Off Topic: That Was the Week(s) It Was - December 24, 2017

An oldie, but a goodie

I'm not sure where the Santa suit is these days. Vincent probably destroyed it!

Another oldie, but goodie. This was created some years back for the blog by Zoetawny. I miss her! Not quite the best photo of Vincent, though.

I apologize for my absence the past few weeks with the exception of covering Survivor. I've had a mix of bad health issues, overwork and severe stress on my job, a lost camera memory card and, to be honest, the holidays in general aren't a good time of the year for me. They were great when I was a child and I do have precious memories of those days. 

Tomorrow I'll cook the small ham I bought on sale, make some side dishes and bake the Mrs. Smith's apple pie to round out my feast. Vincent and I will be alone for the day. That's been the story of my big holiday doings for most of my life. Well, not always with Vincent, but with a cat or two. Oh, well. It could be worse. I could have to work. I've had to do that some Christmas days in the past.

I hope those of you with families and loved ones have a good Christmas -- but try not to overeat!

The majority of the photos this week were taken with my cell phone camera. Although I have a different memory card in my camera, I just didn't see much in the way of photos to take this past week.

Brightly lighted these days

The white lighting at the Plainfield Train Station does seem to cut down on the vagrants hanging out at night. Yet, they're still there in the daytime.

Crescent moon

My camera picks up detail not noticed by the naked eye. You can actually see the whole moon, even a touch of detail with the markings.

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Taking a Photo Week Off

I'm taking this week off from the photo post. I took this shot at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan (near the tree) back in 2011. Unfortunately, this past week hasn't been photo-productive and yet has been totally exhausting for me.

I hope everyone is having a great holiday season! 

Merry Christmas!

I hope everybody is having a wonderful holiday!

Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - December 6, 2015

Good morning! Yes, I'm late in posting this. But I'm here now! Welcome to my weekly off television topic reflection of the past week in both words and photos I've taken along the way! And, if you're a fan of Survivor or The Amazing Race, be sure to stop by on show nights for live blogging of the shows.

Once again, my past week was rather uneventful. It was full of going to work and just plain doldrums stuff of life not in the fast lane. Mind you, I don't necessarily want to be in the fast lane! I fear those days of my life are long gone. Hmm ... perhaps if I live to be 90, I'll just go wild robbing banks and such. After all, are they going to lock up a little old lady? 

We had a few rainy days here this past week and a few nights with a chill in the air. But we've escaped what could be possible in the month of December in New Jersey -- deep freezes, snow and ice. I can't complain. I won't complain.

I guess it's kind of sad that the most notable and (to me) interesting thing this week happened when I got off the train in Bridgewater yesterday. Birds. All I could hear was a cacophony of bird calls. Starlings. They were everywhere -- lining the entire interior of the TD Bank Ball Park, resting on the power wires and even on the field lights. The "swarm" featured below is just a small group of them in flight. Cue Alfred Hitchcock.

What's that black loud cloud?

Starling swarm!

To be more accurate, a group or flock of starlings is really called a chattering or a murmuration of starlings. I know one person who'd call it a herd. It's definitely more like a swarm to me! But I can see why they're called the two actual group names -- they're LOUD. Starlings just don't know how to shut their beaks!

Everybody's  back at it

After being closed for a few months, Everybody's Food Market on East Front Street is back in business and all rehabbed. It truly needed it! You can get everything from oxtails to chitterlings to energy drinks in this West Indian convenience store. I've never bought oxtails. But, if I were to desire oxtails, I know where to get them.

Chillaxin' on the job

The crane operator for the NJ Transit bridge work on closed-off Gavett Place takes a digital break. The actual crane operators seem to have the cush job in the group. All the others end up moving stuff around for the crane to snag, cutting holes with torches and doing physical labor. 

Firetrucks responding to ... um ... something

I have no clue as to where they're heading. I see and/or hear firetrucks an awful lot in town. Thankfully, most of the times, it's nothing all that serious. However, when they're called, they have to go. I took this shot on East Second Street downtown. 

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Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - December 30, 2012

It's the last Sunday of 2012! Why, that must mean it's time for my last off television topic photo post of the year. Woohoo! Of course, I haven't really been posting about television lately as everything is in repeats for the holidays. I did watch the Kennedy Center honors show this week and enjoyed it immensely. The ballet dancer seemed a bit out of her element, but I found the rest of the folks being honored people who have indeed played roles in my own life to a certain extent -- Dustin Hoffman, David Letterman, Buddy Guy and Led Zeppelin. I'm just not a big ballet fan albeit I find it beautiful when I do watch.

Last week I had a dearth of photos. This week, probably too many. You just might want to grab a big mug of coffee and some snacks before getting too involved in this. Not only did I find some things of interest in a bit better weather week locally to photograph, but I went into Manhattan on a whim on Christmas Day. 

Since I actually (for a change) had two days off -- Christmas and the day after -- with no real plans other than a quiet holiday at home with Vincent the Cat ... I decided to hop a bus into town. That means I walk about one minute to the bus stop and soon I'm dumped in Midtown. A storm was due Wednesday, but Christmas day was nice. Overcast, but I prefer that for taking photos anyway.

So, after I talked to my brother in California on the phone for a while, I was on my way. I thought it might be a bit quieter with all the big stores closed. Um. No. All the people just mobbed the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center instead of shopping! Oy. I will say that it wasn't as bad with the crowding as was the Chinese New Year parade in the city last year. I was concerned I might have a rib broken in the crowd crush for that.

I walked from the Port Authority Bus Terminal, through Times Square, over to Fifth Avenue, up to Rockefeller Center, back over by Saint Patrick's Cathedral (which had huge crowds, but scaffolding all about as they rehab the exterior), back down Madison Avenue to escape the crowds and breathe, back through Times Square, then back home. Yeah, that was one sentence. Want to make something of it? Uh-oh. I was in my travel in crowds in Manhattan persona. Oops!

The knees held up just fine. I only sat for a few minutes on a chair in Bryant Park. (Oh yeah, I went there, too.) For some reason, five different people stopped me to ask directions to five different places. Hey, just because I'm walking alone in the city doesn't necessarily mean I know where everything is! Thankfully, they all asked for places I do happen to know like Grand Central Station, Rockefeller Center and such. So I guess I was a good one to ask. I couldn't answer the folks who asked me a bus question, though. I have never been on a New York City bus. Subways, taxis and on foot, yes. Bus, no. 

Three separate groups of people -- an older white couple, a group of five black hip-hop garbed teenagers, and a family who seemed to speak either Russian or Polish -- handed me their iPhones and asked me to take photos of them. Don't they know that Mayor Bloomberg claims the rise in the robbery rate is due to iPhone and iPad thefts? Do I NOT look dangerous and thuggish? Sheesh. Yeah, I took their photos for them and handed them back their expensive playtoys. I figured I could probably only outrun the elderly couple.

Other than the trip into the city, it was a quiet week. Some real icky weather at times, but quiet for me. How was your week?

Onto the MANY photos -- clicking on an image will open it in a new Photobucket window, clicking again will make it larger. To return here, just close out the Photobucket window.

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree

The holiday light show at Saks Fifth Avenue ...

Empire State Building

The lights are even better now! They replaced the old lighting system with new LED lights and can actually do "light shows." Before, every time they wanted to change colors, they had to physically remove a huge colored lens from each light. Now, it's computerized. Since the colors atop the building change per event, celebration, whatever ... this is going to be fantastic now!

Bryant Park tree and skaters

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