Off Topic - That Was the Week It Was - January 22, 2012

It's Sunday morning, time for my weekly reflection on the week gone by in both words and photos I've taken. On the whole, this past week has been uneventful for me. I received the part I ordered for my best point and shoot camera and fixed it. And, once again the weather was a bit disagreeable for taking the newer fancy-schmancy DSLR around with me.

I took it along to work one day only to have the battery die in the cold as I was coming home. It's a good thing I bought a few spare batteries for it. It would be a better thing if I carried a spare that day! 

We had our first snowstorm of the season yesterday. Well, we had that weird Halloween snowstorm, but that doesn't really count as the winter season! It really wasn't bad at all for a snowstorm. If they were all like this one, I wouldn't mind at all. I wore my warm winter boots with great tread for walking in snow. I will admit I didn't bring the DSLR because I was scared I might fall. But the few inches of snow was actually good for traction on the sidewalks -- SO much better than the ice we had one day earlier in the week.

It was just about this time last year that I had a bad fall on ice (and into snow), spraining my right knee and sealing its fate. That was the day I told the orthopedic surgeon, "Okay, let's get the date set for the knee replacement." This year, it's a world of difference in both the amount of snow we're dealing with here in NJ (or lack thereof) and how my knees feel. I'm still leery of falling as I don't want to damage the knees, but they're probably much tougher than the rest of me.

I have a staycation looming ahead of me this week. I'm hoping that the weather and time will permit me to take a photo jaunt into Chinatown (NYC) to catch some of the festivities as they welcome in the Year of the Dragon. Now, THAT is something I'll bring the DSLR for! However, I also have to allot time for working and lurking around my apartment as I expect workmen in to paint and put in a new kitchen floor. I have to get everything off the walls, move my furniture, etc. in prep for the painting. I'll let them deal with the refrigerator in the kitchen. I might not want to know what's under it. Probably monsters.

Onto this week's photos --

Cawing all crows

Yes, I played with editing a bit on this one. This crow would just NOT STOP cawing! Bridgewater, NJ.

The sun also sets

The days are getting slightly longer and I got out of work a bit earlier one day in time to catch the sun hanging low in a sky filled with contrails from passing jets. The harsh angle of the winter sun often attracts my photo eye, but this time it was the sun itself. Plainfield Train Station.

Yes, it's snow

Looking in disbelief at it won't change the fact, buddy. It's snow. We've been lucky so far this year. I edited this to leave only the man in color, but there wasn't a heck of a lot of color otherwise anyway. Plainfield Train Station.

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The snow was THIS high last year!

This young man shoveling snow in front of a business on East Front Street seems to be telling tall tales of last year's snows to his coworker.

Neither snow nor sleet

But budget cuts will do it every time. Watchung Avenue in Plainfield.

Just the "Bull" building now

Now only the front half of the old burnt "Bull Durham" ghost sign building is standing. It's the BULL Building now! We're STILL paying for police overtime to guard the site four weeks after the fire. North Avenue is still shut off to cars, businesses on that block are still closed. Maybe the city is getting even with those of us who fussed about the historic building being demolished so quickly a few years ago.

Snow at the station

"Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?" - Pink Floyd 'Wish You Were Here' -- Yes, yes I can. That's a cold steel rail. What do I win? Plainfield Train Station

The Chotola etched with snow

Thankfully this apartment building in the North Avenue Historic District seems to be in decent shape. I always have wondered what the apartments inside are like, but I would not want to live across the street from the train station. Where I live now, I'm about three blocks from the tracks (not the station, mind you). In the summer with the windows open, I enjoy hearing the train horn in the distance. If I lived real close, I know it would annoy me.

Saturday train

At least the snow makes everything pretty. The dead grass and barren trees were getting boring. Plainfield Train Station.

Freihofer's!

Obviously not a work of art, but relatives and friends from my stomping grounds will know my excitement. When I first moved south of the Albany/Troy area in NY, I moved away from Freihofer's baked goods. Finally they came to CT and then to NJ. I recall driving (well, riding) around the block several times in a row in Troy as a young child just to inhale the smell of the bakery there. As there were actually milkmen, there were also Freihofer delivery men with house routes. And, I was even on 'The Freddie Freihofer Show' when I was three years old. It was kind of a 'Romper Room' sort of thing with baked goods.

"Why don't we migrate?"

The gulls on a parking lot lamp seem to be discussing flying south. Bridgewater, NJ.

Winter's toll

Waiting for spring in Bridgewater, NJ.

Persistent dandelion

I took this shot earlier this week. It's under snow now.

To boldly go ...

... where no man's gone before. A lone set of footprints in the snow in the parking lot of the old Lincoln School on the corner of Berckman and East Second Streets in Plainfield.

Do I hear cat treats?

Oops. The click of the camera shutter woke Vincent up. He naps way too much anyway! And, need I say that he takes up as much of my bed as I do? Trust me, he's not anywhere near as large as I am. But he sprawls all over the bed!

How was your week?