Off Topic: That's the Week It Was - October 25, 2015

Good morning! Since it's indeed Sunday morning, that can just mean one thing. Yep, it's time for my weekly off television topic reflection of the week gone by in both words and photographs I've taken along the way. Please, if you're a fan of either show, join us for the live update/blog party posts for both Survivor and The Amazing Race on Wednesday and Friday evenings respectively.

Here are my random thoughts, happenings and observations on this past week:

• I have a new boss at my workplace. It should be better, but I don't know if my sucked-out soul can be redeemed.
• I received an email that I won something in the Plainfield Public Library Annual Photography Contest. The awards ceremony is on November 14. I will be attending. I doubt I won first place again this year -- it wasn't a great theme for me.
• Since I long ago, before the date for the awards was announced, requested the first two Saturdays of November off from work, I decided Saturday the 7th would be the perfect day to go see Misery on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theater in Manhattan. Bruce Willis and Laurie Metcalf are the stars of the show. I ended up getting a better (and more expensive) ticket than I planned as it seems to really be selling out. I have a first row center mezzanine seat -- no one's head will be in front of me and I'll have a complete view of the stage! I'm considering it my Christmas gift to myself.
• I finally made up my mind, ordered and received the birthday gift my brother Russ gave me last month (an Amazon gift card). It's heaven to have a new toaster! I've been fighting with my old one for the past few years and kept forgetting I need a new one, so I got one. I also got Stephen King's Finders Keepers hardback, a new wall calendar for next year, some Dr. Teal's Epsom Salt Vapor Bath (with menthol and eucalyptus!) and, last and definitely least, a four-pack of Magic Erasers. That last was just to use up the gift card and they had a dollar off online coupon at Amazon for them. 
• Did you realize that they have plain old TOASTERS that cost a few hundred dollars or more? Who uses them? The one I replaced cost $10 about 15 years ago. I splurged on the new one I bought -- $22. I expect it to last me the rest of my life!
• Of course, I'm someone who still has my first microwave oven. It's so old (how old is it?) that I bought it at Caldor a good ten or so years before Caldor went out of business! It's a Sharp Carousel microwave vintage about 1988. Hey, it still works. I use it mainly for heating up stuff and popcorn. I have an oven and a crockpot for outright cooking needs. 
• Thankfully, my killer cold lessened by Wednesday and I feel sort of human once again. Sniffles, sneezing and an occasional cough remain. But I feel so much better than I did!
• For the first time in three weeks, I have my Sunday newspaper. After looking for it every half-hour starting at 6am, it was there at 8:30am ... late. I'm so not happy with the Courier-News!
• It's kind of damp and gloomy outside. I'd say it's a perfect day for using that Epsom Salt Vapor Bath while playing some soft classical or jazz on my stereo. Hmm.
• If a cat would stop hogging my attention, this post would be more timely.

Here are the photos for the week -- clicking on an image will bring it up in a larger version:

Getting near peak

This is a ridge of trees near my workplace. There's a lot more color there than I'm seeing just east here in Plainfield.

Monday night's moon

I really like how my point and shoot Canon and its great digital zoom capabilities work with moon shots. I've always considered moon shots a challenge and you don't want to know how many white blobs I've deleted off of memory cards over the years. But, with this camera and its zoom, I end up with more decent shots than blobs!

Plainfield Train Station at night

The Monday night late train to New York City isn't a busy one. I get off in Plainfield. I keep telling myself now that the Raritan Valley Line has the combination diesel/electric trains and there are one-seat rides into Manhattan, I'll use it. They used to be just diesel and you can't run diesel in the tunnels under the rivers to NYC. But then I end up taking the bus because that leaves from right by my apartment. After all, that's one-seat ride, too! My next planned trip to the city will be bus, too. The Port Authority Building is closer to Times Square and the theater district. So, on both ends the bus will win.

Turkey Vulture in flight

Up close, their faces are ugly as all get-out and, to be honest, they're rather disgustingly dirty birds. But ... in flight, they're majestic. This one was circling overhead at the Plainfield Train Station on Saturday morning as I headed to work.

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

 

The Turkey Vulture again

Same vulture, different angle.

Oh! Oh! A minions party!

This house on Berckman Street in Plainfield used to have a whole bunch of little boys residing within. They were rowdy and their parents really let them run wild. However, the kids decided they liked me. They wanted to walk with me, show me their acrobatic feats and such. Somehow I attract kids. (Groan.) They weren't bad kids, but I fear what they'll grow up like. I'll never know because they moved to Ohio. Now a family with girls live there. I only see them with their parents or occasionally notice/hear them playing in the fenced-in backyard. Every fall, the staircase is lined with mums pots. Every holiday is noted in decoration. And, now they have a Minions party. I think the future is brighter for these girls than the prospects for the boys before them.

Replacing the hibiscus and begonias

The first bad frost killed off the summer flowers in the planters by my workplace. It was such a sad sight to behold. Within two days, the summer flowers were all pulled out and these mums and ornamental kale displays were in their place. I recall the mums passing within days last year, but these look healthier at the beginning. There are also cattails in the center. They're not all that photogenic (unless it's Vincent's cattail).

Ornamental kale up close and personal

Such a cool plant!

Mums

More mums

Even more mums

The torch man

No, he's not breaking into a safe! He's attaching something to the top of scaffolding. It's all a part of the big bridge replacement work by the Plainfield Train Station.

Polo

I guess Marco doesn't want his clamps selling on street corners for scrap metal.

The sun is setting way too early!

I don't need the sun to shine until 9pm. I'd just like to still get home in daylight most days, thank you very much. Yes, I know the end of Daylight Savings Time is coming next week. It would be nice to go back to the hours I worked for so many years. At least I'd see some daylight on the way home.

Outside my window

Still, a bit muted this season

Friday evening's moon

Color in da 'hood

This little offshoot of the tree always turns color sooner than its host and sports splendid reds and yellows.

The Rooftop Boyz

The pigeons atop the Chotola Apartments building across from the Plainfield Train Station have plenty to watch with all the bridgework going on.

The male sparrow

I told him all my problems. I think he only pretended to listen to me.

The female sparrow checks me out

She casts a long shadow in these days of more harsh sun angles.

Roses are still blooming

Probably not for much longer, though. They seem to be a lot heartier than many other flowers of summer.

Vincent, hard at work

Being a cat is a hard job. But someone has to do it.