Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - March 12, 2017

Good morning! Since it's Sunday morning, this is my weekly off television topic reflection on the week gone by in both words and photos I took along the way. If you're here for Survivor -- you can find any Survivor posts I make at this link right here. 

Here near the NYC area we continue to have wacky weather patterns. We have had so many days through February and the beginning of March with outright spring temperatures that flowers are blooming and some of the trees have buds. But Mother Nature isn't letting us off that easy as we were fooled into thinking that this past winter wasn't bad at all. We started off the week with 60-plus degree temperatures and then we got some snow on Friday along with horribly cold temperatures and high winds. Now they're talking a major nor'easter Monday night through Tuesday with blizzard warnings around here and snow totals of more than a foot. It's just a waiting game to see if this storm will come to fruition or not. 

On the Living In My Apartment Building Front:

• I did my good deed for the day today. As I went to go downstairs for my Sunday morning newspaper, my neighbor on the one side (the one with the knee issues) was also leaving. I found out his name is Andy. He was struggling with his fancy seat walker and asked if I could get the door for him on the first floor. He's on oxygen and had left it in his car, so he was having trouble breathing. I not only walked him to his car, but I loaded his walker in the back seat for him and made sure he was all hooked up to his oxygen before I headed to the front for my paper. I'm glad I had my coat on (mainly so I didn't have to change out of my pajama top) -- it's SO COLD out. That's how neighbors should be -- he knocked on my door once to ask where I got my grocery deliveries from and I've knocked on his door once bringing up a package for him that the mailman just left sitting by the front door. He's not inconsiderate with his noise and told me he rarely hears any of my noise. Good neighbors rule. 
• Then there's the hallway playing kids. Sigh. I came home one evening from work and there were about eight of them running around, playing and making a mess on the first floor, front wing of the building. (I live in the rear wing.) The oldest boy, perhaps nine years old -- they ranged from him down to about four years old -- saw me coming and ran to open the front door for me. He then yelled at his underlings to get the first floor security door for me as well as call the elevator. Now, he KNOWS I've yelled at him before not to play in the building corridors! I guess I'm just not mean enough, huh? What a little Eddie Haskell albeit Hispanic in the making! No, I couldn't yell at them after he made such an ordeal about my arrival. Let them rip apart the first floor front wing of the building. Just don't be outside my door making that racket and mess!    

That's about it for now. I plan on staying out of the frigid temperatures today -- perhaps a nice hot bath, catch up on television shows I missed, etc. My shows are slowly returning. Of course, there was the season premiere of Survivor this week. But I've also been watching Bates Motel, The Walking Dead and some other shows. I've missed the newest episodes of Blue Bloods and Elementary this past week, so I'll watch them today. I also have to catch up on Superior Donuts -- I'm enjoying that one. If I'm not mistaken, tonight is the return of ABC's American Crime. If it conflicts with TWD, I'll have to put it on my watch later list.

Onto the photos -- if you click on an image, a larger gallery version will open. 

Tuesday early evening

This was before the arctic temperatures took hold this past week. Plainfield Train Station as I arrived home from work.

Early week daffodils

Although not as perky as they should be had they waited until actual spring, the warmer temperatures we had last week and into the beginning of this week brought about the daffodils. The tulips want to come up, too. They will regret the decision to bloom. Wah. Berckman Street.

The Full Worm Moon

The March full moon is called a "Worm" Moon because this is the time of year when the ground warms up enough to generate earthworm activity. Um, well. Perhaps not this year since we seem to be observing February in March! I took this shot last night at the Bridgewater Train Station waiting for my train home from work. The wind chill was in the single digits.

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

Hierarchy of the birds?

I'm sure the starlings think they're superior to the pigeons with they gleaming glossy black winter feathers. Wait until they get all dotty! Chotola Apartments on North Avenue in Plainfield.

Shots fired?

 A few minutes after I walked from the East 4th Street side of the Plainfield Train Station (just beyond where you see the police cars' lights), I went around the corner on Watchung Avenue to catch the 59 bus to bring me closer to my apartment. I heard a few loud bangs, then a solo bang. I'm talking LOUD bangs. At first I thought it was a car backfiring as there are three auto repair places right there. Then I heard a rapid succession of six bangs. Cars don't do that. Uh-oh. The police responded with several cars within a few minutes. I didn't peek around the corner until the police had been there about ten minutes. They didn't close off the street and there was no setting up of crime scene tape. So, I'm guessing that if it was gunfire, no one was shot and it happened inside one of the buildings or the lot for the one car repair place. Naturally, there was nothing in the news about it. I'm glad I had passed through just a few minutes before whatever it was happened. This was Thursday evening.

I see dead people saga goes on

The 6:40am westbound Raritan Valley Line train as it takes off from the Plainfield Train Station.

And so it starts ...

Friday's snow was just getting started as I got off the train heading to work. I have flaky feet!

I see dead people and a seamstress

On NJ Transit Raritan Valley Line, Saturday morning. The seamstress is a regular on that particular train. I've talked to her before. She's a Polish woman and does very nice work. The dead person? A stranger. She's sitting in what some think of a prized seat with a doohickey for bags, etc. next to her. I don't like that seat. It only has a half-window and, in the mornings, the sun shines in your face (if there is sun). Plus, the bottom on the bag doohickey is filthy. The seamstress is in a four-seater, one of the two four-seaters on that end of the train car. I'm in the other four-seater on the other side. It's my usual commute to work seat. Yeah, I sit alone in it -- but the train isn't crowded for my ride in to work. On my ride home, I sit in various two-seater seats as there are more people on the train.

Hide, daffodil buds, hide!

Between the bitter cold temperatures and the snow both received and expected, these little guys don't have a chance. Berckman Street. I took this shot early in the week before winter returned with a passion.

Just sittin' on a train

Are they ever going to finish track work on the NJ Transit Raritan Valley Line? We only have two tracks -- one eastbound, one westbound. When they single track the trains for work on one track, I always end up sitting and waiting for the train from the other direction to pass before we can proceed. There are only so many places where they have the tracks laid so that trains can go from one track to the other. One is just east of the approach to Bound Brook. So, that's where I sat on my later day into work. I got to look at the graffiti-laden industrial buildings. At another point, there's graffiti "Ice and Alf '86" -- more than thirty years old! The wait for the other train to pass is usually ten to fifteen minutes. They need to finish the track work!

Fallen daffodils

While the snow we received on Friday melted where the daffodils on Berckman Street were growing, the bitter cold has gotten to them. The soldiers of spring have fallen. If predictions are accurate, they'll be buried in snow in a few days. Sigh.

Cold pigeons have no necks

Enduring the near zero wind chill temperatures, the pigeons on the Chotola Apartments try to bury their heads within their bodies. They don't like this weather any more than I do! 

Air-conditioned home for cheap!

Although they tore down the other house burnt in this two home fire from a few years back, this remains. East Second Street near Berckman, taken on Saturday morning after Friday's "big" snowstorm.

We ain't seen nuthin' yet ... I guess

Snow remained only in patches here and there as I went to work on Saturday. While Friday's snowstorm lasted for hours and hours and visibility was way down, it really didn't stick to the streets much as we have had so many days of warmer temperatures. We only got a few inches on grassy surfaces and such. With heavy duty winds and the sunshine after the storm, much of it was gone by late Friday. Hopefully whatever we get on Tuesday will go away quickly! (Unfortunately, the temperatures for the remainder of the week only flirt with getting above freezing.) I shot this as I approached the Plainfield Train Station on Saturday morning.

Puffy-tailed cat dreams

Vincent is not a fluffy cat -- he's a shorthair domestic of some kind or another. But when he has his cat dreams, his tail sometimes puffs up. It unpuffed a bit while I was grabbing the camera for this shot. I've never seen him puff up his tail while awake. Those must be some wild dreams he has!