I may as well confess there are many things that baffle me. You’d think at this stage of the game I’d have it all figured out, right? But actually, it’s the opposite; age has not lessened my bafflement.

For instance, I was cruising down the freeway recently, in the slow lane for once in my life, when I heard honking in the lane to my left. Since there wasn’t traffic and we were all going the speed limit, I wondered why this person was laying on the horn. Not just a toot toot but a continual blast that lasted seconds.

I was in my SUV with our Marin Friends of Ferals placard on the door, our MFFCATS license plate and a window banner that says marinferals.org. So naturally I figured it was a fan of ours honking approval of what we do.

As the young man sailed past in his sports car, he lifted his arm, pointed his hand toward me, then flipped me the bird. I was shocked. I’ve never been flipped off before — a pretty good track record for an almost 67-year-old, don’t you think? Anyway, I chalked it up to him being a cat hater. But still, it was baffling.