He’s an OCR Street Minister preaching next to the highway in Flemington.
That’s a bullet proof vest with a weather-proof, action camera attached. His 2-way radio mike is clipped to the right strap of his vest and a recorder mike clipped to the left. The pockets of the vest are filled with gizmos. But I don’t see a Glock. Maybe it’s in his car. Flemington is a dangerous place and you can’t be too careful.
I might not have approached him if he was armed. (I’m not sure how OCR Street Ministers feel about heathens.) He stared me down and reached into his vest to served me a flyer. It says that OCR Street Ministry needs my help to find me.
I’m confused. I was standing right in front of him. Hello? Wouldn’t that make me easy to find? Check the camera footage..
I visited the website on the flyer he gave me, OneWitnessBandcamp.com. It’s an interesting format. Different. It took me a while to figure it out. I thought I was at a music download site. It’s a bunch of listen-to-able lectures. (Everybody loves being lectured.)
It also tells you what OCR stands for.
…
How often do we drive by junk shops (often called antique stores), sometimes for years, without every really looking at them? It’s easy to look past them. They often offer a general mish-mash of items that blend into an amalgamation of stuff creating an old stuff conglomerate.
Of course there is always a collector behind that stuff. Someone who discovered, bought, found, received, inherited or stole each piece hoping to unloaded it.
Meet Boyden. This is his attic. (I’m not sure how that works. The rest of the building must be underground.)
He has been in business for over 16 years relying on word of mouth and drive by shoppers. No website, no Facebook page, No Youtube or Tic Toc. Just an actual physical place on Highway 31 in Glen Gardner where people visit and sometime leave reviews.
“Great place, great prices!”
“Perfect for collectors, diy projects or decorative pieces.”
“Inexpensive but low quality for the most part.” (I think he means cheap stuff)
(I added his photo to his Google Map profile.)
…
It’s a little strange to share the grocery aisles with a rolling, six foot-three, robot that looks like a piece from a board game or a bad knock off of Gumby.
We are told that Marty the Robot randomly rolls up and down the aisles looking for spills and other hazards. The sign on him reads:
“Marty is an autonomous robot that uses image capturing technology to report spills, debris, and other potential hazards to store employees to improve your shopping experience.”
If it was my store, instead of giant, steel gray, vertical Roomba, I’d put up a few signs asking shoppers to let us know of a problem and then reward them with coupon or a lolypop.
Somebody designed this thing, Somebody thought of the googly eyes and the lopsided smile to make it less creepy.
It is a surveillance system. It looks a bit different when you Photoshop out the mask.
Some people collect bottle caps or antique door knobs. Craig, up in Bath.PA, has a collection, too. Craig’s collection is too big to fit on a shelf or even inside (unless you have a warehouse). It’s big and colorful.
It’s a menagerie full of bigger-than-lifesize animals, fish, dinosaurs and a sasquatch or two. They surround his house and fill his garage. (I saw an ostrich in there. ) Maybe he has some inside, too.
Although we talked about it I’m still a little vague about where everything came from or where they may be going. He had a purpose.
I think he mentioned something about selling the house and moving. I’d buy it if the menagerie was included.…
Not much was happening one cloudy, late November Day in Slatington. It was Thanksgiving. Most folks were inside, eating, watching TV doing Thanksgiving stuff. But not everyone. Not these women.
They were out for a stroll, with each other, grabbing some supplies along the way (cranberry sauce?). It appears they both were involved in some larceny. Not the cranberry sauce, though. Something more serious, organ and identity theft.
They are pretty open about it. I guess the authorities in Slatington just look the other way.…
As the man leaned over to grab another rakeful of mud, leaves and litter from the brown dirty water, I could see him reaching just a little too far, raking up too much muck and losing his balance.
He wobbled and teetered and then awkwardly stumbled backward as crocodile suddenly leaped up to grab him.
He hit it hard with his rake which only seemed to enrage the beast which lunged again, nipping his shoelace and biting off that little plastic thing at the end (the aiglet).
The raker countered quickly, performing a pirouette and then jumping onto crocodile’s back and riding it like a bronco. They both disappeared beneath the muddy water which churned and frothed then became still.
I don’t know what happened after that. Too bad my battery died. I could have gotten some interesting photos. …
EZ PASS was founded about 34 years ago so we could simply sail through toll booths without stopping. No more fumbling for change, or worse, finding you don’t have the cash needed for a toll.
In the beginning, being an EZ PASS user was special. You could zip through the toll booth while everyone else waited in long lines. Then, little by little, almost all the toll booths became EZ PASS. No more tossing quarters into a basket or passing money to a real person.
I don’t have an EZ PASS transponder so I’m always looking for that collector. They still exist but are becoming rare, soon to be a just a bedtime story we tell young children.
About a year ago the acronym PPE didn’t have much meaning for most people. It sounds like a utility company.
The COVID crisis, though, made it a mainstream term.
PPE used to be reserved for hazardous environments. It is classified at four levels: A, B , C and D.
Level D is just a hard hat and boots. Level A is a totally encapsulated moon suit with an air tank. Level B is protective clothing and an air tank (like a fire fighter).
Level C PPE is an air purifying respirator and protective clothing. It is used for things like asbestos cleanup, COVID wards and demolition work. (The guy in the photo is in level C PPE.)
We’ve been living in a level C world the past year. I’m glad it’s not level A.…
Shadows offered up a little throwback to TV of the 1950s and 60s when Alfred Hitchcock, the master himself, would introduce his show. Each week his distinctive shadow would walk into the frame to the tune of the Funeral March of a Marionette.
In some ways it was the best part of the show. Take a little detour now, and slip down a YouTube rabbit hole to check out Best Openings.
…
Sometimes a crossing guard is more than someone guarding a crossing, keeping kids from running out into the street.
Sometimes he’s a landmark.
The crossing guard in Milford NJ told me he loves his work. Every morning and every afternoon he is at the corner by the post office doing his duty, commanding traffic both wheeled traffic and two-footed traffic.
He also cheerfully greets just about every car that zooms by with a friendly wave. He was happy to be photographed and threw me his signature salute. …