no Dubya-sticker

So here I am driving east on Routes 5&20 toward the mighty Weggers in Canandaigua.
I skipped going to the YMCA today (Wednesday, July 11, 2007), because a) dickering the “mighty Curve” story took a couple hours, and b) a thunderstorm was approaching, and I woulda had to leave about the time it hit, leaving Killian alone in the house in a thunderstorm. Linda was working all day in the vaunted West Bloomfield post-office.
Approaching the village of Bloomfield I first encounter a T-intersection, where State Route 64 intersects 5&20 from the north with a stop-sign.
Granny was sitting at the stop-sign in an ancient powder-blue four-door Cavalier, barely visible at all — a tiny stump behind the wheel, probably looking through it.
Suddenly Granny pulls right out in front of me — I had to slam on the brakes.
She turns east on 5&20, same direction as me, so phenomenal-avoidance concluded I fall right in behind her, where I can check out the rear bumper-stickers.
Sorry, no Dubya-Cheney ‘04 — she musta torn it off to avoid inflaming the citizenry. It was liberally festooned with 89 bazilyun “protect our troops” and “God bless America” ribbons along with a pink “desiring a cure” ribbon and a black “POWs never have a nice day.”
But sorry; no Dubya-sticker.

So here I am sedately motoring toward mighty Weggers this afternoon (Sunday, July 15, 2007) to do our remaining weekly grocery-shopping.
I’m driving east on Routes 5&20, approaching Bloomfield, and it’s a rerun of the same encounter I had with Granny in “no Dubya-sticker” the other day.
Only this time Granny is driving a black Ford Five-Hundred (instead of an ancient powder-blue Cavalier), and is visible — i.e. not looking through the steering-wheel.
I’m approaching the T-intersection where state Route 64 intersects with 5&20 at a stop-sign, and Granny is inching into the intersection.
Uh-oh........ Take foot off accelerator-pedal, and put on brake-pedal.
Sure enough; Granny pulls right out in front of me, requiring that I slam on the brakes. I coulda copy/pasted the Cavalier-incident.
Phenomenal-avoidance concluded, I fall right in behind the 500 so that I can look at her stickers.
Sorry dudes; no Dubya-sticker. But plenty of stuffed toys and a bobbing-head dog in the rear-window. I didn’t think they any longer made such things — wha’d she do; keep hers from the ‘80s?
Don’t get in Granny’s way when she’s going to Bingo.

AMAZING......
I managed to get by Route 64 this morning (Monday, July 16, 2007) without any life-threatening dramas.
No Granny-alerts; no slamming on of brakes.
But Granny was farther up, and driving a white Crown Victoria.
But not threatening me; just the beige S-10 pickup ahead of me.
On the other (east) side of Bloomfield is a crossroad atop a hill; not far from the place the five girls died.
Granny was anxious to get on 5&20, so she pulled right out in front of the S10; so he had to slam on his brakes.
I looked at the back of the Crown Vic, but it was at least 200 yards ahead — too far to make out if it had a Dubya-sticker.
But I couldn’t see even a hint.

“Mighty Weggers” is Wegmans, a large supermarket-chain based in Rochester we often buy groceries at.

“The mighty Curve” is Horseshoe Curve west of Altoona, Pennsylvania, by far the BEST railfan spot I have ever been to.

“Killian” is our dog — a rescue Irish-Setter.

“Linda” is my wife. She works part-time at the West Bloomfield post-office.

“Dubya-sticker” is Bush-Cheney ‘04. (Seems I’ve seen plenty — every insane traffic-move seems to involve a Dubya-sticker.)

Just east of Bloomfield is a place on 5&20 where a teenybopper overcorrected into an oncoming semi — five recent high-school graduates died.

“Routes 5&20” are State Route 5 and U.S. Route 20, both on the same road. It’s the main east-west road through our area.