Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - April 21, 2013

It's Sunday morning. Yay. Of course, that means it's time for my weekly off television topic reflection on the week gone by in both words and photographs I've taken along the way. Later tonight, the blog party post for The Amazing Race will be in place by 8pm EDT. Whether the show will actually start on time ...? Who knows. Grr.

I actually wanted to watch the scheduled 60 Minutes this week, but I believe a special edition on the show going in depth on the happenings in Boston this past week will air instead. That's understandable. Originally scheduled was the first time the show interviewed a serial killer. That serial killer? Charles Cullen, New Jersey's most prolific serial killer, possibly the most prolific in the country with indications he might have killed more than a few hundred people. He admitted to around 45, I believe.

My interest in the case is because it's rather local, he was finally caught at the hospital where I had both of my knee replacements (he's one of those "angel of mercy" types) and an acquaintance of mine who worked at the hospital actually knew him. Cullen was caught five years before my first knee replacement. Although my nurses weren't all goodness and light there, they haven't killed anybody. That I know about, that is.

It's been a horrific week for the country. Between the Boston Marathon bombing and the unprecedented manhunt and the tragic fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas ... I don't know. Both incidents have their own horror about them. Knowing that fertilizer can be used to make bombs (mind you, I have no clue, nor desire, about how bombs are made with such), I wouldn't live near a fertilizer plant. I also wouldn't live near a nuclear plant. Sure, accidents are rare. But when they happen, it's horrible.

The Boston happenings struck my own life a bit more. Even though I lived a few years in California, I'm an East Coast kind of gal. My favorite East Coast big cities are NYC (naturally!), Boston and Philadelphia. I'm starting to feel jaded here since 9/11. That affected everything for me and made me realize that we ARE targets. Although I go about my everyday life, well, every day, I ride mass transit; I live in the Greater New York City Metropolitan area. Reminders are around me daily of the possibility of a terrorist incident.

So, I wasn't shocked about the Boston Marathon bombing. Saddened deeply, but not really shocked. I found it more shocking the manhunt and lockdown of the towns up there. I found it more shocking that the younger brother suspect was so well-liked and "normal" in his every day life. Did he idolize his older brother so much that he went along with the madness? I don't know.Even if that is the case, he's legally an adult. If guilty, he will suffer the consequences. 

It can be a sad, sad world.

At least the arriving spring breathes some new life into things ... onto this week's photos -- 

Pretty pigeon

One of Dave's (The Corner Store) pigeons, East Second and Watchung in Plainfield.

Sunrise in the 'hood

East Front Street, Plainfield.

Sunset at the Plainfield Train Station

East Fourth Street side.

**CLICK THE 'READ MORE' LINK TO SEE THE REST OF THE PHOTOS**

Weeds

More weeds

Spring Streets

By the Plainfield Union County College campus with the main Plainfield Post Office in the background.

Almost peaking

Church Street trees

Is it ORANGE enough?

This huge new bright orange planter appeared on the corner of East Front Street and Roosevelt Avenue in Plainfield. I'm not sure if it's a city planter -- haven't seen any others in my travels -- or related to the orange-themed U-Haul business on that corner. It's really big. It's really orange.

Here's the mish-mosh of plants within

Yikes!

Hey! That's a sidewalk! I WALK through there. Now, if they crack my skull with a baseball on a pedestrian sidewalk, they're not going to be responsible? Let's see how that works out for them. New sign at the TD Ballpark by the Bridgewater Train Station. And, yes, I do have a collection of their baseballs. Vincent enjoys them.

Monday

Saturday

The above two photos are of one of the beautiful flowering trees by the train station. When in full bloom, luxurious pink blossoms will abound. After it passes, the sidewalk will be a carpet of pink. Since this is the North Avenue sidewalk ignored by both Plainfield and NJ Transit in snow and ice, I'd rather it pretty in pink.

It's beginning to look a lot like spring

In my New Jersey 'hood ... East Front Street, Plainfield.

Magnolia beauty

The gorgeous magnolia tree in my 'hood has started shedding its petals. East Front Street, Plainfield.

In living color

East Second Street, Plainfield.

Ah, more spring streets

Looking up East Fourth Street from Watchung Avenue in Plainfield.

Tuesday

Friday

The flowering tree at the Bridgewater Train Station went from bud to partial bloom this past week.

Periwinkle on East Front Street

Magic mulch?

Does someone believe that adding fresh (and smelly) mulch to this tree long ago removed will bring it back to life? East Front Street, Plainfield.

Double sleep capture

I'll say it again ... don't sleep on the train near me. Kind of like 'Don't Sleep in the Subway' but with different results.

Goose in flight

Azaleas in training

Yellow and white

Not the apple blossoms

A small bush with these blossoms grows by the Plainfield Train Station.

The poison ivy starts to awaken

It continues

Teeny leaflets three

Getting bolder

A pretty poison

The above five photos track the "awakening" of poison ivy at the Bridgewater Train Station. Decades of it growing there have brought about some vines as large around as an adult human leg and almost a bush-like appearance at spots as it grows towards the sun.

Monday

Friday

Friday too

The above three shots follow the progress of flowering trees in Bridgewater, NJ.

Tulips have arrived

Corner of Church and East Third in Plainfield.

East Front Street and Richmond

Changing of the guard

The tulips are ready to take place of the waning daffodils on Berckman Street in Plainfield.

More Berckman Street tulips

Tulip up close and personal

Vincent's busy

Although it's cold here this morning, it wasn't the day I took my Vincent shot. If the window is open, he most likely can be found there. While he does occasionally sit on the windowsill when the windows are closed, he's in full glory cat mode when he can sit in the fresh air, watching the birds and squirrels through the screen.