the drive through lane and when she got to the window, she was shocked that the employee let her know the woman in front of her in line had paid for her order. Back to back people got free coffee, imagine if that streak kept going? Free coffee is contagious.