Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - May 21, 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. The season finales for both shows are coming up this week -- how time flies!

In regard to television watching -- I haven't been able to get into this season's Fargo like I have the previous two seasons. I fell asleep the week before last and I actually forgot it was on this past week. I'll catch up with it today. Maybe if I'm not watching it after live blogging a show and at such a late hour, I will be more into it.

So, how is my leg doing? Hmm. I went to the hospital this week for the scheduled follow-up Doppler ultrasound test to make sure no blood clots have formed and to track the progress of the injected vein-collapsing Varithena. The tech performing the ultrasound told me all looked good to him, but the doctor will read the report more thoroughly. My next doctor appointment isn't until June 2nd. I do see improvement. Where I had the bundle of veins like snakes under my skin in my calf, a marked improvement. There is a rather large painful swelling at one of the injection sites, but I'm thinking that should diminish in time. The blisters from the tape are gone, but my thigh still has a lot of discoloring and bruising from that big injection site and that foam roll thing that was so tightly strapped to it in the bandaging.  All in all, it feels better than it did pre-Varithena even at this early stage. But, then again, I have been taking it easy on it although I do my daily walks as recommended.

A shout out to blog reader/friend Leonia and her husband for their graciousness in offering me rides to medical dealings! I try to schedule things I can get to via train, bus and/or cab, but life is so much easier when someone goes that extra mile and offers a ride when you're not feeling well! 

We had our first heat wave of 2017 earlier this week ... in MAY. Grr. The criteria for a heat wave is three consecutive days of over 90 degrees.  One day we maxed out at 97. I don't like the heat. As I get older, I like it even less. I'd actually prefer the cold of winter (sans ice and snow) than hot humid weather. Of course, I'd prefer spring to be SPRING, not SUMMER! 

Onto this week's photos -- clicking on an image will bring up larger versions in a gallery setting ...

Is it a Potato Beetle? Or is that a falsehood?

This beetle showed up as I was shooting mites on concrete at the Bridgewater Train Station. I got a bunch of great photos of him/her. But, upon returning home, I wanted to make sure I knew what it was. I thought "Potato Beetle" but found out that this area also has False Potato Beetles! The way to tell the difference is something about white showing under its wings when it flies. I didn't see it flying, just checking out the concrete for mites or something. So, I don't really know. 

Posing for the camera

The A Team - Azaleas and Allium

It's a good thing I took this photo last Sunday when I went for my walk. Yesterday the azaleas were brown and the allium had passed and was drooping. Berckman Street, Plainfield.

Friends-ly flowers

A row of irises grow in front of the Friends (Quakers) Meetinghouse on Watchung Avenue in Plainfield.

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Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - May 14, 2017

Happy Mothers Day!

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.

My best wishes for a happy Mothers Day to all the mothers out there reading this! 

I didn't really take a ton of photos this past week. It was the week of my vascular surgeon procedure for my severe varicose veins on my right leg. The procedure (Varithena foam injection into the veins to collapse them) seems to have gone fine. But, right now I'm wrapped up tightly with foam cylinders under tight pressure bandaging under a thigh high compression stocking. I have no clue what the leg looks like under all of this. The back of my knee is severely itchy with no relief.  Due to my rather chunky (okay, fat) thighs, the top rubbery part of the stocking wants to roll up and cut into me.  I can't sleep well, not at all.

I have to keep the whole thing on until late this afternoon -- 48 hours from the procedure. Then I get to remove the bandages. But I'm supposed to wear this thigh-high stocking for two weeks, night and day. I'm not sure how that's going to work out.

I go to the hospital to have a Doppler ultrasound test on Thursday to make sure the procedure didn't create any blood clots and that it worked properly to close down the problem vein(s). 

I'm not in actual pain, per se. Just a heck of a lot of discomfort. Oh, well ... onto the photos. Clicking on an image will bring up a larger image.

Colorful lawn

Berckman Street in Plainfield

The deadly pollen shark

We need a bigger box of tissues. As seen looking for victims on East Front Street in Plainfield.

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Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - May 7, 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.

Another week in the life down. We've gone into a chilly time weather-wise as well as plenty of rain. One day (Thursday) we had nearly three inches of rain! I know that come August we'll be praying for rain. But, sheesh. Enough already. The saying is APRIL showers, not MAY downpours!

I thought it was storming late one night when my apartment building actually shook. I mistook it for thunder. Nope. Just Trump's entourage flying extremely low heading to Bedminster. His golf course is in the next county over, not all that far from my workplace. I know he'll never show up in Plainfield!

Last night when I got home from work, I noticed the yellow caution tapes were lining Watchung Avenue in anticipation of today's New Jersey State Bicycle Championship Race today in downtown Plainfield. If I felt better, I'd go take some photos of the action. This is the second year in a row that we've had the privilege of hosting the race. (And the second year I've missed it.) The weather is a bit chilly and skies are overcast but not really expecting rain. I'd say it's probably perfect weather for it. 

Some of the hall kids have already started again -- not really the ones from the overcrowded apartment in my hallway. I've got some names now -- Brian and Kevin from the third floor, Nigel from the first floor -- and will be calling the landlord's office tomorrow. Last night they were running back and forth (and back and forth) for almost two hours in the third floor hallway. You can hear that all the way down on the first floor when they run back and forth (and back and forth). Plus, when I came home from work one day I caught the three of them with a POGO STICK on the first floor! A pogo stick! That is SO not an indoor toy! I sent them outside with that. I notice that whatever parent(s) had to pay for the broken security glass in the back first floor door to the staircase must have paid for it. There's new glass.

I have just a three day work week ahead of me (yay!). It's not all fun and games, though. On Friday I have to go to the vascular surgeon for the first phase of healing my out of control varicose veins. I don't care about pretty. My legs are too scarred up from knee replacements and more to be "pretty." I just want to feel better! It's more of a treatment than a surgery, per se. I'll be getting Varithena foam shot into my great saphenous vein on my lower right leg. It will fill the vein, then collapse it. It sounds a lot easier to deal with than the old-fashioned vein stripping remedy! I'll be bandaged and wearing a thigh-high compression stocking for 48 hours afterward. I don't know if I'll be able to bend the leg much, but I guess I'll find out. I do have a three day weekend next weekend. So, if I feel okay, I might do something other than nap it away.

Onto this week's photos ... clicking on an image will open it in a larger format. 

I said DON'T ruffle my feathers!

See! See! This is what happens! A starling at the Plainfield Train Station.

The prettiest time of the year

Okay ... autumn is very pretty with its brilliant foliage. Winter is pretty when the world is white and quiet. Summer, not so much as things around here tend to dry out and lawns turn brown, especially in the late summer. But spring is a renewal -- flowers are blossoming and the array of greens is amazing to behold. Yes, it wreaks havoc with my sinuses, but I still love the spring sneezes aside.

Uniquely marked pigeon in Plainfield

All pigeons do not look alike! This pigeon hangs out on North Avenue in the vicinity of the Plainfield Train Station.

Coral-colored azaleas

As seen on Berckman Street in Plainfield

Here I am, but the action is behind me!

As I waited for my train home in Bridgewater last night, a baseball game was in full swing at the adjacent TD Bank Ball Park (home of the Somerset Patriots minor league baseball). Although sunset hadn't hit yet, all of the stadium lights were lit and ready for the dark. I saw a big hawk fly over me and didn't get my camera out in time to catch him in flight. But I saw where he landed -- right on one of the stadium lights stanchions! You'd think he'd be looking for prey and would shun the cheers, music and other noise at the ball park. Nope. He eventually went to the top of the lights and appeared to be watching the game in progress. Now, the crowds there for games usually measure in the thousands and, unless he plans to grab the ball, I can't see why a Red Tailed Hawk would watch the game. He is probably trying to figure out humans, I guess. (More on the hawk after the jump!)

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Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - April 30, 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.

Yup, yup ... it was certainly a week. 

The landlord/management company has indeed REALLY cracked down on the children running amok in the hallways. It's been so peaceful that I had forgotten what real peace outside my apartment door was like. Another long-term tenant shared that she was told that parents of one of the kids are being made to pay for the security glass in the broken door down on the first floor. Good!

But they're still not being good parents. (I should note that some parents here are good parents -- it wasn't their children creating the chaos.) Now the same bunch of kids who were unchaperoned in the hallways and staircases are now hanging out unchaperoned in the parking lot -- outside my windows for the most part. It turns out that my neighbor downstairs is one with one of the ringleaders of the Kid Crew. Last night they were out there past 10pm. That's dangerous! The oldest kids in the crew are about ten or eleven! It's a PARKING LOT. People drive fast through there sometimes! No parent is out there with them. The youngest kids are about four or five years old! Have these people no parenting skills? Do they not care about their kids as long as they're not bothering them in their apartments? Have they no common sense? I decided if they were still out in the lot at 11pm I'd call the police to have them round them up. It's dangerous for unsupervised children to be out there that late at night. It's child neglect if nothing else.

But it's not as loud when they're out there as when they're in the hallways.

I can sympathize that rents are high and many probably cannot afford larger apartments. I know that's why people are cramming kids into one-bedroom and studio units. I don't really have the answers other than, if they do that, they can't just let their kids run loose. They need to spend time with them, take them to parks, get them involved in some of the low-cost or free programs offered by the city of Plainfield. They need to be PARENTS. I never lived in apartments as a child. But my parents didn't let us go crazy in the house, had set bedtimes and taught us to be responsible in public.

Oh, well. Nothing much else going on this past week. I'm tired. But I'm always tired these days. I worked and then worked some more. I'm tired of working but don't see money falling from the skies.

In today's photos I'm posting, it's a lot of squirrel pictures. Y'see, once again this year, a squirrel family has a nest up under the eaves of the overpass at the Bridgewater Train Station. Kind of like the apartment kids, the young squirrels were left home alone and decided to have adventures. I took many shots as their antics were so entertaining. I hope the photos entertain you, too.

Clicking on an image will bring it up in a larger version ... 

Starling with nest fodder

Bridgewater Train Station -- the birds and squirrels share nesting spaces under the eaves of the two overpasses.

THE SQUIRREL CHILDREN HOME ALONE

(continued after the jump, don't miss it!)

Yes, Sis ... there's a world out here!

Y'know, I want to explore!

What's up there?

I really want to go up there to see!

I know I can climb up there!

What Mom and Dad don't know won't hurt them! I'm BIG now!

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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!
 

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Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - April 16, 2017

Good evening! I hope everybody had an enjoyable Easter Sunday! My apologies for posting this so late in the day. But that's sometimes how things go! 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.  You can find any posts I make about TAR at this link -- The Amazing Race.

Once again this week, I don't have a whole lot going on. We're finally having spring here ... that's news! Flowers are blooming, people are sneezing. I even saw a ladybug riding the train one day. Unfortunately, I didn't get a good photo of her/him. I also didn't find out if the proper fare was paid for the trip.

Yesterday I witnessed a woman arguing with a man about which corner would be "her corner." Gee, whatever could they be up to on the city streets?

I'm glad that most of the kids around here will be going back to school tomorrow. They've been on spring break. Now, it's is I who could use a spring break! I personally would have no issue with children going to school year-round. I didn't think that way as a child, of course. But these many weeks off and long summer vacations certainly don't prepare kids to adult in the real world.

Onto this week's photos ... clicking on an image will bring up a larger version in a gallery format. 

No, it doesn't

This sign is posted on the lawn of the Friends (Quakers) Meetinghouse on Watchung Avenue.

Fullish Pink Moon

I took this shot Monday night, but the moon wasn't actually full until Tuesday. There was a bit of haze around it, but I was able to get detail. It isn't called the Pink Full Moon because it's supposed to be pink -- it's called that because it's time for flowers to bloom. (And they're starting!)

Everybody loves a pansy

Queen City Pride billboard

This billboard is at the Watchung Avenue underpass adjacent to the Plainfield Train Station. I don't work in town, but I certainly do live here. I enjoy seeing all of the revitalization going on. 

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Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - April 9, 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.  You can find any posts I make about TAR at this link -- The Amazing Race.

We had another week of cold and flooding rains. (Yet the drought advisory hasn't been taken down.) Yesterday we actually saw the sun! However, the temperatures were chilly and the wind chill almost required a winter coat. Today is supposed to be leading off a warmer temperature trend. Supposedly, Tuesday's highs might be in the 80s. Now, I don't really want that. I just want low 70s -- I want SPRING, not summer or winter! Sheesh.

My week has been a bit of the doldrums. It seems like I've worked and came home, rinse, repeat. That said, I think I'll just move on to the photos I took this past week -- clicking on an image will open a larger version in a gallery format.

A rainbow over Plainfield

After a horribly cold and stormy day, the sun came out on Thursday creating a beautiful rainbow over the city of Plainfield. I took this shot from inside a car driving on West Front Street headed into town with sun at our backs. No, I wasn't driving.

Whazzat?

It's a hawk

I'm not sure what kind of hawk as it has its feather spread out on its tail. It had been rainy -- he (she?) was probably drying them that way. Red-Tailed Hawks are the most common around here. But, if it has its red tail, it's hiding it under those spread feathers. 

When I got off the train in Bridgewater one day, I spotted a large bird atop the stadium lights at the TD Bank Ball Park in Bridgewater. I was hoping it was a small eagle. They are around but tend to stay closer to the Raritan River.

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Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - March 26, 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.  Remember-- The Amazing Race season premiere will be THIS Thursday, March 30th! I will be live-blogging the show and there will be blog parties!

Let's see ... what's new this week?

Well, the weather still isn't new -- we're still having winter temperatures for the most part although (thankfully) we've had no more snow. Yesterday was the first day with temperatures above the 40s. Today we're back to high in the 40s. March is often like this. But that doesn't mean I have to like it!

On the apartment front: I think Joe, my neighbor across the hall for fifteen years or so, is moving out. I stopped some kids I saw lugging things out during the week. I've never seen kids visiting him. Joe is one who will come out and yell at kids playing in the corridors! Since these were very young black kids I didn't know and they were taking stuff to the dumpsters, I just asked them if Joe was okay. He's in ill health and I thought he may have passed and relatives were clearing out his place. The oldest boy, about 12 years-old, told me Joe was fine, they're his great-nephews and they were just helping him by bringing stuff to the dumpster. Okay, sounds good. Until today ... when I took a bag of trash to the dumpsters. Uh-oh. I recognize furniture out there and the dumpsters (with the exception of one with closed lids and the recycle one) were over-fllled. That's JOE'S furniture! Yeah, he's alive, I guess. But he's moving, perhaps to an assisted living place, I would think. I wonder what the new neighbor will be like. Sigh. Joe and I always got along well. He has even offered to loan me his car if I ever needed it for something.

In other apartment news, the idiot ... um, guy with the loud thumping stereo upstairs has been quiet all week. Good.

In workplace news, a two-year nightmare has ended. It's like a weight off my shoulders, fresh air ... but I still want to retire as soon as I can. In health news, I really have no new news. I haven't been on my feet as much during the workdays and my leg issues feel a lot better. But I still have to have that vascular surgery done.

Onto the photos from the week. It's a bit gull heavy. We've had bitter cold temperatures and strong winds most of the week. So, I only took photos at certain times and some days I didn't want to kill off the camera's batteries with the cold. Clicking on an image will open it in a larger gallery window.

NJ Transit Plainfield Train Station

The main building off of East 4th Street is (of course) on the Newark/NYC bound Track Two side of the station. With NJ Transit, anything train or bus has better shelter on the side that heads in that direction. They're under the false assumption that people wait only on that side and just head home without having to wait on the other side.

Things are looking up?

Well, at least this ring-billed gull is looking up! Corner of Gavett Place and North Avenue.

Hmm ... another one

Perhaps they're waiting for the Rapture? I don't know.

Oh noes!

Snowstorm white and yellow daffodil victims in Plainfield. How sad is this?!?!

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Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - March 19, 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. A word of warning -- The Amazing Race season premiere will be Thursday, March 30th!

Around here the biggest news of the past week is the snowstorm (or blizzard) that hit us Monday night through into late Tuesday afternoon. Because Plainfield had a couple of inches of sleet in the middle of the storm, our snow totals were only about a foot. Many areas along the shore had rain and ended up with very little, if any, snow. Further north, it remained all snow and some totals were more than twenty inches.

Unfortunately, unlike many storms this late in the season, the temperatures didn't warm up and help rid us of the snow. Instead, we had days hovering right around the freezing point and bitterly cold nights. Looking at the forecast, we're going to be stuck with this for a while. Meanwhile, the warm temperatures last month brought out buds on trees, daffodils and some tulip activity. Not anymore! 

I went for the follow-up on my tests on my legs this week. The surgeon wants to do both about two weeks apart. The worst one, he wants to treat with injecting a foam which will close down the great saphenous vein and its affected branches. The other leg, he wants to do with more traditional laser treatment. He claims that other veins in the leg will take over for circulation. In researching about it, I found that the great saphenous vein is the one used when someone has a heart bypass. I better not ever need one of those down the line! Now it's just a waiting game for insurance approval and scheduling. It probably won't be happening until May.

In apartment living news, I ended up calling the police on my upstairs neighbor's blasting music late last night. I thought those days were over when he moved his speakers up off the floor. But, then came last night. He turned on his stereo at about 9pm, extremely loud and thumping. At 11pm, I went upstairs in the elevator just to see how loud it was from there. Sure enough, it was blasting through the whole hallway and was very loud from the elevator door. I don't want to confront him. I went back downstairs and, at nearly midnight, I called the police. Since the Plainfield Police changed over to an encrypted radio system, I can't hear them on the scanner anymore. But I did hear them pounding on his door about 15 minutes after I called. The stereo went right down. He continued to play the lowered stereo for about two hours more. I could hear it, but it wasn't all that loud. The damage was done, though. I ended up not sleeping most of the night.

As I'm typing this now, he has turned it on loud again. I'll give him a half-hour until I call the police again. Obviously he has no consideration for others.

Onto the photos -- clicking on an image will open it in a larger gallery version.   

Tomorrow is SPRING!

So this can all go away. Now. Tonight, overnight. Vamoose! Be gone, damn snow! Corner of Watchung and North in Plainfield.

Me and my shadow

It's not me, though. He and his shadow? The low angle of the winter morning sun caught this just right and I had to shoot the guy. (With my camera.) East Front Street, Plainfield.

Have a seat!

Most of the city street benches are buried in (now very dirty) snow. You need to take a bus? Chances are you'll have to stand in the street or take the risk of climbing over a huge snowbank. Back in the day, the climb wouldn't be an issue. Nowadays, I'm fearful I'll fall under the bus! Looking towards the Park Madison building from East Front Street in Plainfield.

Monday tree buds

Despite a few days of bitter cold arctic temperatures, I saw these buds growing on a tree at the Bridgewater Train Station on Monday before the storm hit. 

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