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**

 

Plainfield Train Station

As the sun was setting one evening this week.

A few minutes before ...

I took this shot the same evening when I got off the train. It's totally dark by the time I make it home these days.

Bridgewater Sunset

In a bush

Before Sandy, this adorned a porch on Berckman Street, along with other Halloween decorations. A day after the storm, I found it down the street. I put it on their porch railing. A few days later, it was on its stomach in their yard. Now someone has put it in the bush nearby.

Geese in flight

I'd say they're flying south for the winter. But they're year-round guests these days.

SEPTA shuttle bus

I took this shot from the westbound platform of the Plainfield Train Station. The Islamic Center, a Plainfield yellow taxi and the lurking SEPTA bus on loan from Philly to NJ Transit. I've seen three different SEPTA buses there (not at the same time). There's the litter-free one, the casinos one and this one advertising diamonds.

Yes, indeed

The real shuttle bus returns?

Yikes! On Friday morning, the REAL shuttle bus was there! Note that it's not really an NJ Transit bus anyway. It's a Coach bus. But it's the regular shuttle bus. NJ Transit has contracts with Coach, Academy and other companies. No, they have no contract with SEPTA. I'll have to see tomorrow morning if SEPTA loans have ended here.

Late blossoming weeds

I don't know what these are, but they last until the snow beats them down each year.

Deserted parking lot lamps

This usually totally empty parking lot near the Bridgewater Train Station is lighted up each night. During the Sandy three weeks or so, it was filled with hundreds of U-Haul trucks. I have no clue if they moved them there from shore areas or what. They all vanished early this week. I'm not sure if the parking lot belongs to the TD Bank Ball Park or STS tires.

FEMA thrift shop?

The new FEMA Disaster Recovery Center is in the Senior Citizens Center at the Monarch Building on East Front Street. Yeah, that's the local evacuation shelter where the back-up power didn't go on when the power went out. They might want to think about taking down the "Thrift Shop" sign for the time being.

No power AGAIN

Monday. Grr. This is the traffic light at one end of my block.

Cat nap

Vincent doesn't care if the power is on or off. As long as I give him attention, cat food, cat treats, cat nip and lap/shoulder time ... he's just a big old furface purrface!

How was your Thanksgiving?