Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - December 2, 2012

It's Sunday morning. That can only mean one thing. Yep. It's time for my weekly off television topic post reflecting on the week gone by in both words and photographs I've taken along the way.

We've had a chilly week here in New Jersey. My heart goes out to the folks still struggling without electricity or heat. Thankfully my own power celebrated its first entire week without an outage since October 29. Yet, mind you, my bill was higher than ever for the month including my extensive outage. Well, not as high as in the summertime with the air conditioning on, but ...! They claim they couldn't send out meter readers post-Sandy and that they estimated what the bill should be. Grr. They also claim it will be adjusted next month. It better be.

It would have been nice if my landlord had offered a rent abatement, but they didn't. I know some places did offer abatements as, technically, the apartments were uninhabitable without electricity or heat during the long outages. Had I actually left instead of roughing it here, I would be pushing for some money off the rent. I have yet to fight my battles with Comcast cable television and Verizon internet for charging me when I was out of service for so long.

Let's see ... what else this week? Oh. On the day of the slushy snowstorm, the landlord had someone steam cleaning the carpet in the corridors. While I thought that was extremely bad timing, that's not the worst of it. They RUINED the carpets! The carpet is a forest green. Well, it was before they ruined it. Now there are white patches all over it. Hopefully the landlord will get them to either fix it or install new carpet. It looks horrible! It looked so much better just dirty! When I first moved here there was maroon carpet in the corridors. I recall how noisy that was when they ripped it up and installed the green. But something must be done.

Other than that, life has been work, eat, sleep and work some more. So it's onto the photos for the week. Clicking on an image will open it on a new Photobucket page, clicking again will make it larger. To return to the blog, just close out the Photobucket page.

Droplet

The Bridgewater Train Station is reflected upside down in a droplet on a branch.

Train at sunset

The double-decker trains always look so short from a distance. However, they're not. True, it's better to be stuck at a railroad crossing waiting on one of these rather than a freight train. But, no. They are indeed lengthy. This is the train arriving at the Bridgewater Train Station to take me home for the day.

Snowy sunflower doll

The sunflower doll stuck in the bush on Berckman Street in Plainfield was less than thrilled with this week's snow. Not only did she bend with the snowfall, but it looks like she's frowning as well.

**CLICK THE 'READ MORE' LINK TO SEE THE REST OF THE PHOTOS**

Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - November 25, 2012

It's Sunday morning. You know what that means! It means that it's time for my weekly off television topic reflection on the week gone by in both words and photographs I've taken. 

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. Mine was quiet. Since relatives live too far away and I always have to work the Friday after the holiday, I generally stay home and have a peaceful kind of day. Oh yes, I definitely make up a little feast each year! This year, instead of turkey, I had Trader Joe's rosemary marinated chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes, broccoli/cauliflower along with Trader Joe's coffee ice cream for dessert. I was thankful I finally seem to have steady electricity and food in my refrigerator!

That said, Sandy seems like the storm which just wouldn't die ... there's always something there to remind me. From tree limbs and debris, to a new FEMA location on my way to the train station, to the still not right schedule for the trains, to Philly's SEPTA buses by the Plainfield Train Station, to power outages at home which finally seemed to stop earlier this week, to dubious wires still on the ground, to the foliage show we missed out on and to another Halloween which wasn't ...

At least I no longer feel like a hunter/gatherer foraging for daily food. I remembered a few things I had forgotten to mention in my earlier Hurricane Sandy coverage.

• After the power went out on the night of the storm, it was scary creepy. I could hear the winds, stronger than I've ever heard in my life, yet it was total darkness. I couldn't see a thing.
• That is, until transformers started blowing. Then the skies became punctuated with a green glow. The bending trees gave the appearance of being caught in a surreal green strobe light.
• More than one person with kids told me that when they told their children the explosions were just transformers, the kids panicked. They thought they meant Transformers!
• The night after Sandy blew through, all was blackness. Well, until someone a block or so away hit up their illegal supply of fireworks. These were pretty ones, not just ones which go BOOM. Vincent and I sat by the window for over an hour watching them. After all, there was literally nothing good on TV.

At least now I feel I've done my trial run for the Zombie Apocalypse. Are YOU prepared?

Onto this week's photos. Clicking on an image will open it on a Photobucket page, clicking again will make it larger. To return here to the blog, just close out that Photobucket page.

Early morning skies

With the train schedule still a bit off, it's not quite dark still as I head off to the train station. Many mornings have been cloudy and grey. But there was this early morning treasure. Looking over towards East Second Street from East Front Street in Plainfield.

Outlined in frost

It's better to see frost outlining leaves than to wake up with an ice cube nose!

It's a Studebaker!

This old car at the intersection of Berckman and East Front in Plainfield caught my attention. A Studebaker. Cool. It would be cooler if it was fixed up a bit more, but cool nonetheless.

**CLICK THE 'READ MORE' LINK TO SEE THE REST OF THE PHOTOS**

Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - November 18, 2012

G'morning! Welcome to my weekly off television topic post in which I reflect on the week gone by in both words and photographs I've taken. This week I have a bit of an overlap with the past three weeks ... or, to be more precise, since Sandy landed.  Warning -- this is REALLY long and I apologize for the delay in posting. I just wanted to get the Sandy stuff finished and onto this past week in photos.

I've never been through anything like Sandy in my life. In a way, it's like I lost two weeks of my life and the week following was still a bit askew of "normal life." While I was aware of happenings in the world for the almost two weeks my power was out thanks to my MP3 player's FM radio, it wasn't like being a part of the world. It was more like living in some sort of parallel universe in a quasi-post apocalyptic world. 

I was through extended power outages of three and four days with last year's freak early snowstorm and Hurricane Irene respectively. But they were nothing compared to this. This time, the entire area for hundreds of miles around was affected. This time we were on our own. (And, if the elevator tries to take you down, go crazy -- Prince) Not only that, but it was COLD.

In this area, about ten or so miles inland from Staten Island as the crow flies, we didn't have flood damage (which the area suffered from with Irene). We had wind damage. Horrible wind damage. I was told by a PS&G worker, "Our poles do NOT fall down. YOUR trees knock down our wires and poles. The city of Plainfield does NOT trim the trees. They should." 

I believe he had a point. I live on a county road that runs through the city. I didn't see any wires or poles down on my block or a few blocks either way. They regularly trim and remove iffy trees along my street. Of course, in the long run, that didn't help me as the entire power grid in my area went down and the switching station suffered horrific flooding damage. All I had to do was go around the corner off of my street to see extreme tree fallen on wires damage, too.

SEPTA buses in Plainfield

Let's try for a litter free PLAINFIELD, not Philadelphia! Buses on loan from Philly have been running shuttle service for NJ Transit each morning at the corner of Gavett Place and North Avenue by the Plainfield Train Station.

Speaking of litter free, I notice the PMUA trash cans on that block of North Avenue across from the train station have gone missing. The folks who live in apartments there or run small businesses and don't pay for their trash are now just setting trash out on the street.
 

Still can't park

Next door to next door, they're still parking on their front lawn. That was one huge tree which came down. It apparently hit their roof as well as blocking their paved parking lot in back of the home cut into apartments. There is blue tarp on a section of their roof.

Now I see them

I don't know where they were when the power was out for so long, though.

Like spaghetti

Dunellen water and ice giveaway as seen from the train window

I heard these kind of things happened in Plainfield. But no one informed us they were happening ...

**HIT THE 'READ MORE' LINK FOR MORE PHOTOS AND WHINING!**

Off Topic: That Was the Two Weeks It Was - Nov. 11, 2012

Plainfield Train Station after the storm

It's Sunday morning, time for my weekly off television topic reflection on the week gone by in both words and photographs I've taken. Of course, this week it's actually about the past two weeks, thanks to Hurricane Sandy. I'm still feeling quite discombobulated here, so please bear with me. My power was out from Monday, October 29, until Thursday, November 8. That doesn't sound that long, does it? Well, when it's cold, dark and a bit on the scary side, it can turn your life upside down.

I realize that many folks had/have it much worse than we did here where I live in New Jersey, but it was still an ordeal I wouldn't wish on a soul. Folks are still walking around shell-shocked. I've lost a bit of the shell-shocked and am merely discombobulated, dazed and confused at this time. 

Eventually I might write more about the whole experience, but for now here are some random (yet chronological) thoughts and reflections on the experience:

• The wind was the worst I've ever experienced that wasn't a tornado. I've been through tails of hurricanes, nearby tornadoes and such before. At times it seemed to have the train sound of a tornado.
• Prior to the storm, I expected the power might be out for a few days. I had plenty of water as I don't like the taste of the tap water here. I order it regularly from Peapod grocery delivery.
• I had a good stock of canned foods -- vegetables, mostly. I could easily last a few days. We were out three days with last year's October snow and four days with Irene.
• When my power went out, I noticed the floodlight on the lawn next door was on. Then I noticed our building lights (halls and parking lot) were on. Well, that wasn't fair! Just as I was contemplating getting a long extension cord to the hallway plug, all went dark.
• I looked out the window into a world of blackness as far as the eye can see.

Where I voted on Tuesday evening

I vote at the Richmond Towers, an apartment community for the elderly and disabled. As such, they run on back-up power during power outages. They're about a two minute walk from where I live. They were not a shelter although it seemed a bit that way on voting day!

After I took the above shot, I turned my camera towards my apartment ...

Into the darkness

Except for the lights of cars coming and going ... totally black.

**HIT THE 'READ MORE' LINK BELOW TO CONTINUE**