Off Topic - That Was The Week It Was - 01/10/10

How quickly the weeks go by! It's Sunday, time to take a look back at the past week in words and photographs I've taken. To be honest, with the exception of a Y2K kind of computer program meltdown at my workplace when 01/01/10 arrived, I've had an extremely uneventful week. It's been too cold to be eventful. I realize our weather here in the New York City Greater Metropolitan Area of New Jersey hasn't been as bad as some places ... but the cold, the wind! Ack.

I personally think there should be no reason for wind during the winter. I understand in the summer, spring, and fall that the wind plays a vital role in spreading seeds, spores, and stuff. But there's no reason for it now. Make it stop.

Television's new shows quasi-returned this past week. I'll get up a Bachelor discussion post for you before the next show. I don't watch that one, so I didn't realize it was starting up until it already did. I watched the two-hour Heroes. I just can't blog that one anymore. I'm too easily confused. I watched the People's Choice Awards and was so pleased that The Big Bang Theory won even if Jim Parsons didn't win. I'm not too happy that they're moving Heroes up against TBBT. I write up TBBT for CliqueClack TV, so I need to watch it live. I guess I'll be recording Heroes. Grr.

In other TV news, did you know it's Shoprite's CanCan sale? I swear this has been going on most of my life and now the song is stuck in my head once again. Oh ... and Jay Leno failed, eh? I figured he would. It doesn't matter to me -- I'm a devoted Letterman fan. But I think Conan O'Brien is getting the raw end of the deal if they put Leno back at 11:35 PM. I'll admit it was nice to have one less consideration of what to watch at 10 PM. I'll live, though.

So, as you can tell ... my life has been uneventful this week. I even had to make a photo op for myself because this week it was so uneventful. You'll see. Without further ado, here are the photos (clicking on an image will open it larger in a new window):

Still steamy windows ...

At Danny's Bakery on the corner of Watchung and North in Plainfield, NJ. This was taken pre-dawn and I edited it to have the windows in color, the rest in B&W. Baby, it's cold outside.

You woke me up for that silly camera?

Vincent, in black and white. He's been here for nearly four months now. He still has to leap on my shoulder, does his boneless cat droop over it, and purrs each time I come home from work.

Like ships that pass in the night

Two trains at the Bridgewater NJ Transit Station. (The one on the left is the one I was catching.) In the background is the TD Bank Stadium where the Somerset Patriots play baseball. But the boys of summer are long gone. As for the trains, since I commute on them, the old math problems in which two trains set out at a certain time heading towards each other, when do they ... crash? EEK!

I actually like the visual of NYC subway trains passing each other more than NJ Transit trains. On the subway in the dark, the trains go slower and are sometimes at different heights -- it makes the passengers look like they're from a different world or disembodied or suspended in time ... or something. NJ Transit goes by too fast, it's just a rumbling whoosh.

Westfield kale

The kale I photographed last year on East Front Street in Plainfield was replaced by icky bushes, half-dead now. I took this over by the Westfield Train Station.

Here, train! I'm waiting!

Plainfield Train Station. Yes, I messed with this. I first had him in color, the rest in black and white. Then I messed with the "posterize" setting (GIMP) which eliminates shades, then I changed the hue.

For those who don't know what that "bridge plate" thing is he's standing near, it's a plate they put over the gap so wheelchairs can board or get off the train. It can only be done on a raised train platform like we have in Plainfield. At the Bridgewater station, I have to climb in and out of the train. I was shocked last night when, for the first time, a conductor (one I've never seen before) asked if I wanted him to carry my bags up the stairs. I had done some shopping and was a bit weighed down.

Poison ivy in the winter

Trust me, you don't want to burn it. Inhaling burning dormant poison ivy can do a job on you. Bridgewater, NJ.

In which Jackie makes a photo op

I really wasn't getting any great photos this week. So I decided to ignore the fact that birds are conspiring to overthrow humans and fed the seagulls some crumbled Ritz crackers.

Eek!

Help me! Help me! The birds are surrounding me!
Just walk through them.
But, but ... they're planning to take over the world.

Polly demands a cracker

Okay, okay ... everything sits better on a Ritz!

In the air

As I was feeding the gulls and snapping shots on the ground, I was occasionally just pointing the camera up without paying attention -- the joys of digital over film. Seagulls in flight on a sunny day always look pretty.

EEK! That is NO seagull!

I didn't even see this guy until I was going through my shots several hours later. As I mentioned, I was taking random sky shots as I fed the seagulls. Apparently a hawk wanted to see what was up with all of the seagulls. Well, either a hawk or a turkey vulture. The way it was silhouetted in the sun makes it hard to tell. Both types of birds are always flying around Bridgewater. It was big. And it was no seagull.

The ghost of Christmas past

East Front Street, Plainfield. No, it's not mine. I didn't put mine up this year. It stayed in its box. Yes, mine is artificial when I decide to put it up. I've never had a real one in my apartment.

Conspiring, I tell ya

I wonder if the four on their own wire think they're special or something. Bridgewater, NJ.

Spanish lesson for the day

Gratis tome uno -- free take one. I was hoping the box would be full of $100 bills. Alas, just newspapers.

OUCH

Plainfield put in benches all over the city a while back. Well, not at many bus stops, but that's beside the point. Many of the benches have been vandalized or perhaps in a design flaw, the lowest slat has gone missing, exposing a rusty nasty metal piece. On some benches, the top slat of the seatback is missing and the same metal piece is exposed there, too.

Anyway, in the pre-dawn dark on Monday morning I set my tote bag down on this bench outside of Danny's Bakery on North Street to change my not-an-iPod battery. When I picked up my bag and turned to walk away, the metal piece snagged me good. OUCH.

The damage done

Thankfully, although there's an abrasion, it didn't rip my slacks. So I didn't run off to catch up my tetanus shots or anything. It wasn't metal ripping my skin directly. But, geez. Plainfield needs to fix those benches! I took this the day after. It's still pretty colors.

Bad for New Jersey

He won, time to get down the de-layering billboards, please. East Second Street, Plainfield, NJ

EEK!

Another hawk nearby Roofus the Cat's old hangout on North Street across from the Plainfield Train Station. Although Roofus might not be able to get on the roofs anymore, the pigeons still hang out in the sun. Now, birds tend to all of a sudden all fly off for no reason -- maybe they're playing musical chairs or something. Maybe one says to another, "Let's all fly in a circle and land in different spots here just to confuse the humans!"

So, when they all flew yesterday when I was waiting for the train, it was no big deal. That is, until I noticed the guy on the railing looking up where the pigeons sit. Earlier this week local Plainfield blogger Bernice also photographed a hawk (and its leftovers). I believe it's a Cooper's hawk.

Guard dog

This is the guard dog from the gas station on the corner of Church and East Second Street in Plainfield. It's the first time I've seen him out of his regular abode in the five or so years I've "known" him. At night they lock him in the station with the appropriate "Dog bites first, asks questions later" sign posted. In the daytime, he has his own little outdoor fenced run (and barks at passerby) with a trailer he can go in and out of for shelter. But yesterday he was out in the larger fenced lot playing with one of the attendants. He actually wagged his tail at me. But, of course, there was a fence between us.

Mainly for any local readers

Is the Business District Police Sub-Station moving to the Monarch? These are in the windows of one of the offices there. If so, the police won't like everyone looking in. They always keep the blinds closed at the location down the street. East Front Street, Plainfield.

Smile!

I did this to a friend's car at the Bridgewater Train Station the other day when we had some overnight snow. She works overnight in Manhattan, so her car was still in the lot when I arrived to work in the morning.

Winter hits businesses hard

This was early the same morning as the smiley face. Now, every other season the Mi Ranchito does a thriving business with all of the early rising day laborers, landscapers, and such. Usually there isn't a parking spot in front of the restaurant to be had. The last few weeks, this has been the norm -- a car or two. Yes, I edited to do the B&W/color bit. East Front Street, Plainfield, NJ.

How was your week?