I can no longer sit in the car with it running, this is something that I always though was merely frowned upon, but this week we sat in the car for me to nurse the baby before going in to an appointment and were approached by a man who did not appreciate that our car was still running. I had just finished nursing him and was covered when the man, who arrived at the same time as us and had already come back out of the building to his car, approached my window and motioned for us to turn the car off. I watched stunned, as Markus opened the window and they exchanged words in German. What I understood was that my husband refused in a firm but polite way and the man said “Ja, Klar”and got in his car shaking his head. Markus explained that he asked us to turn the car off, that he didn’t appreciate the car running outside his office and this a plague on the environment. Markus also said that the man was so sure of himself and abrasive in his approach it would not have surprised him if the guy tried to fight him.

I was angry. I was fuming. I was at a loss.

After our appointment and after the shock of the situation wore off, I had a number of things to say to Markus. I first told him that the man should be glad I wasn’t still nursing the baby because if he had approached us while I still had my boob out I would have gotten out of the car and dealt with him myself. After putting my boob away of course.

I understand the green movement, I understand that we need to be more careful with our environment and make smarter moves. I also saw this man drive up in a vehicle that was not any special environmental friendly car. It just takes some nerve to act in this way, in my opinion.

Another thing I was sure to make note of was that a situation like this in Texas would have taken a much more serious turn, in that you just don’t go around telling other people how to behave. I firmly believe that in the same situation a gun would’ve been pulled by someone just for approaching someone else’s car. Not to mention, I would have loved to see this same guy approach a ginormous diesel truck and see what kind of response he got from the person inside.

I once got in trouble with Markus at a soccer match because the man sitting in front of me chained smoked the entire match and when I finally had enough of the smoke in my face I asked him if he could not smoke anymore. This resulted in the man pulling out his phone and showing me the rules of the stadium that stated he could smoke where he wanted. I think Markus was embarrassed that I even said anything but I do think that guy smoked a little less the rest of the game. How can this country be so tolerant of something that can cause physical harm to another person but so intolerant of something that won’t actually hurt the environment considering we were sitting next to the highway?

We are in the process of purchasing a hybrid, and I fully intend to use the electric option to keep from having to turn the car off. This is my outlook for the future I guess, because the Texas girl in me struggles to sit in a vehicle with it off and no air circulating! I’m off to search Amazon for a battery operated fan to keep in the car! Wish me luck!