Tag Archive | New Jersey

one day away…

Nov5

One of the weird things about Sandy is that it has pushed thoughts about Tuesday’s election pretty far out of my head. From what I gather, people in NJ are feeling much the same between being preoccupied with what storm related stuff is still going on for them and maybe because we were a little sick of hearing about the election already.

Despite our republican governor (who, I will say, I was never a fan of but who gained my respect in his response to the storm) NJ has leaned democratic in presidential elections since as long as I can remember, so our electoral votes tend to be seen as a foregone conclusion (and we’re spared the campaign ads the swing states seem to be getting). So, if you’re a democrat, you might say “I’m not gonna bother voting because Obama is going to win and doesn’t need my vote” and if you’re a republican you might say, “I’m not gonna bother voting for Romney, because no way Jersey’s going republican.”

Now, I stay away from politics in my blog…well honestly, because it’s not the first topic I generally want to talk about with most people. I also tend to think that most everyone sees their side as the right side and the other as the wrong one…so it’s not like I’m going to convince anyone to feel the way I feel about things. But, I will add the obvious: no matter how you feel or what conclusion you might have about how a vote is going to go, it’s still important to vote.

My understanding is that steps are being taken to ensure that New Jersey can vote on Tuesday. Alternate polling places and ballots will be available. I’m fairly certain my voting place is okay…another thing to be thankful for, so I’ll be heading there Tuesday to vote.

Whatever the outcome is, I’m just hoping we’ll know what it is pretty quickly. I’ll never forget voting in the 2000 election before going to visit a friend in Prague. My Czech was never that strong, so every morning, I’d ask my friend if she knew who our president was yet. And of course, I was well back in the states before we found out.

After Sandy, we’re coming to the realization that certain places will never be the same again. My mother said something to me about how “Jersey Shore” will now serve as a historical marker of life in Seaside Heights. Things just feel uncertain and unsettled. And news is that a freaking nor’easter might be coming later this week…

So, let’s hope the election runs smoothly and that the results don’t take weeks (or even days). 

what Sandy left behind

Nov3

New Jersey is definitely still suffering from the aftermath of Sandy. The worst mr. strivingcynic and I got was losing power for 16 hours, from 6:30 Monday night to 10:15 Tuesday morning. Listening to the hurricane winds in total darkness was pretty scary. [Strivingcynic cat was fine during the whole thing. I thought he'd at least cry or want to sleep with us, but he seemed totally unaffected...].

Following the power loss, we had to throw away food in our fridge and freezer. We were pretty stocked up, so it wasn’t great, but at least everything we lost could be replaced. Sometimes in my family we’ll say “it’s only money” meaning that at least a problem can be fixed with money to make it all right again. There are lots of things you could lose that can’t be replaced for any amount, so spending money might be a pain, but at least that’s all it cost us (not to be flip…it hurts to have to spend it.)

It doesn’t take much to see how much worse we could have had it. People’s homes are destroyed, a lot of people we know are still waiting for power (some of whom had it come on only to go off again). Roads are closed or there are scary telephone poles/wires looking like they’re going to topple over. There are gas lines and traffic is a mess although both seem to be easing a bit as days have passed. Businesses are suffering without power (or limited access…we went to a close restaurant last night that was hard to get to because part of the road to access it was closed). The Jersey Shore is unbelievable…one photo of the Seaside Heights roller coaster in the ocean just brings shock.

I was really touched because a number of people got in touch with me because they were worried about how I was in the storm…people who lived in Texas and upstate New York, who saw the news stories and thought of me.

The day after the storm, mr. sc and I walked around our development. For some reason, where we live all the wires are underground even though the rest of the town has the pole/wire configuration…so at least it was safe to walk. Here is some of what we saw.

sidewalk strewn with leaves and little branches

the stop sign is bent, and some of the siding on the house on the right is missing

roof shingles are all over the place

one of many uprooted/downed trees

the fence around our recycle bins is missing several sections

the sign for our development was knocked over

another downed tree…way too close to a house

Actually, the branches at the back are probably blocking the door to that house, but at least there’s a back door…

Walking around further showed us more downed trees and lines of traffic and detours and cones (we live near a major intersection). Trips that normally take me 3 minutes have taken me 20…but at least I can get to where I need to go.

Jersey strong

Oct28

So…if you live in Jersey or on the eastern seaboard, it’s been an interesting couple of days where the weather is concerned. I remember….I think it was last Saturday (so long ago..) that I was on the treadmill at the gym…watching the newscasters talk about Hurricane Sandy and how yeah, we might feel a few effects, but hey, no biggie.

And then….biggie. The “no big whoop” storm has morphed into an unprecendented monster “Frankenstorm” and now, it’s coming for us. The weather maps show that the storm is going to take a nice left turn into Jersey (tonight/tomorrow…I still can’t quite get a handle on it) where it’s going to hang out for a while.

So, as I write this on Sunday morning…waiting for it all to begin, here are a few of my thoughts.

1. I am sort of hoping for one of those deals where everything builds up…then cut to the weather channel people looking sheepish as they detail how the storm missed us entirely as it headed out to the Atlantic. Barring that…I hope everyone stays safe and gets through this storm with minor difficulties at best.

2. I don’t always agree with Governor Christie, but I do like him when he’s telling people not to be stupid and to get the hell off the beaches, roads, out of the casinos, etc.

3. We were watching someone reporting from Point Pleasant on the Weather Channel last night. Of course there was a crowd of people behind him. I felt several moments of Jersey pride as several people took the opportunity to skip or dance across the screen behind the weather guy and in front of the crowd. Even better, one or two of them were zombies, probably because Halloween is coming up, but in Jersey, you never know.

4. Two years ago I had to evacuate from the Outer Banks in North Carolina thanks to Hurricane Earl. Last year, I got stranded in Chicago thanks to Hurricane Irene (my heart goes out to everyone whose flights today were probably canceled). I was actually in Virginia for a few days and got home yesterday…(95 was wonderfully clear…). I’m trying to determine the relationship between my travel and these storms.

5. The weather porn. I get so annoyed at how worked up the weather forecasters make me feel…but I can’t look away.

6. It’s weird to be sitting around in the calm, contemplating the storm to come and the many things it might bring. We’ve been told to expect power losses (like have cash in case the ATMs go down kind of losses); to get water and have plans to stay warm (if we lose power) or a place to go (I follow the humane society on twitter and really appreciate how they tell people where they can take their pets..).

7. I have a tendency to get panicky about stuff like this. It helps nothing. When I was in Virginia contemplating coming home yesterday, I could feel the panic rising. When I actually looked at a forecast and saw that I’d be fine weatherwise and told myself that I could always head inland to find another route (I was afraid 95 would be crawling), I calmed down. On one hand, I don’t want to be so calm that I minimize danger…but I don’t want to be a hazard to myself or others because I’m panicking.

8. As panicky/nervous as it all makes me, I feel for the people who live by the shore and where it tends to flood. Not to mention the people in West Virginia who might get walloped with a snow storm.

9. During my drive to Virginia (and back) I saw some really spectacular leaves on the trees. I’m thinking that they won’t be around much longer as the wind takes care of them. I’m glad I got a chance to appreciate them.

10. Once again…everyone affected by this storm, stay safe!

enhanced fall

Oct25

The other day, mr. strivingcynic and I went for a walk in a nearby park called Sourland Mountain Preserve (love that name…). Even though it’s only 15-20 minutes away, I’d never been there before.

I enjoyed getting out with my camera and taking some photos of the fall scenery. When I was looking at them on my computer, I thought I should (finally) explore doing some photo enhancements. My computer came with Photoshop and I almost never use it. So, I decided to play around a little with “smart fix” and a few effects. Aside from cropping, I brightened or darkened a few photos…and so I give you a sampling of “enhanced fall.”

As you can see, I didn’t do anything too drastic, and it’s interesting to see the differences in before and after.

Here’s the last picture as it came off my camera.

This one didn’t get cropped (mr. sc advised me that it didn’t need it), but you can see the colors in the enhanced one are…enhanced. And it’s a little sharper.

I have to say, I don’t see myself becoming a Photoshop expert, but it is interesting to see how the photo can change with effects. I’m trying to decide whether it’s a shame that I want to change what I saw…and I imagine I would feel compelled to announce when I played with an effect, but not if I just cropped a photo.

At any rate, it definitely felt good to be out and about with a camera in hand.

Do you use photo editing software? What sort of changes do you make to photos you take?

grounds for taking pictures

Jul21

Last week, I went to Grounds for Sculpture, a sculpture garden/art gallery in Hamilton. A lot of the sculptures are these “French painting inspired figures.

Like this:

a nice scene to come across

There are other sculptures of animals and people:

what kind of animals, I don’t know….

And then there are the more “abstract” sculptures:

okay…..it’s a…

I will definitely show off more next weekend.

Meantime, I hope you enjoy this weekend!

a few more seaside sights

Apr21

More photos from last week’s journey to Cape May.

beach view

hey, my blog identity has a restaurant...(okay, different spelling...)

houses

(visible part of) concrete ship in water off Sunset Beach

Sunset Beach

Cape May lighthouse

I did not go up. We got there right before closing (although I don’t know that I would have gone up, anyway).

birds on the water

on the Wildwood boardwalk

a view of the fried oreos stand--Wildwood

my kind of ride--the teacups (Wildwood)

birds on rocks by the sea (photo by mr. strivingcynic)

calling any of these places "home" would be okay with me...

one more look at the sea

Have a great weekend!

by the sea

Apr16

I was able to get away for a few days. I went about as far “down the shore” as you can in New Jersey.

a pretty view

I was down in Cape May. Hopefully, beyond the parking lot, you can see the ocean.

If not,

for your beach/ocean viewing pleasure

not bad, right? I was pretty jealous of the year-round residents.

Cape May street

Cape May is also known for its Victorian houses. They’re rather spectacular.

I’ll have more photos to show for my weekend photo post, but I wanted to give a little taste of what I was up to…

Speaking of taste….

gotta get ice cream!

Mr. strivingcynic and I managed to head over to the boardwalk in Wildwood for some Kohr Bros. frozen custard (basically like soft serve ice cream..). I had the chocolate vanilla twist cone, he had the orange vanilla twist cup. The flavors of the Jersey shore!

pretty flowers post

Apr14

In last week’s post about walking in the park, I stuck to my “shadow” pictures. But I also couldn’t resist taking pictures of the pretty flowers I saw.

Admittedly, some of these could be shadow pictures…but I decided I wanted to show off the non-floral photos last weekend!

This is Bucchleuch Mansion (makes sense, since it’s Bucchleuch park… [and by the way, I hear it pronounced something like Buckalew...])

I just love how many colors I saw on one walk. It’s so pleasant to be out and about in the spring because (as you can tell), my eye gets drawn to so many different things!

Have a great weekend!

smitten by shadows

Apr7

Last week, I once again went out and about with my trusty camera and ended up in Bucchleuch Park, in New Brunswick. Then I moved out a bit towards the Rutgers University campus. I started taking pictures of flowers and pretty scenes, but as I moved along, I found I was drawn to the interplay of light and shadow around me. After that, I wasn’t quite chasing shadows…but I was stalking them with my camera.

That last one isn’t quite like the others, is it? It’s from the walkway to the library at Rutgers. After concentrating on so many “nature shadows,” I couldn’t help but be struck by how the pillars looked with the same shadow running down each. Although I can see that the shadows get longer the further back you look.

Have a great weekend.