Newark Watershed Permit Office Closed

20130805_150143Heard some rumors about this, so I decided to take a ride up and see for myself.  There is a sign on the Newark Watershed permit office that they are closed until further notice.  Bad news.

The summer camp at Echo Lake is still operating.

More updates as they become available…

If you have any more information on this matter, please leave a comment below.
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Update 1 (3:22 pm): The Echo Lake boat ramp is still open and there are no new signs indicating anything is amiss.

Update 2 (4:35 pm): They applied aquatic herbicide at Echo Lake earlier today. Seems like they weren’t planning on closing the place soon… So what gives?
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Goodbye Bagels-4-U of Denville; We'll Miss You

... not even a note goodbye.

… not even a note goodbye.

Today, my wife needed to be in the city for work, so after dropping her off at the train station, I stopped for a bagel at my normal spot, Bagels-4-U of Denville.  They usually open at 5:30 and by now it was about 7 am, so when I found the doors locked and the lights off, I was surprised.  Then I noticed that the window signs had been taken down and that there was a step ladder visible inside…  Not a good sign.

A quick call to the Bagels-4-U headquarters and discussion with the man who answered revealed that the Denville location has indeed been closed due to lack of business, and that the last day was this past Sunday, April 21, 2013.  I told him how much they would be missed and wished them success with the other locations.  In my opinion, they had the best bagels in town… hand rolled, perfect New York style with a great crust.  You used to be able to see them being made with care in the giant kettle and oven right when you walked into the place.  I don’t know where I am going to go for my bagels now; all of the other bagel shops in town I have tried are lacking in comparison.

Bagels-4-U does have a number of other locations throughout New Jersey, so if you use one of the other ones, make sure to give them some extra lovin’ this month.

This really ruined my morning.  Support your local small businesses!

 

WDHA is off the air

Don’t know what is going on, but WDHA radio is off the air right now. Contest phone line is busy.

It is a bummer, because I am in the garage right now and want to rock.

Update: About an hour later they came back on the air.  Turns out that a brownout in the area knocked out power to the FM transmitter.

Dodge Viper Spun Out on Route 46 Being Cleared

I find that it is pretty rare that I see a Dodge Viper.  Rarer still is to see one crashed on Route 46 East in my town like I saw last night on my way home.  He was facing backwards, and there were long skid marks leading up to the wreck, so who knows how he got that way.  The car’s rear axle looks pretty well screwed.  Bummer.

 

Batman's Tumbler on Route 287 in Riverdale

Today I saw Batman’s Tumbler vehicle in the back of a semi-trailer, headed south on Route 287 in Riverdale, NJ. According to the website on the side of the trailer (www.tumblertour.com), it was on its way between appearances in Montreal, Quebec and Columbus, Ohio. Pretty neat.

Incredible Thunderstorm in Rockaway Today

I was at the Rockaway Townsquare Mall today when a supercell thunderstorm passed over the area. The skies went from blue to the worst thunderstorm I have seen outside of a hurricane/tropical storm, to blue again in about 25 minutes. The mall lost power, people were screaming and running for shelter, the parking lot flooded, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria… and I got it all on video. It was nuts.

 

 

This storm did a lot of damage in Dover and Randolph as well.

More Info

Google has too much time for Doodling

I have noticed lately that Google does a doodle for their logo very often…  Like all the time now.  It used to be that when there was a doodle, it was unexpected and interesting. But there have been SEVEN doodle logos THIS MONTH, so really none of them are unexpected any longer, and since there are so many, it seems that they are having a very hard time keeping them interesting as well.

Case in point: today’s doodle for Peter Carl Fabergé’s 166th Birthday

Google's Peter Carl Fabergé Doodle

Fabergé was famous for his jeweled Fabergé eggs, commissioned by Tsar Alexander III of Russia and his successors as gifts for their families between about 1885 and 1917. WHO CARES?!? Not a hero, not an inventor, just a person who was paid to create a symbol of excess for a head of state. How many of these existed throughout history? So Google is venerating Fabergé why? I could see this being a doodle just for google.ru or for some jewelry website, but honestly, what is the relavence of Peter Carl Fabergé to most people?

You know you have shareholders now, right Google? You should stop wasting money on this kind of stuff.

Local Wildlife

I have been running into some of our local wildlife recently, here are a couple videos:

A juvenile black bear on Oak Road in Boonton Township, New Jersey

 

A beaver working Mount Hope Pond in Rockaway Township, New Jersey

 

Enjoy!

Preproduction? Subaru BRZ Spotted

This afternoon, I happened to notice a Subaru BRZ in traffic.  That’s interesting, because they only went into production 13 days ago in Japan, and their US introduction is not scheduled until 4/20.  It appeared to be fully badged and was wearing a manufacturer plate (just the rear… New Jersey front plate laws be damned!).  Since it is too late to make changes to the production cars, my guess is that this is a preproduction model that was shipped over here early for media use.

It was travelling North on Route 208 through Franklin Lakes, New Jersey when I pulled in behind it.  It merged onto Route 287 South and then exited at Skyline Drive.

Sorry, I did the best I could with the pictures… Not rolling my truck at 65 mph in rush hour traffic was my top priority.

Hurricane Irene brings record flooding to Denville

Hurricane Irene tore through Denville early this morning, bringing with it strong winds and torrential rain. Several trees in our neighborhood were uprooted or had large sections ripped off. The Rockaway River has been rising steadily all day and as I write this, the USGS gauge above the Boonton Reservoir is measuring 9.06′, much higher than the previous record of 7.23′ set on April 5, 1984. Here are some pictures that we took of the damage today.