“The ‘Old Directions Jones’........

.......still works pretty well,” I say as our CR-V appears among the 89 bazilyun cars parked in the Strong Hospital Parking Garage.
We had driven into Strong Memorial Hospital yesterday morning (Tuesday, January 27, 2009), not for a medical emergency, but in pursuit of the Shingles Study Linda is participating in.
Linda was a candidate for trial of a Shingles vaccine, her immunity reduced by anti-cancer chemo.
Once a month she gets either the vaccine or a placebo, then has to keep a log of her daily temperature, reactions, etc; a so-called “report-card.”
So appointment concluded we navigate out into the vast parking-garage; at least six tilted floors with 89 bazilyun salt-laden cars.
Each tilted floor is a ramp to the next floor, and the tilted floors meet at the center, where an exit cut-through shortcut is made.
The floors are color-coded, and identified as to which floor is which.
We’re parked on the second floor, the half that ramps up to the third floor.
But each floor also has a down ramp, which you navigate to get out.
Our CR-V is parked on the down ramp.
“Wait a minute,” I think to myself. “We’re on the up ramp. Ya can’t access the cut-through from here. Ya gotta be on the adjacent down-ramp.”
Navigate between salt-laden parked cars to adjacent down-ramp.
“Yep, there’s the cut-through,” I say to myself.
And there’s that illegally-parked Nissan partially blocking the cut-through exit; the one with the Dubya sticker.
We pass the illegally-parked Nissan and thread the cut-through.
There it is; “The ‘Old Directions Jones’ still works pretty well,” I say.

“Old Directions Jones” is my sense of direction.

Our “CR-V” is our 2003 Honda CR-V SUV.

“Strong Memorial Hospital” is a large hospital in Rochester, NY. —About 20 miles from where we live.

“Shingles” is the disease.

“Linda” is my wife of 41+ years. She had lymphatic cancer. It was treatable with chemo-therapy — she survived.

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