Heard 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.
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?
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.
AÂ 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. Â I told him how much they would be missed and wished them success with the other locations. Â In my opinion, they had the best bagels in town… hand rolled, perfect New York style with a great crust. Â 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. Â 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.
I find that it is pretty rare that I see a Dodge Viper. Â Rarer still is to see one crashed on Route 46 East in my town like I saw last night on my way home. Â He was facing backwards, and there were long skid marks leading up to the wreck, so who knows how he got that way. Â The car’s rear axle looks pretty well screwed. Â Bummer.
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.
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.
I have noticed lately that Google does a doodle for their logo very often… Â Like all the time now. Â 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.
This afternoon, I happened to notice a Subaru BRZ in traffic. Â That’s interesting, because they only went into production 13 days ago in Japan, and their US introduction is not scheduled until 4/20. Â It appeared to be fully badged and was wearing a manufacturer plate (just the rear… New Jersey front plate laws be damned!). Â 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. Â 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 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.
Heard 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.
Goodbye Bagels-4-U of Denville; We'll Miss You
… 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.
AÂ 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. Â I told him how much they would be missed and wished them success with the other locations. Â In my opinion, they had the best bagels in town… hand rolled, perfect New York style with a great crust. Â 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. Â 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. Â Support your local small businesses!