Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - June 21, 2015

Good morning! It's Sunday, the first day of summer and Father's Day all wrapped in one! Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there! I'd say Happy Summer, but it's not my favorite season of the year -- I'm more into less extreme weather. Give me spring or autumn weather all year 'round and I'd be thrilled. Since it's also Sunday, 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.

If you're looking for Big Brother television show content, check out this link right here for the latest. If you want to sign up to be in the blog pool for the show, you need to sign up only on this linked post. (Otherwise we might miss your request!) Later on today, I plan to post some hot gossip on some of the new house hamsters. Yikes. I said "hot gossip." I feel like a tabloid.

I really don't have much to report on from this past week. Here are some random bits and pieces:

• I managed to catch one of the illnesses going around my workplace this week -- yet another monster cold combined with allergies I've already been suffering. Wah. 
• The weather this past week has been hot, humid and rainy. I don't like that. Make it stop.
• The new guy next door, even when his adult children (maybe in their forties) came with a child about seven carrying a big ball ... hasn't moved my floorboards with thumping, nor can I hear much at all from over there. I still haven't met him. The couple was bearing groceries and I'd guess the child is a grandchild. Oh, and I should add, the boy was CARRYING the ball in the hallway, not bouncing it. 
• We're under a flood watch today. I'm staying in. But it can still stop, please.
• I'm shocked and saddened by the Charleston, SC, massacre this past week. Those folks took him in to pray with them. It speaks volumes about the goodness in their hearts and the hate in his. This world is so messed up. 

Anyway ... onto the photos. Clicking on an image will bring up a larger version.

Mug shot profile

Have you seen this bird? Heh. This is one of the adolescent pigeons born this spring at the Bridgewater Train Station. Similar to how one of the parent pigeons posed for me one day with curiosity about the camera, as did this one and its sibling this past week.

Peapod in da 'hood

I spotted the bright green Peapod grocery delivery truck down the street from me one day. Grocery delivery is really catching on. For the longest time I thought I was the only one around here getting Peapod. Nowadays, at least two other people in my building use the service in addition to this stop down the street and the times I've seen the truck pull in at apartments across the street.

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

Chicory blossom with raindrops

Within a 24-hour period, the chicory blossoms at the train station sprung to life as if they had been there all along.

A patch of pink

Or, sometimes it's purple, depending on how the sun hits it. This is the second adolescent pigeon in Bridgewater.

Busy bee

But he wouldn't pose like the pigeons!

Be considerate

Bwahahaha! On New Jersey Transit trains? What a joke! However, I did manage to create an uprising of passengers against a rude dude with no headphones listening to some sort of Mexican music for us all to hear. He also had his nasty feet up on the seat. With all of us complaining to the conductor, the conductor had to say something. Of course, the conductor should have said something before we complained.

Red car has wings!

Two guys were washing this nifty car in the public parking lot across East Fourth Street from the Plainfield Train Station. I'm not sure where they got the water pressure from ... maybe the adjacent car repair place?

Gaze into the lens

I wonder what the fascination with the camera is with the Bridgewater pigeons. I don't get this reaction with pigeons elsewhere.

Beautiful red hibiscus

So pretty! Bridgewater, at the Bridgewater Promenade Shopping Center.

Prettying up the fence

These didn't last all that long this year. They grow along the fence next door to my apartment building.

What? No raindrops?

Oh, wow. A day without rain? But, most certainly there has to be heat and humidity.

Along with rain comes ...

Mushrooms and fungi of all kinds! It was so humid that when I first went to take a photo of these, upon taking the lens cap off the camera, it fogged up. Oy. It's a good thing I carry a lens cloth with me.

At the Plainfield Train Station

All by itself, the day after the lawn was mowed. A huge 'shroom!

Speak softly ... please

Yes, indoor voices, please. I don't need to hear your conversations from half the car away. Yes, if you're in a nearby seat, I expect to hear something. If you're talking six rows away, you're talking too loudly! No one is interested in your personal life. By the way -- these shots were taken on the upper deck of the Raritan Valley Line double-decker trains. That's not a wall ahead, it's stairs.

Colorful front walk

I can't help but to smile at this scene every time I pass it. I'd grow stuff, but I have no outdoor space. They frown on us using the fire escapes for mini-gardens.

Just a weed

Albeit, a very pretty weed in its own right.

Vincent at rest

After a hard day of protecting the fort, Vincent decided to take a few winks.