Sunday, April 22, 2012

Off Topic: That Was The Week It Was 4/22/12

It's Sunday morning, time for my weekly off television topic foray reflecting on the week gone by in both words and photographs I've taken. And, this week, I even got to experiment with technology while composing this post. Such fun!

First off, Blogger went to a new composing page. Since I've been dealing with various programs for too many years to mention, I know sometimes stuff just has to change because ... well, change is GOOD. (Cough) Okay, it's just a matter of figuring where they moved everything and what they've added. I can deal with that.

But then my photos started all sticking together like a long run-on sentence. I thought it had something to do with the new composition page until I somehow opened the real old Blogger photo upload page. I've hit my limit! I can't add any more photos to the Google Picassa album.

No real worry as I have a paid Photobucket account with pretty much unlimited space. However, the last time I tried to use that to post photos here, they were huge and knocked my blog sidebar askew. So I figured I'd have to resize all to a small size to fit on the blog and direct folks to the Photobucket pages to see the larger view.

Not so! Since all the world is owned or hooked up to Google and I have been using the newer Blogger format, I can post them normally with captions even. Coolio.

So that was my nightmare. 

In other news, there isn't much other news. We had a light rain (very light) one night during the week. We're expecting heavy rain through most of today. It started last night with sudden wicked winds and rain so that I had to run about closing windows. Then it stopped. We really do need the rain. Brush fires around the area have been the worst I've seen in years. Of course, we're under a flood warning, so it's one of those "be careful what you wish for" scenarios. 

Let's see ... what else? Oh, I know! I found this rather disturbing. A young person attending a local college was standing in front of clock. She asked me what time it was, her back to the clock. Instead of pointing at the clock, I was polite and said "Quarter to three." She replied, "No, the other way." "What?" "Numbers." "Um ... like 2:45?" "Yes! Thank you!" 

Oh my gosh. Now, I know the kids are raised on digital clocks, but plenty of old school clocks are all around the world. I can only think if I were coming of age in these times, I'd teach myself to tell the time on standard clocks. It would drive me crazy not to know such a basic thing or understand what "quarter to" or "half past" means. 

I won't even mention folks who stand in front of clearly marked automatic EXIT doors and don't have a clue why the doors aren't opening for them.

But I do feel the need to mention the folks on the block in back of me whom I've dubbed "The Deliverance Family." They've moved into the most rundown house in the area, wear their wife-beater undershirts (dirty, of course) with or without dirty down jackets or dirty plaid flannel shirts, sit on their front steps selling exotic birds (cockatoos, parrots, lovebirds, etc.) which are probably stolen ... and THEY HAVE A ROOSTER. That darn rooster crows constantly from before sunrise until around sunset. I live in the city limits. GAH!!

What the Deliverance Family doesn't know is that they've moved in next to the live Mexican Polka Band All Summer Long People. That might be interesting. 

Onto the photos. Hopefully, (remember I'm posting them from Photobucket), clicking on an image will open it larger in a gallery feature. Well, scratch that. It opens the image in a separate window, clicking on it at that point brings about a larger image, closing the window returns you to the blog.

Disorganization
Disorganization

The birds better get their act together if they plan to overthrow humanity. Oh. Wait. Humanity is always in a state of chaos, too!

The Planter
Purty planter

They put out pretty flowers in planters and throughout the lawn at the corner Scottway Townhouse off of East Front Street in Plainfield.

Yes, they are
Yes, yes they are

This ad is on the back of a New Jersey Transit 819 bus. I love it! So does Vincent. However, Vincent really has to learn to sleep vertically in the bed and not hog it up horizontally!

***HIT THE 'READ MORE' LINK TO SEE THE REST OF THE PHOTOS!***



Pink Azalea
Pink azalea up close and personal

Poison Ivy
Getting its green

Believe it or not, that is a chain link fence usurped by decades of poison ivy vines. The poison ivy itself is turning from its newborn spring colors and starting to sprout berries in places. Bridgewater Train Station.

A beetle, not a Beatle
A beetle, not a Beatle

This beetle is the size of a ladybug, but I fear it's probably a lot more destructive. Bridgewater Train Station.

White Azalea
White azalea, not wet

Azalea
Wet white azalea

This is the morning after the light rain during the week. If the ground hadn't been wet and droplets on flowers, I wouldn't have even known it had rained. My windows were even open!

Bobbin' Robin
Are you lookin' at me?

"Are YOU lookin' at ME? What are you lookin' at?" the robin demands in his best Robert DiNiro Taxi Driver voice.

Surviving public phone
Surviving public phone

Oh, I love my dumb cell phone even more when I see the few remaining public phones that apparently work. I'm not a germophobe (sp?) per se, but I bet there are some nasty cultures growing on that! East Front Street, Plainfield. I edited it to give it a bit of an illustrated kind of look.

Pink dogwood
Pink dogwood

East Front Street, Plainfield. (But a lot prettier than the public telephone!)

Nature's debris
Nature's debris

By the end of the week, the cherry blossoms at the Plainfield Train Station were blowing in the wind. This is looking along the ledge on the North Avenue side of the station.

Reaching to the sky
Reaching for the sky

The poison ivy and its newly forming berries reaches towards the sunlight at the Bridgewater Train Station.

Looking next door

Looking out my living room window at the back of the house next door.

Gotta love spring!

Earlier in the week before the blossoms fell.

While they last

I had to shoot them. Then they were gone. Plainfield Train Station on Monday.

I have no idea

Very pretty, but I don't know what they are. Alongside a house on Berckman Street in Plainfield.

Sweet and innocent?

Isn't Vincent so sweet, so innocent?

Vincent duz a LOLCat
Vincent duz a LOLcat

That is, until he imbibes! I realize I put these two Vincent photos up on my Facebook this week, but not everyone can see them. Now they can.

How was your week?

4 comments:

Bernice said...

I was just telling my son how someday Blogger might just go away. All my slide shows disappeared when slide.com shut down.
Picasa once said I could buy extra space but I did not do it. Maybe I should check on my files, which are pretty large.
I am the opposite of an early adopter for most stuff and by the time I ever get an IPhone, it will be nearly obsolete. Technology - boon or bane?

Jackie S. said...

I lost a ton of stuff from all the years I worked for AOL when they "sunsetted" program after program. The reason I took on the paid Photobucket account is because the company was established and, since it's a paid account, they can't just close it down without warning.

As for technology changes, I'm generally good at learning things but often think things change because some folks think they have a brilliant idea. Many people would just rather keep to the familiar.

I still have my dumb phone. I held out getting a cell phone at all for years as I'm not a big phone person. I don't have an iPhone or any kind of smart phone as (1) more $$ than I want to spend and (B) I'd be tempted to spend time playing on the Internet when I spend enough time playing on the Internet!

Petals said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
~~Silk said...

The "I don't know" is wisteria.