John and I bicker probably about as much as any married couple does, though not necessarily over the usual subjects that are high on the list. I don't recall ever in our nearly nine years of having an argument over money. The matter of driving, however, is fairly high on our list. He has some irritating habits like slowing down to a stop every time a light turns yellow (or he thinks it's going to turn yellow). This morning as he drove our 25 minutes to the business, though, not a word about driving. We were too involved in bickering about the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. I'm supposed to be the historian in the family, but he's been to Romania and knows all about the Hapsburgs. So we had to settle it with Wikipedia when we arrived at the Gardens. As it turned out, we were both essentially right in our contentions. We thought we were contradicting each other, but as we realized, one can hardly speak of that Empire without contradictions. So it goes. Our bickering will no doubt take another turn this afternoon, perhaps something again as inconsequential as the Holy Roman Empire.
