Cracked rear view

I don't know how real God is, but Traffic Jesus is definitely out there making some signs happen.

This afternoon, having left work early because I'm sick as turd, I found myself behind an old Honda CR-V at a stoplight. It's one of those cars that exemplifies the 1980s subcompact trend — reliable, but nevertheless really showing its age. It was blue, but it's hard to tell if it started out that color. I recognized the license plate as a 1994 issue, though the faded "96" decal poking out from one corner would give that away even to the most casual Louisiana plate fan. Above the fading plate, on the rear window, was the post-apocalyptic remnants of a Bush-Cheney bumper sticker. Really, the remaining flakes mostly said "Cheney." I pegged it as being from 2000, as opposed to the tighter type of 2004 (also the '04 decals actually said '04, so that helps).

It got me thinking back to 2000, when I lacked the wisdom to not ask people why they liked the Bush-Cheney ticket. This was back when the economy was steamrolling along and 9/11 was just some number nobody ever called because nothing was ever wrong. So of course there was a lot of, "I think I deserve a tax cut" and, "Bush will be great for my stocks." I wonder if the guy in the Honda (which was already pretty old in 2000) supported Bush because he thought it would net him a new ride. I'll bet it at least crossed his mind, even if he'd never admit to it today.

But maybe that's crazy talk. I tend to keep vehicles until they literally say to me, "I don't want to be alive anymore," which is why I've owned only two cars in my life. My grandfather owned three cars over a 35-year span — and one of those was a work truck that overlapped his two daily drivers. Everyone in my family keeps their cars for years. The point being, I can relate if this guy is just a thrifty, non-materialistic person. That's cool. And with that, I dismissed my bit of traffic cynicism.

Just then, a big, white, older-model work truck pulled to the side of Honda Man. The driver was an older white guy. He had adorned his truck with an Obama 2012 bumper sticker, which complemented the faded Howard Dean bumper sticker, as well as the liberal sentiment I didn't fully catch as the light turned green. Sometimes people surprise you.

Hindsight, on the other hand, hardly ever does.