What the.............

Recently, I've been thinking of driving up to New Providence. There's a place up there that I wanted to check out. Now, I don't have one of those GPS things - I don't like driving outside my comfort zone - so I found the website for the place I was interested in and wrote down the directions. These were from Google, and had a lot of "slight left turn" steps, so I also used MapQuest for directions, which seemed simpler.

Yesterday started out overcast, but by the time I'd made a few stops it had brightened up. I decided to make the drive right then. Both sets of directions start by me taking Lake to Martine to Park, with a few of those "slight left turns". Neither set of directions mentioned that what I thought would be 3 separate roads were actually 1 road with a few curves. It took me a while to figure out that the different towns I passed through renamed their sections of the road.

When I got to Scotch Plains, I had a problem. Google said to take a road which I couldn't find because it had no street sign, and MapQuest left that turn off it's instructions completely. I did figure it out after a few false moves that kept bringing me back to Route 22 (one of the worst roads in New Jersey), but there was construction and a huge back-up in the middle of the turn. I took this as a sign, and turned around and went home.

Like most people, I check my mailbox when I get home. The mail is usually delivered between 10:00 and 2:00.Yesterday, I got home about 11:30 and saw that the mailman was just getting out of his little truck down on the next corner, so I just went inside.

This morning, since the forecast was for rain, I ran a few errands, and was back about 10:30. I checked my mailbox and found one small, plain, white envelope.

It was completely blank and unsealed. No postmark, not stamp, no address of any kind. Inside was a page from one of those day-per-page type calendars. On the back of the page was written..

J. C. PENNEY'S!?!

 INTERESTING.

... in printed, capital letters.

 

The page was from the weekend and could've been in the mailbox since yesterday. Hell, it could've been there since late Saturday.

I had no idea what this meant, or who it was from. My only guess was that someone from DHS was letting me know that they were still keeping tabs on me. I took pictures, texted them to my contact number, and left a message.

About 20 minutes later, I got a response.

They hadn't sent it.

So now I have to wonder..if they didn't do this then who?

And, why?

On Account of Rain............

Like they say...the best laid plans. We had kind of a heat wave this week so, when the rain passed through yesterday and cooled things off, I thought I'd enjoy a nice ride down to Monmouth County today. I stopped at the local ShopRite first, to see if I could pick up something that I could eat in the car on the way down.

They didn't have anything that appealed to me, so I decided that I'd eat when I got down there. I was no sooner back in the car then it started to rain. I've noticed that the front and passenger side windows leak a little in the rain and this has caused some problems with the electrical system, so I decided to postpone the trip south. I was still hungry, however, and decided to go to the IHOP over by the Menlo Park Mall.

 I had gotten as far as the MetroPark Train Station when the rain intensified. It got so heavy that I had trouble seeing through the windows, so I pulled into the nearest parking lot. When the rain eased up after about 10 minutes or so, I turned around. I ended up having breakfast at the Denny's in Avenel.

It was still early when I finished - around 9:30 or so - and the rain had slowed to a drizzle. I decided to walk off some of the omelet I'd eaten and headed for the Woodbridge Center Mall to get the exercise while staying dry.

The stores, for the most part, wouldn't open for about 20 minutes, but I could see the workers setting up - at the open food counters, or through the shop windows. I wondered around watching them, conscious of where I was in relation to them, and aware of the customers who were starting to trickle in. There was this one guy I saw at the Nestle's Toll House shop on the 2nd level that piqued my interest.

 I hadn't staged an Event anywhere in or near Woodbridge Center in a while, and here was a convenient target. As I got closer, I noticed that he might be too convenient. Both the up and down escalators were close by, as was the entrance to J. C. Penney's. There was no reason to be taking chances.

I took the escalator down, and actually went into Penney's. I had bought something here for my son-in-law for Christmas which went over big, so every now and then I go back to see if they have anything else. The section I headed for was way in the back.

There were fewer people then I expected in the mall, maybe because it was early or maybe due to the rain. It didn't matter. The section I went towards was almost empty. Empty except for this guy.

 Why he was looking at sun glasses on a rainy Saturday morning, I have no idea. Maybe they were on sale. I walked steadily into the section, and circled behind the racks of sun glasses. I started looking around. There was no one else here. Not even sales people. I came up towards the rack of belts to Sun Glass Guy's left. I had a good view of him, and the surrounding area. I also had the Flasher out.

He paid no attention to me. I stood there - pretending to look at the belts - for about 10 minutes. No one else entered the area. And he kept trying on glasses. As he got to the lower part of the rack, I moved around behind him. Still no one else.

When he got to the lowest level, he was squatting. I got close, then..

Point, press, Flash.

He sagged, and I moved out of the section. As I'd hoped, the lights on the racks of sun glasses helped to dissipate the flash. No one went in that section. I walked into the Men's Section nearby, watching, listening. there was no commotion. I went out into the mall, and headed back towards where I'd come in, taking my time, window-shopping. No screaming. No running. No security people.

I exited the mall and got into my car. It was still drizzling.

Not what I had planned, but you have to be flexible.