Browse Category: New Jersey

Spell “Marlana” Backwards

(Originally posted on the website Continuum…)

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Ice, ice, baby…

More snow here in New Jersey today. This evening it changed to rain and froze on everything. Some of the schools have already announced that they will be closed, others that they will have delayed openings.

It was a good day to do nothing again. So here’s the nothing I did…

A friend and I walked to the diner with my kids. We had a feast. Buffalo wings, mozzarella sticks, steack sandwiches, fried shrimp, burgers, cheesecake, coffee, Pepsi. And of course, we harrassed the waitresses with our usual Snyder humor and antics. “Marlana? Her name is Marlana? Spell Marlana backwards. A-N-A-L-R-A-M. Anal ram. Hee hee hee.”

The afternoon was spent watching “I Love the 80s” on VH1. Funny! Snausages. Chicken McNuggets. Billy Idol. Gremlins. You get the idea.

This was followed by the second Charlie’s Angels movie. Dang! I’d let anyone of those girls beat me up like they did to plenty of guys in that movie! I’ll give you one try to guess which one of the three Angels I like the most.

Despite the ice, we ordered pizza for dinner. There is a place in our town that makes the best pizza in the world! It’s worth risking your life to drive to pick it up.

So that’s it. More nothing.

Posted at (EST)

So Goes the World

(Originally posted on the website Continuum…)

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It is said that when you see a ring around the moon at night, it is going to snow the next day. What if you see a rainbow around the sun? Does it mean the same thing? Because it is supposed to snow big time here today and tomorrow, possibly 10 to 14 inches in our area by the end of the day tomorrow.

I am not well “treaded” for this storm. The tires on my car are wearing pretty thin. I have no boots since I destroyed them on THIS ADVENTURE back in August. But all I have to do is make it home from work and I will be fine. It can snow all weekend then.

The photo above was taken while driving to work yesterday morning. I set the camera exposure extra low to make more of a contrast between the rainbow and the tree line, as well as to minimize the glare from the sun. The church in the picture is located in Fairmont, which is near Califon and Oldwick.

* * * * *
I was going to run again yesterday, even though I was debating if that would be a good thing right at the beginning of getting started again, especially given the fact that I’ve been averaging about four hours sleep per night lately. It’s at times like these, when I push myself a little too much, that I fear the Brain-Sucking-Monster-Migraine will get me. Still, I wanted to run.

However, even though the girl who sits next to me at work remembered to bring her running gear, even though we talked all morning about running at lunchtime, even though it was warmer than the day before, we didn’t go running. This time she changed her mind at the last minute when someone asked her to go out for Thai food for lunch. She didn’t stop there though! She, along with the Thai lunch instigator, stood at my cube and harangued (cool word, huh?) me about being too hard on myself for wanting to run again. What? I only ran once after loafing for how many months? How hard on myself was that? (Pretty damn hard, actually!) Well, they convinced me to go to lunch. Honestly, they didn’t have to harangue too long and I rationalized it all away and soon found myself behind an abundant plateful of mildly hot Thai food.

I am beginning to wonder about the girl who sits next to me at work though. Not only has she not gone running with me, now she has even resorted to haranguement (cool, but is it really a word?) to persuade ME to NOT run!

I will run today though, come hell or high water! Or snow.

* * * * *
Man, did I crash last night! I think I actually managed to get about seven hours of sleep for a change. I was extremely proud of myself for resisting the temptation to turn the computer on and going to bed instead.

* * * * *
Speaking of crashing…

On the way to work this morning, the driver in front of me stopped suddenly. I jammed on my breaks so hard that I gave myself a wedgie! I suppose it is better to give yourself a wedgie than to BE a wedgie by slamming into somebody else’s rear end.

* * * * *
So goes the world. Or at least my little portion of it.

Posted at 9:45 AM (EST)

Lunar Eclipse

(Originally posted on the website Continuum…)

On November 8, 2003 there was a total lunar eclipse which was visible from most of North America (so I’m told by my NASA sources). I wanted to write about it at the time, but, well…

Yesterday, I received an email from my mom’s friend, Pete. (Hi, Pete!) She must know what astronomy geeks my mom and I are. She happened to mention that she couldn’t see the eclipse from her home in California as we could in New Jersey because it was too cloudy there. So, for Pete’s sake (Sorry, I couldn’t resist that one.), here is a series of photos taken by none other than my mommy. It’s neat to see them all together and see the moon’s progression. Click the pictures to enlarge them.

For further info and pictures of this lunar eclipse, here are a few sites:

November’s Lunar Eclipse – this is the Astronomy Picture of the Day website from NASA (which happens to be what I have my home page on my browser set to. I told you I was an astronomy geek!)

Eclipsed Moon in Infrared – funky.

Photos by David Cortner – taken in North Carolina.

The Ride Home 2

(Originally posted on the website Continuum…)

A few pictures taken on the ride home from work yesterday…

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Another beautiful sunset. This picture was taken while on Route 31 in Hampton.

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This is a photo of Route 31 traffic taken from Cemetery Hill in Washington not too long after sunset.

Posted at 11:15 PM (EST)

The Ride Home

(Originally posted on the website Continuum…)

Here are a few scenes from my ride home after work.

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I like how the rays of the sun appear to be about to “beam up” the car in the middle lane. This was taken on Route 78 near Clinton.

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Of course “packing tape should not be used for painful practical jokes!” DUCT TAPE works much better! This was taken while I was getting gas at a Hess station.

Posted at 9:45 PM (EST)