Off Topic - That Was the Week It Was - March 4, 2012

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. While my own week has been on the quiet side, my thoughts and prayers are with those folks in the Midwest and South who have suffered through horrible tornadoes on Friday. I heard there were 96 tornadoes in one single day while the average for the entire month of March is only 72. Unbelievable!

We did have rain and some chill here. But no severe weather, not eeven a thunderstorm. Nor did we have snow, something which came down north of this area. 

Local blogger Dan Damon is also still in my thoughts this week. How suddenly one's life can change! Hopefully his most recent surgery went okay and he's into rehab now. Shout out, Dan! Holla!  Now that I won't be having knee surgeries every three years with the accompanying medical tests, I guess it's a heads up to me to be checked for diabetes, etc., on a fairly regular basis.

My own week has been on the uneventful side. I'm still playing with furniture and decorations as I slowly put my apartment back together after its renovations. The building itself is painted throughout (interior, exterior is brick), mailboxes redone, new laundry machines along with the paint job there and more. It's in better shape than I've ever seen it in the almost eleven years I've lived here. Now they need to clamp down on the children from the front apartments thinking the hallways are a playground. I know we're due for another state re-inspection, plus it was supposedly bought at an auction last year although we're still paying the receiver from the bank after the last landlord went bankrupt.

My work computer software is still not functioning. I'm still working in the stone age with a chisel and piece of granite there. It's going to be dreadful when it's finally fixed and I have to sit and enter weeks worth of data. Wah.

Onto the photos ... clicking on an image will open it to a larger view!  

Blue sky, yellow glow

I like the blue and yellow hues in this photo I took while walking to the train just after the rain stopped early one morning. The sky is actually pretty light these days, but the clouds made it seem darker. This is on East Front Street near the YWCA in Plainfield.

Daffodils!

The annual daffodils came up this week in the cemetery behind the Friends (Shaker) Meeting House on Watchung Avenue in Plainfield. These don't usually bloom until late March or early April here.

Synchronized geese

Honk. Bridgewater, NJ

***HIT THE 'READ MORE' LINK TO SEE THE REST OF THE PHOTOS!***

 

The Big Apple Circus is ready!

The Big Apple Circus has been setting up adjacent to the Bridgewater Train Station for more than a week now. Finally, the show started yesterday. I won't be going (unless on some odd whim), but I'm going to keep watching to see if I can see the black stallions out and about.

Pansy power

Unlike the daffodils which decided to arrive on their own power, I'm pretty sure these were just planted. I'm not sure how well they'll fare. It's still dropping to around freezing or below during many nights. Bridgewater, NJ

Stop the YWCA!

Yes! Stop the YWCA NOW, before it's too late! Oh? It's a bus with a stop sign to remind traffic to stop? Oh. Never mind. YWCA, as you were.

U got it?

More Us (plural U, not US -- I don't know if there's an actual proper way to pluralize a U) -- than you find in a teen's text message! U-Haul and Union County College are a bit heavy on the U(s) or Us or U's. Argh! Approaching East Second Street as I was cutting through the U-Haul parking lot on my way to the train.

Not an inviting courtyard

These row houses don't look great from the front, but worse from inside the courtyard. No wonder there are always signs up for the first two months of rent free. The courtyard of the row houses which line the corners of Church and East Second Streets, Plainfield.

More spring sprouting

Geese overlord

One goose seems to be watching over his gaggle. I took this shot at the toxic superfund field of geese site in Bridgewater next to the train station. Although the geese (and I hear the ducks on the toxic pond) have returned in large numbers, I've yet to see the land animals (chipmunks, groundhogs, deer, rabbits, etc.) which used to frequent the field before Hurricane Irene flooded the toxic site for months.

Spring weedy stuff

Rabbit Redux?

This was just odd, mayhaps a bit disturbing. This man, a middle-aged Asian gentleman nicely dressed in a black suit with a matching black "Shriner's" type hat, was on the train home one day. He had this fake rabbit on his lap and kept caressing its fur, telling folks it was real. He had a carrier on the seat next to him and said that he had to put him in the carrier before he left the train. I just don't know ...

Deadhead train

An empty train zooming through the Plainfield Train Station at a gazillion miles per hour.

New "supermarket"

I noticed two new businesses opening this week in town. Well, there could be more, but I'm talking my regular walking routes. This "supermarket" is on North Avenue across from the train station in the building which used to have the Rincon Restaurant. It's probably more of a bodega or convenience store, but for some reason they all claim to be supermarkets. 

I was happy to see it open for the first time Thursday morning as I arrived to the train station at about 6:30. While there is breakfast fare available at many venues at that hour, it seems most of the convenience stores don't open until 7 AM. So I decided the next day I'd stop in and buy some chips, maybe a banana, to go with my packed lunch. Nope. They weren't open. The last convenience store (next door to this one) was undependable as far as early hours. I guess this one is, too. Sigh. 

Upscale hats in town

This is the second new business I noticed opening this week. Chances are that I'm not going to be a big customer there -- I'm not a hat person. If you see me in a hat, it means it's winter and I have a winter hat on to keep my head/ears warm. I hope they keep afloat. I think this area has a market for church hats for women and I love seeing men sport fine Fedoras! I am more likely to frequent this store than the last business at that location ... a bail bondsman. The corner of Watchung and East Fourth Streets, Plainfield.

Farewell, Davy

Sigh. Another part of my youth gone. Davy Jones was my first really heavy-duty teenage idol crush before I was actually a teenager. Next was Paul Simon. I guess I was into short men! 

I recall in the summer of 1968, just before my 13th birthday, my family went from our home in Saratoga County to meet a relative flying in to NYC. Somehow I convinced my parents to let my brother Gary (a year older than I was) and I wander over to Greenwich Village so I could find Davy Jones' boutique, Zilch. I was SO hoping he'd be there! Nah, he wasn't. But I bought a bronze peace symbol ring which I treasured for years.

Thinking back, I can't believe my parents let us wander alone in the Village at that age! We didn't know the city well at all and we were so young! I remember we met a wino who did magic tricks for a quarter. He was amazing to us. Of course, these are the same parents who let me watch Chatty Cathy Talky Tina kill Telly Savalas on The Twilight Zone when I was about six and had my new Chatty Cathy doll.

Gloomy morning

Thankfully we didn't have the severe weather other parts of the country had this week, but we had more than a couple days of rain and gloom. Bridgewater, NJ

Danger Will Robinson!

Someone tried to open a door while the train was in motion. Clanging bells and this alert sign pinpointing where it occurred created a minor disruption. We were car 7223. But I was upstairs, so I didn't see who did it. 

The day before, we had to sit twenty minutes waiting for a tow truck to pull a pickup truck off the tracks at a crossing. Heck, we could have pushed it out of the way!

Literary cat

So, is Vincent up amongst the books to look for reading material? Nope. He found where I stashed his catnip, the purple bag you see. Gee, I thought I put it up high enough!

Be sure to stop back for tonight's Amazing Race blog party! Breakout Kings returns to A&E tonight at 10 PM, too. While I won't be blogging about that show, I'll be watching it!

How was your week?