Here is my street last Monday, as Hurricane Sandy had begun to blow its winds but still hadn’t damaged Highland Park, NJ. Note the tall maple tree on the left. Little did I know that this series would be the last time I would record that tree in an upright position. You can see photos of the maple tree on past blog posts.
You can see the skies are gray, and all is wet, but unless you listened to the news you would have no inkling this was the beginning of a devastating storm. And behind the car on the left you can see the full grace of the tree that would soon be no more.
I like taking photos of the foliage each fall. This one of the block before the storm will have to do. See, at this point we were hoping that the storm wouldn’t be a big deal after all. Well, you can’t be right all the time.
I wasn’t the only one outside at this point. You can see one of my neighbors crossing the street in the far left of this shot.
At the other end of my block, all looks peaceful, right? Currently, four days later, there are still down live wires in front of the house with the white fence. It is difficult to enter our block by car, because we have live wires at both ends. Hope they fix it soon. The PSE&G truck just sat there in front of the live wires today.
During the Storm
The night of the storm, Monday night from about 4 pm to 11 pm, was really, really scary. If you weren’t scared, then you were a master of denial, which can be quite helpful at times like these. I was watching this tree in my neighbor’s backyard (see the tree above in photo day after storm that is now broken off and leaning) sway back and forth, back and forth. I decided it was less scary to watch the swaying tree than to look at pictures of the devastated Jersey Shore on my computer. We still had power at that point, but we lost it a bit before 9 pm.
After Hurricane Sandy storm hit hard – the morning after – Hurricane Sandy Trees
I woke up the morning after the storm and went to explore. Uh, oh, the big tree a few doors down was no longer up. Luckily, it had hit only a lamppost and had injured no person nor any house.
Many were taking photos, including this young reporter who has just started her journalism career with her school newspaper. She is unsure whether she wants to focus on photography, drawing or writing for the newspaper. This photographing of the down tree is a good start.
Crews have finally begun to remove parts of the down tree – it is now cut into pieces, and one can pass through on one side of the road with a car.
We were lucky on our block about where the big tree fell. These homeowners were not so fortunate. This giant old tree hit wires and their house. I saw another house in Edison that had a corner of the house chopped off by a fallen tree.
Not to feel left out, North 8th had its own adventure with this giant tree. Looks like the tree barely missed the house (but I could be wrong about that).
Finally, here is why North Fifth still does not have power. The library, where many in our community would go when power goes down, is still closed. And my friends on North Fifth are cold, as are North Tenth, Dennison and a good part of the South side by South Adelaide. We had our power restored on Wednesday evening at about 6 pm – wow, was that a happy time for us.
Lessons Learned: Count Your Blessings
Thankful for my family. Thankful for no damage to our property. Thankful for fabulous, helpful, friendly neighbors. Thankful for smart phones existing and for car radios. And for heat in cars. And the fact that our stove burners worked even if our crockpots, rice cooker, warming tray, toaster, oven, dishwasher, washing machine, computers, lamps, coffee grinder and pencil sharpener did not (daughter asked, after we lost power: how will we sharpen pencils? I replied: we have some artsy pencil sharpeners upstairs that will work. We never did do any art work during the lack of power period).
The Jersey Shore communities are not so fortunate. More on this topic in a later post.
I plan to include this post in next week’s Nature Notes.
Way back in January, my daughter and I went for a walk on the Meadows trail near Donaldson Park. The trail was cleared back in 2006, and it is a nice stroll through the woods. I like this photo and wanted to share it; it looks a bit like the branches of the raspberry bushes in my backyard. It was a snow-less winter in New Jersey, and I think this photo reflects that sort of empty brownness that we had instead.
I haven’t been able to get into nature much recently myself (other than my yard), as I’ve been taking care of my father who is 82 and has needed a lot of help lately. We are working on getting him a new living situation. Balancing work and my regular family duties with this has taken a lot of my time and energy.
One of the benefits of living in a small town like Highland Park, New Jersey are the events like the recent one for National Night Out. Night Out in Highland Park was celebrated with booths, balloons and fun activities for kids.
It was cool to watch kids scampering up this climbing tower.
There were announcers in the back calling out names of various winners of prizes. Local businesses had donated the prizes.
My favorite part of the evening was the dunking booth. Later in the evening, after I had left, the person sitting in the dunking booth was Mayor Gary Minkoff, but I had already gone home by then. One of my friends said her son managed to dunk Mayor Gary on his first throw. Great shot!
The fire trucks were fun to view. I’m not sure how to show this image – horizontally or vertically. Looks like it really belongs at an angle.
Does your area have local events? What kinds? Which ones do you enjoy most?
Benji Lovitt, who usually writes and delivers comedy, wrote a piece called Terror in Bulgaria — a comedian’s response. Sometimes you just don’t know how to respond. And this was before the massacre in the theater in Colorado. “But for now? Like everyone else, I’ll mourn.”
If you can stomach the discussion, Therapy Doc has a post on James Egan Holmes.
I’ve been following Phyllis’s blog about her son, Sam, who has acute myeloid leukemia. Refuah Shlayma – healing wishes and prayers to you, Sam.
Jewaicious wrote about Nora Ephron‘s books and movies: “but no matter the genre, they always speak of women, independence, perseverance and realizing potential.”
Coming Soon: Interview with an artist who illustrates ketubot (Jewish marriage contracts), draws comics, paints figures and is working on a graphic novel on new immigrants to Israel.
Gary Minkoff is Affirmed as the new Mayor of Highland Park
On Tuesday night Highland Park, New Jersey was sworn in affirmed – Mayor Gary Minkoff. I say affirmed because when past mayor now freeholder James Polos (on the left in the photo) said to Gary, do you solemnly swear, Gary corrected him and said “affirm.” I suspect this is for religious reasons, as Jews have strict rules about when we can “swear.”
Elsie Foster-Dublin, Councilperson and Steve Nolan, former Mayor
When Elsie Foster-Dublin (above left) was sworn in, she clearly said, I “solemnly swear.” Outgoing mayor Steve Nolan is pictured on the right. Twice in the evening he got a standing ovation for his work as mayor.
“I promise I will have everyone out of here by Friday.”
Thus began Gary as he gave an (acceptance?) speech on Tuesday night. And thus I will state that I can’t repeat everything everyone said that night, but I want to summarize a few of the annual reports. Another point about Gary (you can find him selling cheesecake on this post – he is multi-talented; and marching in the Memorial Day Parade here) is he likes to tell jokes, to be personable, to make people feel comfortable. It should be interesting having him as our mayor.
A few highlights of the Annual Reports
Each councilperson talked about their areas, and I will state briefly some highlights. Padriac Millet: Padriac talked about Raritan Avenue area improvements, such as rain gardens (? not sure what they are but we will find out) and living room areas (glass tiles, benches, lampposts, streetscape) and 75 new trees. There were also new regulations such as curb rules that caused delays in construction. Elsie Foster-Dublin: After twelve years there is finally a traffic light at the corner of Duclos Lane. The Senior Center has some great programs, including Chinese. Because of budget cuts, Sunday hours have been eliminated at the Senior Center. The library has shown an increase in programs and may be receiving new fiber optic connection (I remember how slow my connection became as I gave my recent talk about Facebook). Jon Erickson: Jon oversees the Highland Park Environmental Commission, Shade Tree Committee and Public Works. Highland Park now recycles once per week, and from this, the borough earns $35 per week (did I get that right? That doesn’t sound like a lot). One can now recycle pizza boxes and rigid plastics like laundry baskets. He also mentioned some Meadows trails repairs. Gayle Britt Mittler: Gayle talked about all the wonderful volunteers she has on her committees, like the Health and Welfare and the Board of Health. An anti-fracking resolution was passed by the Board of Health. The Human Relations Commission and the Food Pantry were also active; the Food Pantry may soon be able to stock meat in addition to the current soups and vegetables.
A bit of Gary’s remarks
Gary Minkoff talked about how Highland Park, Michigan had to remove street lights because of budget cuts, but Highland Park, New Jersey has managed financially, with budget cuts, even in these difficult economic times. Gary made it clear that he is a product of the public schools, and he supports the public schools. He also thanked the first responders (police, fire, first aid squad), mentioned a possible business breakfast and teen advisory council, and he said, we need focus. We can’t do anything without focus.
And with that, class is dismissed from reading this long post.
Last Sunday my daughter and I went to the dog park in Donaldson Park. She wanted to see the dogs, and I was happy to see the sunset. Donaldson Park is on the other side of Highland Park from where we live, and it is right next to the Raritan River. You can park right near the dog parks.
There is a dog park (a large caged in area) for little dogs and one for big dogs. There were a lot more big dogs. They romp around and play games with each other. My daughter was following the interactions carefully.
I enjoyed the oranges, reds, yellows of the sunset. The steeple you see is across the Raritan River in New Brunswick.
Judaica Gallery, broken window - photo taken December 1, 2011 Where were you in November 1938? Most of us weren’t born yet, but the mother of someone who spoke Tuesday night at Highland Park’s Borough Council meeting was in Vienna and witnessed the real Kristalnacht. The shattering of glass in Jewish storefronts in Highland Park terrified her, and as it did for many of us, the quick actions of the Highland Park police (in conjunction with New Brunswick police and Rutgers police) in arresting the culprit brought relief.
It did have a healing effect, the Borough Council meeting, at least I thought so. Elsie-Foster Dublin, councilwoman, led the meeting, and at one point she talked about how when the African American community had problems, Rabbi Malomet had sent her a helpful email. Now, when the Jewish community was upset by an incident, Rabbi Malomet again sent her a calming email. Several Jewish community members, including Rabbi Luban and Rabbi Kaufman, expressed their thanks to the police department for their swift action. And the police commissioner (who was thrilled with all the praise) was sure to point out that Rabbi Kaminetsky had come by the police department that day to find out how the police were doing (I think he operates as a chaplain for the police). And the meeting wasn’t just about the broken glass incident – one person who lives near Raritan Avenue has a terrible problem with noise and someone else has problems with broken sidewalks. The usual small town fare.
There was someone sitting next to me who appeared to be a journalist, as he was taking copious notes. I didn’t take any – my purpose in writing this post is just to say thank you to those who make this a nice community.
