Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - October 13, 2013

Yep. It's once again Sunday morning! G'mornin' to ya! This is my weekly off television topic reflection on the week gone by in both words and photographs I've taken along the way. Later this evening, you're all invited to the blog party for The Amazing Race, but this here isn't about television.

It was a doldrums kind of week here with more gloomy skies than not. Thus, it was another week of not great photos for the most part. It's pitch-dark as I head to the train station most mornings. The saying "the darkest hour is before the dawn" is definitely right. While I'm not one to wander around Plainfield alone at night, walking to the train in the morning hours is different. The denizens of the dark are finally asleep and, while quiet, the folks I do see on my early morning walk are all heading to work ... just like me.

I come up with nicknames in my mind for those I encounter in my daily journeys:

• There's Banana Man at the Bridgewater Train Station. He parks his car at the Target parking lot across the street to avoid the $4 daily parking fee at the station. He's ALWAYS eating a banana as our paths cross.
• There's Confused Lady at the Plainfield Train Station. She's been taking the early train for a good six months now and still looks confused about where she wants to sit (on the mostly empty train) daily. She also looks befuddled every day when the conductor wants to take her ticket and takes forever to dig through her purse for one. If she catches the train home daily, she'd do better off with a monthly ticket, but it just might confuse her.
• There's the Waving Man outside Everybody's Food Market on East Front Street. He doesn't work for, but hangs around the market -- a Jamaican/West Indies run establishment -- during business hours. He arrives before the store opens, moves the newspaper stack out of the elements and sits in his car, apparently awaiting the person who opens. He always waves and says hello.
• There's Spike Lee Lookin' Dude with the shih tzu doggie. He usually has a cup of coffee in one hand, the dog leash in the other. We greet, small talk about the weather and go our separate ways.
• There's the regular bunch of Latino workers awaiting rides. These aren't guys looking for work -- they definitely have steady landscaping and/or construction jobs. They buy their breakfasts at the restaurant which used to be Mi Ranchito (don't think it still is) on East Front Street and tote small coolers for their lunches. They often say good morning in unison as I pass by.

 Oh well, onto the photos for this week ... 

Yay! Acorn season!

This squirrel at the Plainfield Train Station was one busy little dude.

Getting colorful

The foliage is still being very selective around here. Some trees, mostly smaller ones, are already barren. But, many trees are still green. I took this from North Avenue looking towards the Friends Meeting House on Watchung Avenue, Plainfield.

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Storm clouds coming in

This is one of the lamps at the Bridgewater Train Station aglow early as the clouds darken the skies.

Signs of the season

Yep, the leaves are turning colors and political signs for one candidate or another abound. East Front Street, Plainfield.

This is getting a bit ridiculous

Man, if I had property where politicians wanted to erect mini-billboard signs, I would feel compelled to charge them. Every year we have a plethora of political signs, but this is the first time I've seen these spring up. It's getting out of hand. East Front Street, Plainfield.

The lonely llama

This poor little lonesome llama sits in the window of an abandoned storefront on Watchung Avenue in Plainfield.

Red skies in the morning ...

Sailors take warning. Yup, despite this glorious sunrise near the Bridgewater Train Station, clouds and rain overtook the skies. It was just about the only sunrise I saw this week. It was too overcast the other days.

Let there be mums!

Even though some roses are hanging in there throughout town, it's time for the mums to be the star of the season. These and the following mums were in baskets lining porch stairways on Berckman Street in Plainfield.

More mums!

Not grapes

These not grapes grow this time of the year at the Bridgewater Train Station. I'm not sure what they are, but I would NOT eat them. That said, something eats them, perhaps birds.

My limo

Coming home to grey skies once again this week. I usually sit on the upper deck. It wiggles a bit, but I don't mind. Motion sickness isn't a fear unless I'm spinning around in circles and hung upside-down as in some amusement park rides. I used to be good at them. Not so much these days. NJ Transit, Plainfield Train Station.

Ticket scofflaws

Dang. There are repair garages on East Fourth Street in Plainfield. If I can tell that they push these cars out of the bays to the streets daily and put old tickets on them so they won't get new tickets ... why doesn't the Parking Authority notice? This is DAILY. Some of the tickets they put on them are all weather-worn. It's bad enough these businesses block the sidewalks with cars and pedestrians have to go into the street to pass. Grr.

That said, I always liked the old Datsun 240-280Z cars. Blue would be better.

Pink and pretty

It's not only just mums this time of year ... these also spring to life. I'm not sure what they are. East Front Street, Plainfield.

The "friendly" tree

This is the big tree on the front lawn of the Friends Meeting House (Watchung Avenue, Plainfield). Although it's colorful, it seems a bit more sparse this year. It lost many branches in Sandy last fall. The huge colorful tree across the street from my apartment is totally gone. I miss its reds.

What's he got?

Whatever it is, he really dug for it. I have no clue. It looks almost like a cicada, but it could be some sort of trash of some kind. Plainfield Train Station.

Can you touch your nose, Vincent?

What a cat! He's a purring machine!