To get from the vaunted Canandaigua YMCA......

....to mighty Weggers.

I must negotiate the parking-lot of the West Ave. Shopping Plaza.
The West Ave. Shopping Plaza is about 40-50 years old, and was probably one of the first shopping plazas in Canandaigua.
A few stores are left, but many are unoccupied. Stores have moved to other plazas, or even built by themselves; e.g. Weggers.
There is a Dollar General in there, plus the Medicine-Shoppe Pharmacy, where we used to get chemo for Killian.
We’d get it ourselves, to avoid the extravagant cost if the vet had got it.
They’d call in the prescription, and we’d go get it before taking Killian to the vet. Killian was along. —That pharmacy was about 20 miles from the vet.
I’d park in that plaza if the YMCA lot was full; but doing so meant a hike of about 3/4 mile.
Lately I’ve been able to park in the YMCA lot.
To get to Weggers, I pull out of the YMCA lot west onto Park Ave., which is one-way away from the main drag.
I go down Park Ave., under the twin railroad bridges of the old Auburn, written up previously on this blog (March 16, 2007), and now operated by Finger Lakes Railway.
The first bridge is devoid of tracks; probably the first route of the Auburn through Canandaigua. But apparently New York Central rerouted the Auburn through Canandaigua, to open out the sharp curve, requiring the second bridge.
The first bridge is on ancient stone abutments, and the second on concrete.
After the bridges, Park Ave. turns north, but a driveway comes off south toward the West Ave. Shopping Plaza. It’s a back entrance, and threads an opening between stores, which are laid out in an “L,” with an opening at the apex.
I cross the parking-lot parallel to the part the Medicine-Shoppe is in, toward West Ave., which takes me downtown, and eventually to Weggers.

—1) Threading between the arms of the “L,” I come to a stop-sign at the entrance to the parking-lot.
Granny and GrandPop are angling on foot toward the stop-sign, GrandPop with a walker equipped with an oxygen-kit.
Seeing them coming, I stop to allow them across; there’s a stop-sign anyway.
But GrandPop waves me on. They are intent on accessing the sidewalk on the bottom arm of the “L;” probably headed to Dollar General. Granny has a prescription from Medicine-Shoppe.
Seeing the wave, I advance, but then GrandPop looks angry that I looked at my right-side before going (they’re on my left).
It’s the old bus-driver waazoo; just because somebody waved ya on doesn’t mean they have all their marbles.
It’s “Joe-the-Plumber.” “Joe-the-Plumber, unlicensed” is embroidered on the back of his iridescent-black Vietnam-vet jacket. “Common-Sense Plumbing; licensing is for wusses.”
“That Obama is gonna reverse my tax-cut that allowed me to make a killing,” he shouts as I pass.
A “Don’t blame me; I voted for Big Mac and the ‘Cuda” sticker is on the front of his walker, below the oxygen-tank.

—2) I advance along the edge of the parking-lot, in front of Medicine-Shoppe, doing about 5-10 mph.
I notice a white Cadillac driven by Granny blue-wig driving right toward me, on the wrong side of the road; but since I ain’t doing 15-20 mph, I can avoid a HUGE wipeout with broken bones, a trip to the hospital, and enough pins to set off the security alarms at Logan Airport.
I zag to the left, avoiding Granny; who is appalled (gaping mouth) that I didn’t screech to a stop and allow her to access the Medicine-Shoppe’s Handicap-slot, unsignaled of course (no handicap tag either).
After all, she was driving a Cadillac. (Probably voted for Dubya too; although I didn’t see a sticker — she was coming toward me.)

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

“Killian” was our previous dog, a rescue Irish-Setter. He died of cancer.

The “Auburn”-Road was the first railroad across the state into Rochester. It took a rather circuitous route, and is now partly abandoned. A more direct railroad was built east from Rochester to Syracuse, so the Auburn (via Auburn) became a detour bypass. The direct route became the mainline of the New York Central Railroad, but NYC also owned the Auburn. (The direct route is now CSX Transportation.) The Auburn served many small farming communities (including Canandaigua), but became moribund. What remains is now operated by independent shortline Finger Lakes Railway, but the line into Rochester is gone.

“New York Central” Railroad is long out of business. It merged with Pennsylvania Railroad in 1968 as Penn-Central, and that tanked in about eight years.

RE: “It’s the old bus-driver waazoo.......” —For 16&1/2 years (1977-1993) I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service, the transit-bus operator in Rochester, NY. You had to watch out for the other guy.

My all-knowing, blowhard brother-from-Boston, the macho ad-hominem king, claims I’m utterly reprehensible for not doing 15-20 mph in a parking-lot. Yet it was he that wiped out his motorcycle, and broke many bones — 15-20 mph in a parking-lot.

RE: “Enough pins to set off the security alarms at Logan Airport........” —Because of his accidents my brother carries “enough pins to set off the security alarms at Logan Airport.”

A “Dubya-sticker” is a Bush-Cheney 2004 bumper-sticker. All insane traffic-moves seem to involve Bush-supporters. They seem to think they have the right.