Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - February 14, 2016

Happy Valentine's Day! Let's celebrate that massacre! Heehee. It's also Sunday morning, time for my weekly off television topic reflection on the week gone by in both words and photographs I've taken along the way.

Random words and thoughts:

• While the blog pool for The Amazing Race is closed, you have until tomorrow to sign up for the Survivor: Kaoh Rong blog pool at this post. I hope to see you there -- the season premiere is Wednesday night!
• Yay! New episodes of The Walking Dead return tonight! Whoopie!
• For not being about television, this blog entry is so far talking television.
• I need to stop that.
• We need to be proud of ourselves in this area -- we broke a 100-year record for cold temperatures. Yay, us!
• Brrr.
• I went out to grab my Sunday paper from outside the front door of my apartment building. That's it for me going out today.
• Thankfully, my apartment heat is doing well (and included in my rent).
• I don't think I've ever seen the downtown streets in Plainfield as deserted as they were last night when I arrived home from work. Even our city's hardcore homeless seem to have taken cover.
• I was just glad I didn't get frostbitten waiting for train/bus and walking in the bitter brutal evil cold. I did wear layers. But I still have red patches on my upper cheeks under my eyes this morning. Maybe that is a touch of frostbite. I don't know. I'm pretty sure it's not the glow of good health.
• I've had horrible lower back pain since I got up on Thursday morning. I don't know what I did to it. I imagine, since it came on overnight, I might have pulled something in my sleep or something. It needs to go away.

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

Still there

The burned-out two houses from last year's fire on East Second Street remain standing ... sort of. More of the roof has collapsed on this one. If I lived next door -- the home to the left is fine although it still has some melted siding, but people live there -- I'd be demanding it be torn down before it falls down. More parts of the roof have fallen. You can stand in the street and see through the building to East Third Street. I think a good kick could bring it down. The burned building on the right of this isn't AS bad, but also needs to be torn down. They're saved for eternity (or the life of Google maps and the internet) if you do a street view of 642 (or so) East Second Street, Plainfield, NJ. Well, it does make good photo fodder if I'm bored. I'll give it that. But I definitely would be complaining to the city about it if I lived next door to it!

The NJ Transit 59 bus

When the weather is bad and the bus schedule is doable with the train schedule, I take the bus to the train station rather than walk the half-mile or so. Yeah, I'm lazy like that. But this bus is a five minute walk for me -- probably less than that for younger people without knee replacements! And, it's free for me with my monthly train pass.

The projects come down

I took this shot from the train window. After sitting vacated for a long, long time now, Plainfield's Elmwood Gardens west end projects are being demolished. Watching the demolition daily from the train reminds me of when the projects in The Wire came down. While these buildings were a hotbed of drug and gang activity, they also were the homes of families for years. The good people who lived there are probably better off in their new residences away from the concentration of crime. And, unfortunately, the bad are spread all over town. 

Oh, there must be a bad fire somewhere

When I saw (and smelled) this, along with seeing news helicopters all over, I knew something big was burning. This was on Thursday afternoon, a few hours after a warehouse complex in Hillsborough went up in flames. I took this shot at the Bridgewater Train Station which is at least six or seven (or more) miles from the actual fire. It was very windy and bitter cold. (Not as bitter cold as it is right now, mind you.) The fire was basically out by Saturday with just a few hot spots remaining. A few firefighters had minor injuries and, at its height, it went to six alarms.

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

Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - January 31, 2016

Good morning! Welcome to my weekly off television topic reflection on the week gone by in both words and photographs I've taken along the way. If you're a television fan, keep tuned for my Survivor cast posts starting later today! Yes, I'll be posting television once again! Woohoo!

As you might recall, we had a bit of a snowstorm last week. With the temperatures going above freezing and lots of sunshine, we've lost a lot of the snow cover. Instead of the nearly thirty inches of snow we had, we're probably down to a foot. Naturally, there are still huge snow drifts and piles. And, in the mornings after the temperatures go below freezing overnight, we have plenty of slippery spots and black ice. However, it's been an easier recovery from a nearly record-breaking storm than we could have expected. Yay, us.

That said, it's enough snow for the winter. We don't need any more. Thank you.

Random stuff and junk:

• They've announced that they will rebuild Trader Joe's at its Westfield location. Good. I like that location -- it's very convenient for me either by two bus lines or train. They say the building, roof collapsed in the snow and walls buckling, will have to be torn down. Despite the folks fussing about the parking lot (or lack thereof), the Westfield location comes with a liquor license and they're hard to get. I think the liquor license, as well as how busy the location is, will keep it there. It's just a matter of waiting for the tear down and rebuild.
• Wah.
• A friend said to me that I'll have to go to Whole Foods now. No, I won't. I went to Trader Joe's because it's TRADER JOE'S. I have no desire to go to Whole Foods. I use Peapod grocery delivery for my normal groceries, plus there's a Supremo Supermarket a few blocks down the street. You don't go to Trader Joe's for regular groceries. You go because it's Trader Joe's and it has all kinds of cool stuff!
• I'm on staycation this week. Yay.
• The temperatures are supposed to peak up near sixty midweek! Super yay!
• I plan on binge watching The Walking Dead episodes I recorded during its marathon a few weeks back. That will be returning on Valentine's Day. What a romantic thought!
• Money is a bit tight at the moment, so I don't really have any plans for trips. I'll probably get an early start at spring cleaning right here at home. I have books and other diversions. I might go over to Westfield to check out the ruined Trader Joe's or the park. Maybe I'll finally pull the hard drives on my old computers and retrieve some of my lost (but not really lost) photos, music and writing from them.

That's it for now. It's onto the photos! Clicking on an image will bring up a larger version in a gallery.

No Parking when road is snow covered

You don't say. Why do we even bother having the signs on East Front Street in Plainfield? Every big snowstorm, some cars become snowbirds sitting there until the snowcap melts. Others are dug out but leave little private snow alcoves in which to park. Plows have to leave a bit of clearance so they don't hit the parked cars. The cars and snow extend further into the street than a normal parked cars in the summertime. Thus, with a storm of this magnitude, the street itself gets down to a tricky one-way plus rather than a free and easy two-way. And, it's a major drag in town. During the beginning of the week, traffic ended up just sitting there a lot. Even now as I write this up, if two large vehicles try to pass in opposite directions, one ends up pulling over as much as it can so the other can pass by.

Smiling no matter what

This guy is a regular on my morning trains. He's always smiling and pleasant. While a language barrier between us makes any extended conversations futile, I always get an enthusiastic greeting from him and it makes my day start off on a good note. Once I found a five-dollar bill on the bench near where he had been sitting. When I asked him if he may have lost it, he misunderstood and opened his wallet to give me money! Of course, I didn't take it. And, I ended up keeping the fiver for myself. He's a good guy indeed. By the way, despite the snow, it wasn't all that cold out when I took this shot. He's not woefully underdressed for the weather. He has on layers. Someone in Florida or Southern California might call it cold, but it wasn't bad at all for here in January.

The aftermath

Although a plow had traveled down the street, due to parked cars things were down to one snowy lane as some people started to dig their cars out. Of course, they didn't want to MOVE their cars. They didn't want anyone else to steal the space they cleared! Some people just left their cars there for nature (or the city) to do its work.

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