Scenes from the Deluge

A few scenes from being out and about recently:


* One day between the earthquake and the hurricane as the train I was on went past a station I saw a woman sitting with her back to a pillar, facing away from the other people at the station.  She was quietly sobbing.  Her body was slightly shaking and she had one hand over her face.   A young man, doo rag on his head and pants sagging, walked down the platform.  When he saw the crying woman he stopped and asked her if she was okay (that's an easy phrase to lip read).  She nodded.  My train went on and I didn't see what happened next, but I thought it was very nice of him to stop and check on her.  It would have been all too easy to just turn around and go back the way he came.
 

* Looking at the pictures, there was an awful lot of water out there.
 

* Around 9/11 there was a more visible police presence on public transit.  One day there were two extremely serious looking feds or swat team members near the ticket turnstiles.  What's the difference between standard officers and feds / swats?  Standard police wear polished and shiny street shoes, usually with blue-ish pants.  Feds / swats wear black clothes with pants tucked into polished but non-shiny combat boots.  They  had an equally serious dog with them who seemed intent in telling me in particular something very important.
 

* Like many people in the area I stocked up on non-perishable food in case the weather knocked out power for a few days.  My regular grocery store was packed so I stopped at a discount grocery store that had some unoccupied spaces in their parking lot.  I didn't think there would be a lot of difference in brands of things like crackers but, yowza!, there most certainly is.  My definition of middle class now includes the ability to buy Ritz crackers.  They are worth the money.