Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - April 23, 2017

Good morning! Welcome to 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.  You can find any posts I make about TAR at this link -- The Amazing Race.

Random stuff o' the past week:

• My health insurance company has approved the procedure to do the vein work on my right leg. The vascular surgeon will be inserting a foam to close off the saphenous vein in the lower part of my leg -- the source of the worst swelling and a bundle of veins that stick out like a bunch of snakes under my skin. This will take a few treatments to do the entire leg and the left leg will most likely be laser treatment. I go on May 12, a procedure done right in his office. He tells me I'll walk out feeling better.
• I got stuck in the elevator at the Plainfield Train Station late Monday night (about 10:15pm) -- the doors wouldn't open in the tunnel and it wouldn't return to any other floor (ground or platform). The smell was HORRENDOUS! I usually hold my breath to take the elevator down to the tunnel that late at night as I catch a taxi home. Thankfully, it's the Plainfield Police dispatcher answering the emergency phone from the elevator and the Plainfield Fire Department who rescued me. Had I had to wait for NJ Transit, I'd probably still be stuck in the elevator, probably deceased from the odor. As of last night, the elevator still hasn't been fixed. Get on the ball, NJT! 
• On the home front, I complained to the landlord's office about the kids running amok in the hallways for hours daily into the night, littering, breaking things, scuffing up the walls, staining the hallway carpet, etc. -- and all the people (kids and adults) crammed into one one-bedroom apartment which doesn't even have the child window guards. Those kids are the ringleaders of the Hallway Hellions. Within a few days after my phoned/then written complaint, the kids haven't been hanging out in the hallways. Instead, they're hanging out in the parking lot, mostly under my windows. My complaint or nicer weather? They're not supposed to be in the parking lot either -- it's dangerous. But their parents obviously don't care. At least it's not as loud as them right outside my door in the building. If I had a car out there, I'd be yelling at them, though.
• Also on the home front, my upstairs neighbor has sporadically been booming his stereo once again. You'd think if the cops come to his door twice withing 12 hours, he wouldn't do it again. How many times have the police been at my door in my 40+ years of apartment living due to complaints from neighbors? NONE. NADA. NEVER. Maybe if I make it that bad for him to play his music so loud, he'll move on his own. Since I just complained about the kids, I don't want to file another complaint about him right now. I don't want the landlord to think I'm some sort of chronic complainer. But, sheesh. Have people no consideration for others these days? Right now as I write this up, his stereo is vibrating my ceiling with its bass. Every Sunday morning. I only get one day off at a time and Sunday is one of them. I'm tired of this idiot. No one else in my wing of the building does it and no other tenant up there has made the kind of noise he makes. And he's the first one with carpet instead of hardwood up there! Grr.
• Rant over

 Onto this week's photos. Clicking on an image will open a larger version. 
 

Let there be spring pink!

Plainfield Train Station

Earth Day

Volunteers cleaned the grounds of the Plainfield Train Station. All of the bums went away as they cleaned. Of course, they'll return and litter all over again. Sigh. Something seriously needs to be done to keep unticketed passengers from loitering around the train station!

A patch of pretty

Bridgewater, NJ

Play ball!

It's baseball season once again at the home of the Somerset Patriots -- TD Bank Ball Park in Bridgewater. The game seemed to be in a rain delay as I headed to the train station after work. As I walked up the steps leading to my platform, they were playing the theme to 'Jaws.' NOT COOL! I expected to find a bear at the top of the stairs smiling at me or something!
 

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

You're really going to give me a ticket?

One of the Earth Day Plainfield Train Station Clean Up volunteers got a ticket for not feeding the meter on North Avenue. Unlike the TV series Parking Wars, all was polite. She even thanked him. But I bet she was thinking "Why the heck did I THANK him?" as she walked away. 

And, there it is

He really gave you a parking ticket?!?!

You don't want to pay this for me?

I felt bad that she was there volunteering to clean the Plainfield Train Station and got the parking ticket.

The littlest Earth Day volunteer

Meanwhile, across the street

Hispanic Jesus People gather with their Watchtowers in Spanish, planning their attack on the local citizenry. North Avenue, Plainfield.

Purple pansies

Bridgewater, NJ

Spring has really sprung

Plainfield Train Station.

It refuses to die!

This WAS one of the pretty pink blossomed trees like I photograph at the Plainfield Train Station, but at the corner of my block. They tried to murder it two years ago. It refuses to die, but thus far has not blossomed.

Plainfield Train Station

Bridgewater, NJ

Lone azalea will soon have company

Outside the TD Bank Ball Park adjacent to the Bridgewater Train Station.

East Second Street, Plainfield

Bridgewater Train Station

Gotta make the nest!

A starling gathers the makings for this season's abode at the Plainfield Train Station.

And here's where the delivery went ...

Not so good for the building, but the starlings have found a perfect nesting site! North Avenue, Plainfield

Bridgewater, NJ

Not an officially placed sign

I don't know where this SLOW sign came from, but someone must think people go too fast in my neighborhood! I'm waiting for that magnolia tree on the right to bloom.

All in a row

Berckman Street, Plainfield

Achoo!

Plenty of pollen coming down from the trees lining my apartment building's parking lot!

Golden days of tulips

Berckman Street, Plainfield

Call me Dots

It's interesting to see the contrast between the glossy high-sheen black and then the dots on the European Starlings.

Berckman Street, Plainfield

Bridgewater Train Station

Sleepy Vincent

If he doesn't get his 18 hours of beauty sleep each day, he will lose his incredible good looks!