It was just a friendly pat on the back...

A short ride of about 10 miles to the south, top down on a beautiful day, in a beautiful car, for an ugly reason: surgery to get a couple of suspicious "lesions" removed and inspected for cancer, one on my back and another on my right thumb.

 The outcome of this procedure will determine if I need more surgery, which could delay my planned road trip, and I won't know for a couple more days.

 So I might as well enjoy the ride, right?

 There's no hurry getting there, so I keep to automatic shifting mode just to see how it behaves in traffic. Remarkably smooth! Just the slightest pressure on the accelerator and it moves gracefully through the gears keeping revs in the 1500 rpm range.

The personality of the car is completely changed from the enthusiastic way I have been driving it since delivery. This is very laid back, low profile, and quiet.

The clinic parking lot is full, but 10 feet away is another clinic where I have a couple of physician friends, and they have several open spots, so I slip in there and chat up the valet, tipping him nicely and giving him a card to download my free app. I mention I'd like to visit, un-announced, a couple of friends there, and then go to the other clinic for some surgery. No problem, he says.

The surgery goes surprisingly well, with only local numbing injections and I'm out of there in about 90 minutes, but the most incredible thing happens...

The surgeon asks how I'm enjoying my new car, so I invite him outside to check it out. I didn't expect him to take me up on it; he's a very busy guy, but he lights up and says sure. Now we're no long physician/patient, just two car guys checking out a Ferrari, and of course he loves it.

When he's seen enough and moves to get back to his office, he wishes me well on my road trip, and give me a friendly slap on the back, scoring a direct hit where he just cut me open. 

My reaction was immediate and incredulous and he picks up on his mistake immediately, but of course his slap was more of a friendly pat, and it didn't cause any damage. We both had a good laugh about that.

In a couple of days I might be told I have cancer, but not today. The ride home was still in automatic mode, late afternoon, 70 SoCal degrees, top down, in a Ferrari, driving north on the coast road.