Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - March 6, 2016

Good Sunday morning to you! Since it is indeed Sunday, that means just one thing ... it's time for my weekly off television topic reflection on the week gone by in both words and photos I've taken along the way. Please stop back for live blogging of Survivor and The Amazing Race on show nights!

Our weather wasn't technically as wacky this past week as it has been all this winter. Instead of the record highs/lows roller coaster, we pretty much just maintained wintry cold weather all week. Snow had its (hopefully) last gasp Wednesday night into Thursday morning. It wasn't a bad snow at all, sticking mainly to unpaved surfaces, trees and cars. The sidewalks had few slippery spots as I walked. They claim that we might have record-breaking high temperatures this week on Wednesday. I'm off from work that day.

I have a four-day work week ahead. I requested Saturday off as a paid vacation day due to rumors of a "soft strike" lead-in to an NJ Transit rail workers strike planned for next Sunday if they don't resolve issues before then. I don't feel like having an iffy commute with buses and such on a weekend when I work late. I'm hoping there will be no strike. But, if there is, I have a combination of walking, buses and getting rides to bus stops on the work end of things if it comes to fruition. I'm not looking forward to it. It's going to be extremely inconvenient and leave me on the city streets late at night some nights when that's the last place I want to be for safety reasons. Plus, it will add hours onto my workdays. Sigh.

I don't have much for you other than the photos I took this past week. Clicking on an image will bring it up in a larger version. Have a great day!

Se compra oro

Alas, I have no oro to sell them. Looks like they buy and sell many things. One day I should peek in there. Park Avenue, Plainfield.

Snowy morning

The tree in front of the local Presbyterian Church held the snow nicely. I edited this photo to leave only two orange lamps by a doorway in color.

What a blue sky!

No, I did nothing with the color on this shot! I had some condensation on my lens which made the lights a bit streaky. It's finally not totally dark when I get home from work three days out of five. Plainfield Train Station.

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Snow on the train station lamps

The lamps at the Plainfield Train Station were coated with snow.

Sit right down!

A bench at the TD Bank Ball Park in Bridgewater. Yeah, I messed with the photo. But Mother Nature messed with it more.

Snow on the Big Top

They claim the heat is working well inside the Big Apple Circus tents. I don't know. It doesn't seem to be melting that snow! It was a dry snow, so a lot of it slid down. Bridgewater, NJ.

It's PINKish!

Although the actual sunset was kind of blah at this point, the clouds to the east were all pink. This is the Bridgewater Train Station. It's not exciting unless there are snakes or deer or something.

Snow in da 'hood

As snow should be, only sticking to trees, cars and grassy surfaces!

Plainfield Train Station

Unlike the Bridgewater Train Station, Plainfield is a real station. The platforms go for about two blocks and they're high platforms. You don't have to climb in or out of the trains; you just walk in. The Plainfield Station is handicapped accessible with ramps and elevators, a pedestrian tunnel and has a ticket agent working in the building from 5:30am until 1:30pm, plus the ticket vending machines you see on the left in this photo. I just wish they'd maintain and police the station better.

The Bridgewater Station has a little open to the elements shelter with buttons for heat that don't do much more than heat the top of your head if you stand on the benches.  On the westbound side, there isn't even an overhang to gather under in bad weather. There are stairs only. No ramps. No elevators. To cross between tracks, you have to walk under crumbling bridges dated 1942. It's low platforms, necessitating a steep climb into and out of the train. The platforms themselves are the length of one rail car -- maybe 1/10th (if that much) of the length of the Plainfield ones. I've had to climb out onto the rocks many times when the train missed the platform. There is no ticket agent. But there are ticket machines as you have to pay a $5 surcharge to buy a ticket on the train. In the nicer weather, the Bridgewater Station has all kinds of plants, trees, insects and wildlife to photograph. That, the Plainfield Station is a bit lacking.

Are they EVER going to finish this bridge?

I'm so tired of the detours affecting the bus route if I want to jump on the bus home. Watchung Avenue, Plainfield.

Depot Park homeless Baby Carriages of Life

I have more sympathy for the couple living in this doorway than one who has been at the Bridgewater Train Station all this past week. That guy has cigarettes and booze. The people who own this stuff just seem to sit there, sleep there and walk around looking for more stuff. I'm not sure where they were when I took this shot. But their stuff is all covered and no one who hangs out at the train station will bother it. I'm surprised that the police haven't done anything about them living in the doorway in a very public place. Although they need to be constantly at the station to move along derelicts, the local police (and more rarely, NJ Transit cops) do come by the station and shoo them away. Yet, this couple lives in the doorway facing the eastbound tracks.

Crowtenna

If it wasn't defunct, he might be improving the reception. With wind ruffling feathers, a murder of crows were chasing all the pigeons, sparrows, starlings and seagulls away from the Plainfield Train Station yesterday morning.

Another one

This one was ruling atop the Chotola Apartments.

Lazy weekend

Perhaps. Except for people like me who work on weekends. What's a weekend? Maybe when I retire, I'll find out. If I live that long, that is.

What could be behind the next door?

Apparently the doorway to the apartments above a restaurant must get people trying to get into the restaurant. North Avenue, Plainfield.

Hopefully the last snow of the season

But I have seen April snows around here.

Did you ever see a kitty go this way ...

... and that way?

Did you ever see a kitty go this way and that? Vincent is enjoying his latest cardboard scratchy doohickey. These shots were taken on its first day in use. Now it's got all kinds of pieces missing along the edges where he bites off chunks and spits them on the floor. He still likes to nap in it, though.