Not a great week for me this past week, but not the worst in my life, either. I had the appointment with the vascular surgeon. This coming Friday I'll go to the hospital for more intensive testing to determine the best surgery options (and to make sure I'm good for the surgery). While I've been focusing on the right leg which swells so rapidly when I'm on it and hurts so much, the other leg is in rough shape, too. The doctor told me that I probably didn't really notice because the right one is so painful. My blood pressure was also high once again. Hmm. I never really had a problem with that before this year. I guess I'll have to have that looked into this year. Heck, I might as well meet my out of pocket maximum on my health insurance and have all my health woes done!
The weather here this week has been fluctuating between record high highs and bitter cold with lots of wind. I can deal with the cold, but the wind was killing me earlier in the week! After a cold morning, yesterday's temperatures hit above 60 although I was inside work and didn't get to enjoy it. Today, it's supposed to be even warmer. Alas, I'll probably stay in for the day anyway. I'm really not feeling well enough to go out and roam around if I don't have to go out to go to work. I'll compromise -- I'll open my windows this afternoon and sit in the recliner chair by the open window!
I'm thankful for the local friends I have! One friend, originally a train friend for years, now has a car on the road and, when our work schedules permit, she's been giving me rides in the morning to work. Another, originally a blog then Facebook friend, has offered me transportation needed for medical doings (and did take me to the ER when I went)! Yay! There are really good people out there, more so than evil ones, for sure!
Oh, well. Enough about me. Onto the photos I took this past week -- clicking on an image will open up a larger one in a gallery format.
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| Tunnel tile art -- it's the bee's knees! |
At least, when the rehabbed the tunnel at the Somerville Train Station, while the previous murals went away, the tile art pieces remained. Why a beekeeper, I don't know.
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| Can you strike a pose, pretty pigeon? |
How's this? -- A pigeon atop the Chotola Apartment building on North Avenue in Plainfield.
**CLICK THE 'READ MORE' LINK TO SEE THE REST OF THE PHOTOS**
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| Discarded love |
"To a wonderful daughter and son-in-law." -- Found blowing along Main Street in Bridgewater.
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| Come right out, sit right down |
Dang. I swear that recliner chair is in better shape than the one I own! Of course, now it's been sitting out in the weather and there's always the possibility of bed bugs, but ...! That bag on it is full of flyers for supermarkets and such. I find them annoying. They throw a HUGE bag of them at my apartment building every week and the staff ends up throwing them out. At individual homes, one packet of flyers is thrown in every driveway, most to get run over by the homeowner's cars. Back to this shot, I'll sit on the bench, but not the chair. At least someone took a slat from the back to replace a missing one from the seat area. It had been down to about six inches of seating clearance. Corner of Watchung and North in Plainfield.
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| Honk, honk ... outta the way ... |
... geese coming through! The geese who didn't migrate this year are bound to enjoy this weekend's warmer temperatures.
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| Feed those meters, people! |
The meter man is coming! This Plainfield Parking Bureau guy would have been perfect for that show from a few years back, Parking Wars. He's personable, handsome and has a good rapport with the community even though he's writing out parking tickets. North and Gavett in Plainfield on Saturday morning.
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| Although remodeled ... |
... the tunnel under the tracks at the Somerville Train Station is already showing damage from moisture. Nowhere near as deplorable as the condition of the tunnel at the Plainfield Train Station, but ...!
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| Fairly new remodel in Somerville |
This remodel of the Somerville Train Station isn't all that old. I like that it went high platform and has separate enclosed waiting areas on both platforms. Plainfield only has the station on the NYC-bound side which is only open from about 5:30am to 1:30pm. It does have overhead cover on both sides. Bridgewater has an open air little brick waiting building on the NYC-bound side and not even any kind of cover at all on the west-bound side.
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| Somerville Train Station sculpture |
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| Explanation of the sculpture |
Along with a lot of train history, this basically tells us that the sculpture is in the shape of smoke from historic train smokestacks and train wheels through the times. Even though this rail line is diesel (until the dual power locomotive goes electric to go into Manhattan), we don't have smokestacks and very little smoke is emitted by the train operation these days.
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| Always expect a train! |
But no one expects a Spanish Inquisition!
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| Snow is not so pretty days later! |
While the sun and occasional warmer temperatures have diminished the ground cover snow, it will be a while before parking lot plowed piles and shaded areas lose it. I have my hopes that piles like these aren't freshened with new snow in the days ahead.
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| Love blowing in the wind |
I hope the cuddly bear will find his true Valentine.
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| Monday night's moon |
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| Just before sunrise Friday |
Looking at North Avenue from Track One at the Plainfield Train Station.
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| Catnip Bliss |
Yes, I'm an enabler. Better that Vincent gets his catnip from me than from street dealers!
3 comments:
I hope your leg problems will be cured soon, Jackie. Interesting array of photos this week.
Good people attract good people!
Dolores in Hollywood
The Somerville Train Station murals are by artist Katherine Hackl. The 12 2’x3’ mural images in this installation run all along the 200’ tunnel wall with a band including repeating natural images of the four seasons.
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