Gah. As it is for many summers now, this is my time to be lacking sleep. Unlike some years when I was off from my real job due to knee surgeries, I'm working full time and covering the BB live feeds here on the blog. When I was actually working as blogger for AOL television, this was my cash cow season. Alas, not so much these days. While I do earn some money, it's nothing near the days when I could technically earn more than $100 an hour just writing on AOL. And, this year's cast is very wild, thus getting the Internet audience more worked up than usual. Me? I don't really care who wins the show, I'm just the messenger of the feeds and host of blog parties.
So, I'm in my zombie period at the present. Work, write, work, feed cat, write, work, pet cat, write, work. You get it.
Yes, if I have to ever have another surgery, I'll indeed schedule it in the summer for no other reason than I need the sleep. Local blogger Dan Damon even shouted at me as he drove by me on the street ... "Do you ever sleep?" Sigh. No. Not enough. Not lately.
Anyway ... onto the photos for the week ...
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| Dreary morning train |
In this area, we continue to get more and more rain. Other years, at this time of the summer, most lawns are dried out, leaves are turning brown. This year I've seen green growing where I've never seen it before. That said, I've been enjoying the days without heat waves one after another. Plainfield Train Station
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| Everything's coming up roses! |
Er, well. Maybe not. However, compared to many past years, life is doing okay by me here. I hope it is with you, too! Roosevelt Avenue, Plainfield.
**CLICK THE 'READ MORE' LINK TO SEE THE REST OF THE PHOTOS**
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| Double chicory blossoms |
These blossoms at the Plainfield Train Station have been more tightly closed than ever during my early morning commutes. But, once the daylight comes in strong, they open to soak it in.
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| Okay, car fans. What is it? |
I keep seeing this sporty really yellow car on Watchung Avenue in Plainfield. What the heck is it? Other than yellow. I realize it's yellow. Really bright yellow. I caught it sitting parked on East Front Street.
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| Add in a yellow muscle car |
I'm not really sure what this one is, either. But, at least with this one, I know that I would have known it if someone asked me in the early 70s. (A mind is a terrible thing to lose.) Watchung Avenue, Plainfield
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| Mockingbird on a wire |
I'm not sure if this is the same one who chased two other birds right smack into me one day. Sheesh! Nothing like unexpectedly having birds fly into your back! The mockingbirds are very territorial. Bridgewater Train Station.
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| This IS the culprit |
Yes, this is the mockingbird who chased the two other birds into me!
National Night Out
As I got home from work much later that usual on Tuesday, I stopped by the National Night Out festivities at Plainfield City Hall for a little while. They had just started and I didn't really stay long. After a rather grueling long day at work, I really wanted to spend the evening IN, not OUT.
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| Re-purposed Obama sign |
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| Free food! Free balloons! |
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| Rise up and take a stand |
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| This balloon only heard "rise up" |
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| Homeward Bound |
"I'm sitting in the railway station, got a ticket for my destination." - Paul Simon
Mind you, I have a monthly pass and I'm not sitting at all. I've arrived at my home station! Going home! Putting my feet up! Catering to a spoiled cat! Plainfield Train Station.
Then came the yellow jackets
Gotta love those dang predatory wasps! Well, perhaps not love, per se. I do like to photograph them when they're not being ornery. While they can be very aggressive, if you catch them busy at something, they're usually fairly easy to photograph. You just have to be a bit brave. Or crazy. Or both.
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| What's going on here? |
I went to hang my tote bag on the fence for a moment when I noticed this action going on. Phew! Glad I saw them rather than absentmindedly hanging my tote over them! Bridgewater Train Station.
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| Ah, quite the little nest there |
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| Just sittin' on a leaf |
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| Attracted by the glue? |
This one was all over where someone had removed a sticker from a sign. A glue-sniffing wasp? Get those bee cuffs out! Haul him away!
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| This week's blimp |
I showed you the MetLife one a week or two ago. Here's the Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield one. I didn't have my camera on me when I spotted the GEICO banner plane. I'll eventually snag that, too. Of course, the Saturn Ion blimp is history along with its company. I wonder what it's like to be a blimp driver for a living. Hmm. Bridgewater, NJ
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| Moth in a bush |
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| Oh noes! |
George has a HUGE mushroom growing right on his tummy! It's kind of like a huge belly button! I took this at the cemetery in back of the Friends Meeting House in Plainfield.
Leading into the mushroom shots
Overnight one night, these two giant mushrooms sprouted up at the Bridgewater Train Station. At first, from a distance, I thought they were child-sized soccer balls.
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| Teensy blue wildflower |
These are growing along the fence by the cemetery on Church Street in Plainfield.
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| Cicada, no magic |
Nope, this one is not part of the long gone Brood II Magicicada which made its 17-year appearance earlier this summer. This is a plain old annual cicada. Berckman Street, Plainfield
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| "I see a cicada up there. I want it." |
No, Vincent, you may not have a cicada. You didn't even kill the fly that was in here. You're slacking!
13 comments:
I think that might be a masseratti
Good morning, Jackie. Love the pictures. Now off to read your BB blog.
It's a Lotus.
Yellow jackets are the worse. Their sting hurts forever!
My yard has all types of mushrooms growing and I worry that Starry may take a bit of one. The chipmunks mibble'em so guess not poisonous for them.
With BB and a job, I do not know how you are doing it!
Yes, it is indeed a Lotus. I'd like one in blue, please.
Love the photos, Jackie! Always a great way to start my Sunday online. Thanks!
Jackie,
Might be dating myself but I believe the second yellow car is a 70's Dodge Dart.
Back then I had a '69' Z28 Camaro and I remember those Dodge's with 'Hemi' engines.
"Everything will be Coming Up Roses" for which houseguest I wonder??
At this point I don't think any of them deserve to win!
Ed ... I was thinking Dodge Dart myself. I believe we might be right!
Jackie, you can buy fiberglass "shells" of several fancy sport cars, and then drop it onto a VW bug chassis. I was wondering if maybe that's what this "Lotus" is. It doesn't have the L O T U S between the tail lights, and there's something odd about the rear window.
On the other hand, it may have had some body work and they just didn't bother to put the letters back on.
On the third hand, I'd be surprised to see a real Lotus regularly parked on the street ANYWHERE in NJ.
I looked more into the Lotus. I believe this is probably a real Yellow Lotus Elise S -- there are several photos with ones that have this particular window kit (which might explain why the letters are still missing). I've seen the actual kit cars made from old VWs. This one doesn't sound like them.
NJ has plenty of safe streets for folks to park their Bentleys, Ferraris, etc. Perhaps not necessarily downtown Plainfield, but ...! Lotus is probably slumming it in some NJ neighborhoods.
Funny story - I lived in a small tourist-ridden Pennsylvania village in the '60s. There was a woman who parked her Rolls Royce Silver Cloud on the main street, just down from the pedestrian crossing at the village square. The police had to ask her to park somewhere else, at least in the tourist season, because people were so shocked by it, they took their eyes off the road, were crossing into the wrong lane, and running down pedestrians. It was a hazard.
I'm with you Jackie, living in Delaware I have never seen so much rain in the summer. I remember some years back we were in such a drought, the water was running dry and heat wave that we had "rolling blackouts" occur during the day. Now except for the heat wave in early July, this summer has been wet and cool (so much for global warming).If we still had our pool it would have been a bad summer for swimming and tanning.
Beautiful photos. Personally, I'm not a big fan of summer.... heat, humidity and yellow jackets.
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