20 February 2009

A Day in the Life

I have a new-ish temp-ish job that takes me out Jersey way one or more times per week. Edison, or thereabouts – it’s a twenty minute or so cab ride from the train station so who knows what actual township this warehouse district/wasteland is in. And what a scenic ride it is! I hardly notice on the way from the train station to the warehouse (and indeed it’s to a warehouse I am going), but on the way back from the warehouse it seems like Edison is nothing but winding residential roads. We might pop onto an arterial avenue every now and again, but only to get into another maze-like neighborhood. And such residences! They are, generally speaking, a sight to behold in one way or another. I passed a house with a wire fence in the front yard – one of those industrial wire fences that’s cross hatched, the ones that are usually kind of high rather than the standard front yard fence height. But the proud residents beautified it; alternating green and white plastic (I assume) strips were weaved into it. Another house also had an interesting “fence”. It looked like the iron barricades that are put along a sidewalk when there’s a parade. These ones were shiny and white though.

But the cherry on top of the glorious Edison landscape, for me, is the houses that don’t have any kind of awning over the front door, not even a tiny spit of wood. A completely flat faced house. A house without a front door awning is like a person without eyebrows; not someone who shaves their eyebrows, but someone whose had them burned off in a freak accident. Yes, that’s what they look like. And it’s not just one. Or two. Or a handful. It’s many. Most? It will be a sad day indeed when at last everything has been cleared out of the warehouse.