I have never really liked living in Delmar or working in Albany. While it sure it easy to roll out of bed, take a hot shower in my natural-gas heated apartment with electricity that lights a room with a flip of a switch, then take a bus downtown to my good-paying job, it really is a hell of a life that I dislike with a pleasure. I go to work most days in my ugly beige cubicle, write memos, mark up documents, and talk on the phone about business for hours a day, then go home, often holding my head in despair about the day’s events by the time I disembark the bus in front of my apartment.

Its a good life. At least on paper. I got a really nice pickup truck and cap, that I camp in most of the summer, rambling around the various wild forests, state forests, and national forests in the 400 or 500 miles radius of where I live. I get to have many campfires, cook over a fire or on a camp-stove, and get to see many scenic vistas. Compared to many people who struggle to make ends meet, I guess I have a very good life. People who don’t own cars, and can’t afford the increasingly high price for gasoline, don’t get to see the beauty I see.

But still it’s an urban life, that in many ways I dislike.

A special time in my life was going to college at Plattsburgh State. Not particularly because of the college, but because of the small town life. People are laid back in a small town, and vast agricultural landscapes and mountains are never far beyond. People understand what its like to be country. There is a deep connection to the land in a small town like Plattsburgh, something that is missing in a city like Albany, where urban concerns such as pollution, crime, drugs, and violence seem to dominate the headlines.

I’ve resolved to spend at least until Summer 2015, in Albany, if all goes well. Then I tell myself, I am getting out of Albany and New York all together.