Off Topic - That Was The Week It Was - 12/27/09

Yikes! I overslept and missed all of CBS Sunday Morning! I never sleep like that -- I mean, I'm talking about waking up at 10:45. I just don't do that. I usually wake up by around 6:30 or so. Luckily, it's Sunday. At least I didn't wake up two or three hours (or four!) late on a workday.

Since it's Sunday, it's time to take a look back on the week in words and photographs I've taken. It's been a busy and bizarre week on the whole. It started out as a winter wonderland here and has ended up with looking and feeling like spring. Yesterday's persistent and heavy rains washed away all of the snow except for the larger snowbanks. It only decimated them from mountains to mole hills.

Of course, Christmas was on Friday. It was nice to have a white Christmas around here even though it was slightly used snow by then. When I was growing up, with the exception of stints in California and Connecticut, we had white Christmases more often than not. Here? Not so much. So, the snow worked and now that it's mostly gone, I have better pedestrian times once again.

On Monday the snow gave me an opportunity to find out that younger generation gentlemen do exist in Plainfield, NJ. I had gotten off the train and decided I'd catch the bus across town home instead of walking. There was another woman I knew at the bus stop and we chatted while waiting. She's pregnant and I have knee issues which make falling a scary ordeal. There was a huge snowbank all along the curb with no way to access the bus anywhere near the bus stop. A young man, no older than 22 or so, was waiting near us and heard us talking about the snowbank. When the bus came, he helped both of us, one at a time, up and over the snowbank. Who said chivalry is dead? If only his mom could see ... she would have been proud of the young man she raised. And, gee ... if I were thirty years younger (or so) ... ! He was also very good-looking.

Let's see what else ... hmmm. I spent most of the holiday week working. After seeing an article in the paper about two complexes owned by my landlord without heat, I felt a bit smug my own apartment building was warm and cozy. Er, I spoke too soon. I woke up shivering Wednesday in the pre-dawn hours. Apparently my heat had gone off earlier in the night. I really wish the man would pay his bills or just let the bank take the building. Thankfully, I own a space heater from some apartment in the past. I closed off the bedroom, did some baking and used the space heater to keep the main part of my apartment warm. I slept in the living room that night. When I came home from work on Christmas Eve, the heat was back on. That's a good thing as I couldn't run the oven or space heater when I was away.

I feel guilty. I think I must have an evil sense of humor. But, the following situation was so much like some sort of slapstick movie that I must share (while feeling guilty for giggling about it). On Christmas Eve, my train home was first announced as twenty minutes late, then canceled. The trains were running the regular schedule, so I knew the next one would be at 5:40 PM in lieu of the canceled one (5:14 PM). Now, this is Bridgewater, NJ, heading towards Manhattan on Christmas Eve.

Most of my fellow regular commuters apparently left work earlier than I did. So, I knew no one at the station. There was a crowd of about twenty other people waiting in the little building. I could tell they were touristy types -- not regular train commuters. They were all dressed like they were going into the city for dinner and then midnight mass at St. Patrick's or something. Most of them were older. One was in a wheelchair at the non-accessible Bridgewater station.

Okay, the stage is set. Now, the announcements coming through the PA system said that the next train would be the the 5:34 from Raritan. I know that translates to the 5:40 in Bridgewater. I was standing away from the building snapping photos. When I heard a train horn in the distance, I glanced at my watch. Nope, can't be our train. The trains never come early and it was only around 5:30.

Well, I watch as the Crowd of Twenty comes out of the building and assembles on the platform. Um. They shouldn't do that. Yes, there was a train coming. But it wasn't ours. It was a deadhead. Those trains go through at about 120 miles an hour, go sit at a station, then join in for more trains running at peak hours.

Oh my gosh. The train zoomed on by, throwing snow clouds all about it, blowing the hats off the Crowd of Twenty and scaring them so that they actually shrieked! It was like a scene from a vaudeville movie or something! About ten minutes later, I heard our train horn and I went to the platform. I saw the Crowd of Twenty peek out and a man said, "She's on the platform. Maybe it's safe this time."

My own holiday was rather uneventful since I worked the day before and the day after. I want to thank those who sent me cards! Vincent and I had our own little feast and I relaxed. I made a point of watching the "Christmas and the Hard-Luck Kid" Mary Tyler Moore Show episode on Hulu. It's hard to believe it was all the way back in 1970 that Mary Richards had to spend Christmas alone working at the station in her new job. I so wanted to be like her when I got my first apartment a few years after that. I still have my "J" on my wall like her "M" in her apartment. Dang, that was a good show. I think I'm going to have to relive it episode by episode on Hulu.

I hope your holiday was a good one, full of family, food, and love -- not necessarily in that order. I want to thank you all for being a part of my extended family!

Anyway ... on to the photos. Clicking on an image will open it larger in a new window.

Can I take this off yet?

Heh. No, he hasn't been wearing it constantly. We did two separate photo shoots in it. I'm still shocked he let me put it on him and basically behaved in it. Teaser and Scherzo wouldn't have allowed it.

WARNING -- RATHER DISTURBING PHOTOS AHEAD. IF YOU HAVE SMALL CHILDREN, PLEASE MAKE THEM LEAVE THE ROOM OR SCROLL PAST THE NEXT TWO IMAGES!

There's been a horrible accident

BULLETIN, live from the North Pole -- Santa was hospitalized for injuries and charged with drunk sleigh driving in an unfortunate incident on East Second Street in Plainfield, NJ. Horrified citizens lined the street to view the crash. While the reindeer wouldn't talk to authorities, one just kept nodding when asked if Santa had hit the bottle after finishing his rounds. While Santa was thrown from the sleigh, his main complaint was exposure to the elements. The reindeer remained uninjured.

There's been a horrible crime!

The torso of Santa Claus (A.K.A. St. Nick) was found outside of a restaurant in Bound Brook, NJ. While his head has gone missing as well as his lower body, authorities have identified him through fingerprints and other identifying markers. Other than a Christmas tree tossed next to him, there are no clues to the identity of the evil ne'er-do-well who perpetrated this horrific crime. The public is asked to step forward to provide information leading to the arrest of the individual(s) who did this dastardly deed.

There. Now it's safe to have the kids come back in. No, I didn't stage either Santa photo. I just report what I see.

Eek! Birds over the NJ Transit Plainfield Train Station!

I encountered a woman screaming for help in a shopping center parking lot this week. She was surrounded by seagulls. I TOLD you the birds are conspiring! To be honest, she had fed them and they wanted more. I told her to stop screaming and just walk through them. Sheesh, silly woman. She led them on.

Scary alley at night

East Fourth Street in Plainfield. You can see the train station platform in the background. I wouldn't go into the alley, though. There could be denizens of the night in there!

Christmas Eve westbound train in Bridgewater, NJ

This train was going the other way from the way I want to go. Sure, they came on time! I accidentally used the flash and the colors on the side glowed.

Are you going to SHOOT me?

Yes. East Front Street in Plainfield, NJ.

Holiday lights

The folks on East Second Street in Plainfield are much more into holiday lights than the homes and apartments on my own street. This is one of two houses that get all decked out each Christmas. Sure, more than two houses are decorated. But, each year it's like these neighbors try to outdo each other. The snow makes it all so much more amazing!

However, instead of all kinds of lights, one thing I have in my 'hood really adds a nice touch to the holiday. Each evening, right as I was arriving home from work, the Presbyterian Church had its bells playing holiday hymns. While you hear secular seasonal songs all over in stores, it's refreshing to hear "O, Holy Night" or "Silent Night" played in church bells with the snow all around.

The sky is a hazy shade of winter

"Look around, leaves are brown, there's a patch of snow on the ground." - "Hazy Shade of Winter" by Simon and Garfunkel. Hang onto your hopes, my friends.

My Yearly Gripe (one of them) --

Why is this main sidewalk on the North Street side of the Plainfield Train Station NEVER shoveled? I think NJ Transit considers in Plainfield property while Plainfield totally ignores it! On my walk to the train station Monday morning, I was thrilled that every local property owner had cleared their walks. Sure, the plows had plowed in intersections (grr), but most of the walks were clear ... until I hit government owned walks downtown. The walk in front of the main post office had about a twelve-inch path to follow for nearly a block while this walk wasn't touched at all. This photo was taken on Wednesday when the snow STILL wasn't shoveled, only trampled down by pedestrians and diminished by the sun. This walk is an accident waiting to happen each winter. Fix it, Plainfield! Thank you.

NJ Transit train on the overpass at Bridgewater

I could also fuss about the property NJ Transit considers the ball park's walk while NJ Transit customers use it to access the station. Don't get me going! See in the distance where they stop the shoveling? That's my sidewalk I walk on. Grr.

Snowy Plainfield Train Station at night

Yes, people still use bikes this time of year. Not me.

More East Second Street festive lights

Plainfield, NJ

Windows in the early morning sun

Yes, I edited this to have only the windows catching the sun, the rest in black and white. North Street in Plainfield, NJ.

NJ Transit train

Yeah, I messed around with this one, too.

Pre-dawn Monday morning at the Plainfield Train Station

See the sidewalk (or lack thereof)? Plus, how am I going to get to there from here? It's amazing that private properties were all in good shape and I run into this from the city!

K's Radiator in the cold

Plainfield, NJ. Since my computer woes, I've lost the easier program I was using to do the black and white/color editing and have been solely relying on GIMP (free photo editor at gimp.org). I'll eventually find the CD which has the other photo editor I had, but I found an easier way to do this with GIMP.

1. Open photo in GIMP
2. Edit (on GIMP toolbar), highlight "copy."
3. Edit again, hit "paste as" and then select "new layer" from the drop-down menu which opens.
4. Go to Colors (on toolbar), hit "desaturate." That will turn the top layer image to black and white.
5. Go to the GIMP toobox and select the "eraser." Erase the section you want to reveal the color image layer underneath. If you go out of the lines, you can always hit Undo under the Edit on the toolbar, then re-do it to your liking.
6. Save the image. Beware, you want to probably save it as a JPEG image. The default is some sort of GIMP format, so you need to select JPEG. When it asks you to export the image to make it JPEG, tell it okay.

Actually, this method is much easier than what I was doing with my ArcSoft PhotoStudio program.

Welp, that's it for me. How was your week and your holiday (if you celebrate it)?