PBW: Gray Day by the Pond

8:53 AM: When I got home last night, the green "DSL" light on my modem was blinking and I was unable to connect to the internet. My ISP hotline had a recorded message saying that people in my area and one other region were experiencing difficulty and that their engineers were aware of and working on the problem.

We here at the Nexus apologize for any inconvenience, and hope to put today's post up when I get home tonight after 8PM EST. Thank you in advance for your patience.

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UPDATE: I'M BACK, BABY! We now join our regularly scheduled post, already in progress:

....to thank everyone for their patience, and apologize for the delay in this week's Photo Blog Wednesday. Loss of my internet connection yesterday reminded me once again how little I can do without it. My photos are all on my harddrive, so I couldn't e-mail them to work to post. In hindsight, I suppose I could have burned a CD, but I definitely wouldn't have had time during the work day to upload and post anyway, not that that's something I'm supposed be doing at work in the first place. I called my service provider a few times and a recorded message told me that people in my area and another one were experiencing connection problems. It's been very frustrating. On the plus side, I did finally get back to my Fantastic Four game after near two years, and I’ve almost beaten it. The next time I have unplanned free time, I should get to finish it.

This week's photos come to us from last year. A few days before I concluded 2006 with a journey to a plane and a lighthouse, I ventured to a local park, pond, and nearby clock tower. Even on a gray day, I found some interesting subjects. Regretfully, as I neared the clocktower, I missed the best subject of all. A UPS truck, not quite able to complete a sharp right turn, started to slowly back up. Behind him, an old man in a pickup truck was frantically yelling at the top of his lungs. “Daaaaamn you! You're breaking the laaaw! You son of a *****! You M***********!!!” He even climbed half out of his truck, which to me, wasn't the right move. In his place, I would have backed up to avoid being hit, and give the truck driver room to correct his angle. If there were other cars behind me, I would have put on my blinkers to let them know. There were many solutions to the situation, but cursing, yelling, and getting out of his vehicle probably weren't among them. The truck driver managed to complete his turn, and the irate old man zipped onward. I remained on the sidewalk until I was absolutely sure it was safe to cross. It wasn't until much later, when I was driving home, that it dawned on me that I should have filmed the whole scene. So taken in by it, I completely forgot the camera around my neck. I just lack a journalistic instinct I guess, and it was a missed opportunity.

Anyway, you've all waited long enough, so here are this week's photos: