Currently 77 degrees as we head into the second half of the day. 83 degrees later, with sunset around 7:34 PM and civil twilight around 8:34 PM. Tonight and tomorrow night are pretty close to full moon, although officially Sunday is the full moon. A warm up is expected for next week. Pretty close to oppressive heat by mid-week, if the long-range forecast is to be believed. The long range looks good for Labor Day Weekend, but with mid-summer like heat and a chance of thundershowers.

So I got food poisoning yesterday, because somebody, namely me, because I didn’t properly cook the Italian sausage with breakfast on Friday morning which had been through too many freeze-thaw cycles, as it didn’t get eaten on previous camping trips. As soon as I bit into it and saw that blood, I cussed out the sausage, and tossed it back in the frying pan and cooked it a bit better. I normally freeze all my meat, but it can be difficult to defrost in boiling water, especially those big Italian sausages. I probably should just keep them in the refrigerator or remember to pull them out a day before, or at least microwave defrost them well before I cook them. I thought 5-10 minutes in boiling water would cook them through, but I guess I didn’t test them with the meat thermometer before I eat them.

I knew I didn’t feel particularly good on Friday morning, but I thought it was just dealing with the congestion on the Adirondack Northway, with the people heading up to Travers Weekend, etc. Most drivers I don’t know have to drive. I really don’t like driving on Expressways, and while my truck may be bigger then a lot of cars, it doesn’t give me much confidence except maybe worrying about the bigger blind spots. I believe a big jacked up truck still hurts when a little car hits you. Just a little bit of a headache and a little sore yesterday morning. All afternoon, I didn’t feel all that great, but I wrote it off as being just my sore ankle, between walking around at the work picnic and standing for 45 minutes at the gun shop, only to find out the darn NICS check came back delay. I was also really thirsty throughout the day, another sign of being sick from food poisoning. I probably drank a gallon of water yesterday, and barely had any beer (plus I had to drive). I figured I was just cranky about not getting my gun right away like normal. Then I had to go the bathroom several times last night. Felt like I was going to puke out my brains. It wasn’t fun. I was sick with food poisoning.

Food poisoning means I really can’t go swimming in a pool for 24 hours. I feel a little sick the stomach this afternoon, but I’m mostly over it. No more running to the restroom today, and I feel somewhat better. But that pretty much scraps my hope of getting to Mine Kill State Park before the summer was over. I might go swimming next week in Limekiln Lake Campground, while I am camping up at Moose River Plains. At this point, it’s a lot of work to drive out to Burnt-Rossman State Forest, just for camping, especially because I don’t have my new Remington 597 yet. But I figure I will save the $43 in gas, wood, and food to pay for the stupid phone that has died once again.

So I’ve officially written off my cellphone, and ordered a $40 reconditioned Moto E phone. I can’t believe this will be my third phone in 8 months, but I guess these Smartphones just aren’t as reliable as the old ones. Maybe the Samsung Galaxy Ace Style had some kind of design flaw, that lead it to break in my pocket. It’s clearly not an app flaw, because hard resets wouldn’t fix it, and flexing the phone caused it to crash. My mom hasn’t had the problems with her phone, but I guess I use my phone a lot more, and I carry it around in my pocket. In the winter when I wore a coat or vest I didn’t have problems with my phone, so I think it must have to do with being in my jeans pocket. The Moto E phone can’t do the 64 gigabyte flash card I now have, so I’ll be more limited on music and podcasts, but it has FM radio and I can use an inexpensive 32 gigabyte flash card. I like listening to NPR’s All Things Considered on the bus commute home.

I will have to go up to Colonie to sign for the package the phone came int, but that’s fine, because I have to pick up my Remington 597 when the stupid background check finally clears. It’s possible the phone won’t arrive until Tuesday, but the store can hang on to my gun for a day, assuming the background clears on Monday. The government has until Thursday after all, and while they usually resolve the delay status within 24-hours, who knows, a lot of people are probably picking up discount AR-15s at Walmart while they sell out, slowing down NICS over the next few days.