Saturday, June 19, 2010

Newington Center....And Beyond (1)

I thought I would call this latest batch of photos (taken about the same time as Twinkletoes Ted, since I had a special two-fer disposable cameras) "Newington Center....And Beyond" simply because part of the roll involved Newington center and part of the roll involved elsewhere in the town and neighboring communities.



Up first is where I started getting silly again. This time it was my easter bunny doing a handstand in an empty plastic bucket. To the right was a dish of jelly beans that probably was full a few hours prior to me taking this picture. Our unit has a thing for candy: jelly beans, tootsie rolls, lollys, you name it, if it has sugar, it got consumed. I don't remember what's in the open box in the front but it was probably some kind of sugary snack as well. Ain't nothing worse than a hyped up payroll unit.

This was another shot of my Easter bunny, this time he was relaxing on a co-worker's chair. Not sure what I was thinking about when I originally took this shot, but as you can see, I wasn't thinking of much.


Lunch time! Yes boys and girls, believe it or not, this is a typical work day lunch for me. Not very pretty is it. Let me describe to you what my lunch is for today. First up is two, count 'em 1-2, pickle spears. Next, the main entree: a SPAM single slice, lovingly nuked for 45 seconds in the microwave. A 50 cent bag of nacho cheese flavor Doritos. Lipton Chicken Noodle cup-a-soup. A bottle of unsweetened ice tea and for dessert, a granny smith apple. The joy of being a diabetic means that I usually eat the same type of food Monday thru Friday. The joy of being a member of the working class poor means that the total cost of this lunch was about three dollars. And in the background on the wall is my Pooh calendar; a flower drawn by my daughter and a cutout drawing, also by my daughter, along with the various piles of schtuff that makes up my work day.


I was standing in the parking lot of my local gas station one Sunday afternoon. I usually play my numbers at this place because my usual place (the package store) is closed on Sundays. Anyways, this is looking across the street. And yes, this part of town is usually like this on a Sunday. The main building that you see is a closed and abandoned Mobil mart. Been like that for three years or so, but the space just beyond is a relatively new kind of empty. There used to be a small group of buildings that housed an antique store, a martial arts studio and a HVAC repair company. Now, the businesses are gone, the buildings razed and no idea if anything will ever go in there. The bridge that you see crosses the Hartford, New Haven & New York rail line.



On the weekends when I need to take a break from writing or blogging, I will frequently go to my local mall to stretch my legs, window shop, and people watch (and yes, I watch the kind of people that become characters and plot ideas for my stories). This shot is looking across the parking lot on a typical weekend. The building that you see in the background is a parking garage that they built when they added a Nordstroms to the mix. Westfarms mall contains quite a few high end speciality stores (In addition to Nordstroms, Lord & Taylor's, Tiffany, and Luis Vuitton are also there, to name a few) and the owners of the mall were involved in nasty and protracted legal battle with the town of West Hartford over their plans to open a downtown shopping area called Blue Black Square.

11 comments:

  1. LOLOL.........lolol.....OK, that has to be the strangest group of photos I've seen in a long time.
    BUT, now, wait, I'm not insulting you.........I just sat here giggling while reading the prose that went with the pictures.
    And, btw, the lunch is disgusting.
    I'm suprised between the sugar highs and that lunch!!!!! You should be spinning in that chair...lolol sorry, G.....now, I've got an urge for jellybeans. :)Bea

    ReplyDelete
  2. I had to go back and check, SPAM?
    I didn't think anybody really ate that anymore. God.......my mother, the worst cook on the planet, used to fry it up, every Tuesday night.
    Spam night. uggggggghhhhhhh :)Bea

    ReplyDelete
  3. My prose can and will get a whole lot worse the further along I get with this particular blog, for I have a fountain of minutia crammed into this head of mine.

    Yup, SPAM.

    I did about a month straight with SPAM for lunch. I do a lot of my shopping at Big Lots, so I can find wierd stuff for lunch super cheap.

    I'm now doing chicken salad on crackers (made by Bumble Bee).

    Trust me, I don't eat any of the candy or junk food that comes into our unit. Everyone else does.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I like to see your lighthearted side, G. :) SPAM - I have a vague memory of that from mom serving it up occasionally in a sandwich.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks. I do enjoy getting goofy from time to time.

    I look at SPAM this way: it fills a necessary need at lunch or dinner. Not really nutrious (unless you get SPAM Lite) but it does what needs to do.

    I also like SPAM with bacon too (yeah, Monty Python).

    ReplyDelete
  6. My favorites are Claussens. Problem is, they're so damn expensive (about $4) that I rarely buy them anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  7. lol! Like Bea, I had to go back and do a double (make that a triple check) because I was just talking about Spam the other day and wondering if anyone ever actually ate it. Now my query out to the universe has been answered. :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yeah, I love SPAM (almost like Monty Python's SPAM sketch).

    I go through cycles though. Last time, I spent about a solid month having SPAM for lunch.

    ReplyDelete
  9. At work I'm not allowed to eat or drink on the production floor, n folks constantly torture me by walking by with drinks n eating stuff we're making (They break the rules). I can't - Not only too sugary for my teeth, The conveyor I have to look at makes me queasy-

    Aren't the jelly beans a torture for you?

    The past 2 nights I had to work over 7 hours before I got a break- you'd have fallen into a coma!

    I remember the taste of spam, But like my dad's idea of fried baloney more!
    I believe the savory flavor we crave is actually the "Sodium Nitrate" as is in bacon n hot dogs. (Not good in large quantities for Lab rats, btw)

    ReplyDelete
  10. I like fried baloney as well. I remember having that as a kid and I still have it as an adult from time to time.

    It's funny, but after being a diabetic for 25 years, I really don't miss candy that much.

    And sugar free candy really does suck.

    ReplyDelete

Nouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives of all types are greatly encouraged and always appreciated.