This week as has been a bit blah for me -- I've had a stomach bug accompanied by a headache on and off since Tuesday. No, it's not Ebola! I actually think the headache is more sinuses than anything else. But I've generally felt icky. A lot of people around here are sick. They must have breathed on me. Ew!
I still haven't met the latest new upstairs neighbor living overhead my apartment. I think it's a he rather than a she. I also think it's a he with weekend custody of a child. While it's nowhere near as annoying as when a toddler lived up there full time, I hear child running on the weekends. Not horrible, mind you. Unlike the toddler who was all over the place all the time on hardwood floors in shoes walking/running on his heels, this is just now and then and a quieter running. Shoes seem to be off and it's not rattling my walls or windows, plus it ends by 8 or 9pm. I can deal with that. But I do notice it starts on every Friday night, ends on Sunday night. Thus, my deduction of weekend father.
I'm going to reprint something I posted on Facebook earlier this week called Monday's Tales of New Jersey. If you saw it there, head onto the photos. If you're not on Facebook, go for reading it:
1. This morning while walking to the train station, I saw either a 113S or 114 NJ Transit bus go by. Instead of the lighted bus number, this message was flashing: "Emergency! Call Police!" The interior was lighted and there were only a few passengers. I didn't see an emergency, but I went ahead and called. At least if the cops stop the bus, they'll turn that message off!
2. Then, coming home, I decided to wait for the NJ Transit 59 bus nearby the train station (my train pass gets me on the bus for free and it saves me a long walk). As I waited with a bunch of folks, a young man with a Jamaican accent came along. He started pacing back and forth shouting, "Jesus is coming! I will pray for you! Jesus is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow! Jesus is coming!" He kept it up for the ten minutes or so until the bus came. The odd thing is that as he paced he kicked one foot out kind of like the Elaine dance on Seinfeld. At one point, I mentioned to the other folks waiting that perhaps we should ask him when the 59 bus was coming since he obviously knows when Jesus is coming! They all laughed. He thought we were laughing at him, glowered a minute, then started his Elaine Kick Jesus Shouting once again.
The darkest hour is before the dawn |
My early morning walk to the train station is in the darkest of night these days. It won't be until November that the time will change. One morning a huge dude passed me and told me to be careful. He didn't see me roll my eyes. Although dark, it's a very safe time of day. There are working folks out and about at that hour although this photo doesn't show that. It's always the same people. The denizens of the night are long gone, too. It's much more safe than a few hours earlier or probably even the evening hours. East Front Street, Plainfield.
Autumn is here! |
Most of the trees are still green right now, but we have some pretty colors working their way in. Our peak foliage in this area isn't usually until late October. Where I grew up, the trees were barren of leaves before Halloween. Not so much here ... we still (usually) have some nice color going on around then. I took this shot near the Bridgewater Train Station.
Instead of just flowers, this week's slideshow is Flowers and Foliage. There are also some berries -- nightshade and Kousa Dogwood berries from the Plainfield Train Station (see, Bernice ... I remembered!). The sunflowers were growing on East Second Street in Plainfield; the mums are from both Plainfield and Bridgewater as is the foliage. The "veiny" foliage shots are poison ivy leaves in Bridgewater. Although my apartment building has little or no yard (paved parking lot) -- the pink morning glories, late season honeysuckle and the nightshade have taken over the back chain link fence.
**CLICK THE 'READ MORE' LINK TO SEE THE REST OF THE PHOTOS**