Braver than you’d think

Unless you thought that I’m extremely brave.

Today is colonoscopy day. After drinking litres of apple juice and laxative concoction and multiple toilet visits, hubs’ bowels were empty and he was ready to be dropped off at the hospital. And that I did. No point in me hanging around there for hours to wait for his return, so I went back home.

On my way home I paid a visit to a supermarket to get some odds and ends. I often joke that the parking lot of this particular supermarket is the most dangerous spot in the whole of the province. Mostly because of the very elderly people who still drive a car. Which is nice. For them. Apparently after hundreds of years of driving a car, one has the right to just back up without looking if there is perhaps another car or a pedestrian coming. They probably can’t turn their heads enough anymore. And mirrors… what? Mirrors? No, one just backs up and everyone else in the parking lot should respect the elderly and give them room to manoeuvre. And boy, do they need room to manoeuvre. Where people like you and me just look if we can back up, back up while turning the car and drive away, these people don’t look, they just back up in a straight line, go forward, back, forward, back, forward, back….each time turning the wheel about an inch at the most.

The other very dangerous drivers are the chic housewives of which there are plenty in our neck of the woods, with no hair out of place and a very shiny car to take the children to school or to hockey in. They think along these lines: “My husband is rich, my children are gorgeous, I never have a bad-hair-day, so even though I should give you right of way, I think you should hit the brakes and let me go my merry way.”

And then there is the third category; the young guys who got their drivers license yesterday and think they are invincible. The usually drive a Peugeot 205 or a VW Golf. They are in a hurry, because they need a bag of crisps/chips and a Coke (I mean the drink. I know you think that we Dutch can get marihuana, coke and other mind blowing stuff in our supermarkets, but no. We have to go to a coffee shop for that.).

When I came out of the supermarket and walked my shopping trolley to my car, a guy from the last category (although he drove a Mini) drove into the parking lot. He had to stop for one of the 150-year olds who had been driving back, forward, back, forward and had almost managed to turn the car enough to drive away. So young guy had to wait for what… 10 seconds at the most. But he was hungry and thirsty and in a hurry, and 10 seconds seem like a lifetime when you are 18, so as soon as he could he put his foot down and speeded up to an empty parking space. At an abnormally high speed, even, or especially, for what is the most dangerous parking lot in the whole of the province anyway. So everyone looked at him with killer looks, but then they all went on with putting their shopping in their car.

And now I’ll tell you why I’m braver than you’d think, unless you thought I’m extremely brave anyway.

The guy parked his car, got out of it and I walked up to him. “Can I tell you something?”, I asked, not waiting for an answer. “Do you realize there are often people with children in this parking lot? And those children could run in front of your car. And I’m sure you wouldn’t want to run over a child.”

“No”, he said.

“Okay. That’s what I wanted to say to you and I hope you’ll think about it.”

And then I returned to my car and got in, while he went on his way to the supermarket.

Now, don’t think that I didn’t need a bit of courage to confront this guy with his action. I didn’t know him. I mean, he could have been one of those aggressive guys who carries a knife or something. But it turned out that he carried an MP3-player and a phone. And he listened politely.

Perhaps he’ll think about what I’ve said. Perhaps not. Probably not. Well, he probably thinks of me as an old nag who should mind her own business. And of course on my way back home I thought of lots of cleverer things I could have said to him.

But I feel better for having talked to him. And that is a positive result.

Now I have to wait for a phone call from hubs to tell me that I can pick him up from the hospital. And hopefully there will be a positive result at the end of his examinations and scans too. We’ll see.

UPDATE:
They didn’t find anymore worrying things in his colon, apart from two small polyps which they removed. They marked the malignant tumour with ink, so the surgeon can find it easily. I hope it is long lasting ink, because it might take a while before hubs will be operated on. I wonder if they drew a little face on it. I would have done that. But then again my sense of humour is working overtime at the moment.

They warned hubs not to worry if his poo turns blue. That would be the ink. Good to know.

Tomorrow he’ll have a CT scan and a Thorax photo. Fingers crossed.