Category: NJ

Somerset Patriots

I skipped most of the Tour of Somerville today, in favor of going to my first Somerset Patriots game. A friend got some free tickets, and gave me a couple. It was a nice way to spend a warm Memorial Day afternoon. I’m going to use a photo from the game as a “featured image” on this post, and see how that looks.

Oh, and I’ve also just realized that I need to figure out if I can increase the max upload size for this blog. It’s currently 2 MB, which isn’t enough for a full-size photo from my iPhone. I’m not sure if I’m bumping up against some arbitrary WordPress limit, or if this is the usual PHP upload limit.

[Update: I increased the PHP upload limit by creating a .user.ini file in my WordPress root folder, as indicated by this StackOverflow answer. I was already familiar with doing this through php.ini, but I hadn’t stumbled across .user.ini before. So I learned something new today!]

upload_max_filesize = 4M
post_max_size = 8M
file_uploads = On

annoying detours

Just found out that my usual route to work will be blocked off for “a few months.” I knew they were doing this, but I was hoping it would just be for a week or two. Joy.

Talmadge Avenue Bridge Reconstruction over the Middle Brook, Township of Bridgewater/Borough of Bound Brook. Beginning Friday, August 14th a detour will go into effect for this bridge as work continues. Eastbound traffic will continue to use the temporary bridge but must turn left onto Tea Street. Talmadge Ave. will be closed at this bridge. The posted detour will direct traffic to Union Ave. (Route 28), to Mountain Ave. back to Main Street. The posted detour will direct westbound traffic onto Mountain Avenue to Union Avenue to Tea Street back to East Main Street. This detour will remain in effect for a few months.

Election Day

I never got a ballot in the mail for this year’s elections, so I decided to try and find one online. The Somerset County Board of Elections page has a bit of useful info, but I couldn’t find a ballot. I’ll do some more looking tonight before giving up, but I think I’ll probably have to wing it when I get into the booth tomorrow. One amusing thing I found on the site: a really cheesy, and almost entirely useless, video. Click on the “upcoming elections” link to watch it. The background music is hilarious.

heat wave

After working in an office without air conditioning for the last two days, I’m ready to get out of New Jersey and head off to San Diego. The temperature outside in NJ was about 99 degrees today. In our office, it got up to 87 at one point. In San Diego, it was only about 78 outside today. Nice.

They got the A/C in the office fixed at around 3pm today, so it should be fine in the office for the rest of the week. I’d still rather be in S.D. though!

Illustrated History of Union County

I noticed something interesting in the Westfield catalog this month: An Illustrated History of Union County, by Frank Thorne. There are some sample pages here. Based on this message, it appears that this strip was originally published in the Daily Journal back in 1951. As a former Union County resident, and Frank Thorne fan, I think I’ll need to pick this up. Actually, I may need to pick up a few copies and send them off to other former Union County residents, too.