Good morning! Happy Wednesday. As they say, it’s Hump Day. Going to be a remarkably hot Hump Day for September, although temperatures in the low 90s are not unheard of this time of year. Most of the summer was fairly cool, so I guess now we have to make up for it. We are now at 66 degrees in thick humidity, with the fog starting to burn-off. The dewpoint is in the range of 64-65, which is why we are in a cloud of fog and swamp air. In the city, the folk appears to be burning off, and should be mostly gone by the ten o’clock hour. Hot and humid weather continues for the foreseeable future, until it breaks and the weather struggles to reach 50 degrees every day. It will happen that way for sure. But in the meantime, we are still looking at a very pleasant Labor Day Weekend.

Today’s post is kind of long, because my phone is broken, so I wrote a portion of it sitting out back last night, listening to the crickets in the muggy, 80 degrees evening air that smelled a little like corn silage they are harvesting the down the road. Cold beer and peanuts … I have a lot to get off my chest without even getting into the nasty politics of the day.

Wonderful morning, catching a circa-2000 year NOVA bus with a broken kneeler and no air conditioning. Because on these sticky morning, nobody wants to have air conditioning on the bus going to work. And people with disabilities or a sprained ankle, really want to climb two and a half feet to get up on a bus that can’t kneel due to a stuck air bag suspension. It’s lower then my truck, but with my truck I can use the steering wheel to pull me up, and the seat is closer. I guess it’s September, so air conditioning is optional for professionals heading downtown in a suit. It’s NOVA bus 3024, running the Route 18. I will file a complaint with CDTA, so it gets marks down in their statistics.

Did you see that article about unlocked cars being broke into in Rotterdam? This time I made sure to lock my truck because I really didn’t want to have the three-quarters empty RemOil can stolen, among other things that are slightly more valuable like the radio. That said, I think my driveway is far enough back and the neighbors nosy enough that they would see a theft. Plus, I think Rotterdam is a little more rough around the edges compared to Delmar, but who knows, especially now that kids are back in school, and suburban kids looking for money to score some pot have access to Ebay at home..

Went down fishing at the Hudson River. Didn’t catch anything, but I don’t care. It was mostly to kill time, and sit down by the river and enjoy the evening. Saw a big oil barge pass by and some kayakers. The waterlevels on the river was quite high, probably caused by the near full moon causing unusually high tides. The water was only 1-2 feet below slopping over into Henry Hudson Town Park. It was a lot cooler down by the river then certainly in my un-air conditioned apartment. It was pretty dark by 8 PM and while I could have spent all night down fishing there, with my broken cellphone, I had nothing to play with, so I packed up and headed over to Walmart to pick up a few supplies.

The primary reason I went to Walmart was to get some high-ankle hiking boots to wear as I start getting out and walking again. I could have gone more high-end and gotten some Timberland Boots or something similar, but with all my walking, I tend to wear them all out at about the same speed. The low-cut work boots I’ve worn all summer have been fine and comfortable until I sprained my ankle. Now they don’t offer much support for my foot. I will save the low-cut boots for next summer, and hopefully each day I will be able to walk a little farther. The new boots definitely need to be broken in, but the best way to do that is wear them and walk around. Tomorrow, I plan to do a little more walking, but nowheres I can’t catch a bus as necessary.

My replacement cellphone has arrived but I have to go to up to Colonie to sign for it. Hopefully I can get both the gun I’m still waiting for clearance on and the phone at the same time. If for some reason I can’t pick up the gun today, I still will drive up to the store to get the phone. I want to get it on the WiFi either at the library or work on Thursday, so I can get my programs and podcasts on the phone before I head up to the Adirondacks for the long weekend for camping. I’m not sure if this phone has many features as my old one, but one thing I like about it is the built in FM radio. That will come in handy for listening to NPR news on the way home from work. I think it will also run the GPS app I use, WordPress, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Foursquare, Waze and Moovit just fine. It will play my music. Not sure if it has less internal memory, and the camera is somewhat crappy with a fixed lens. Maybe I got to start shooting with Digital SLR camera once again. I really don’t need much beyond that. It was only $43 refurbished. Hopefully it will hold up better then the stupid Samsung Galaxy Ace Style that both the original and replacement broke. The one that isn’t working at all, may be hit with several rounds of .22 fire this weekend if all goes well. Once I burn the plastic off, I can recycle the remaining scrap metal.

Still haven’t heard from the gun shop about the delayed NICS check. This afternoon I will call the shop. It’s possible I just didn’t get their call back when the phone wasn’t working right, but I would have thought I would have gotten a voicemail. I haven’t followed up, because I’ve been busy, and honestly, I wanted to combine the trip for picking up my replacement cellphone with picking up the gun. Tomorrow, they can legally complete the sale, even if a final check doesn’t come back. Most places will complete the sale without a final NICS result, so I am fairly sure I’ll have the gun by the Thursday (and therefore the holiday weekend). If they refuse to sell without a final disposition, I will go to another gun store on Friday. Watch as NICS clears instantly at a second gun shop (rolls eyes). There is no reason for it to come back denied, as I’ve never been convicted of a felony or subject to involuntary confinement for mental illness. I answered the questions truthfully, to the best of my knowledge. I mean doubt I would be convicted of a felony and not know about it. Usually they tell you about such things. Maybe I’m not perfect with youthful blemishes on my record, but no reason not to prohibit the sale to me.

The delays make me wonder if I did something wrong, but NICS delays are not unheard of when somebody else has a similar name and need to confirm a record. My mom was skeptical when I told her. I’ve broken bones and cussed, but been convicted of no felonies. All the official documentation say that NICS delays aren’t a reflection on the character of the individual – the reason for delay of the approval or need for further investigation has nothing to do with the person getting the NICS clearance. Many times it’s just a similar name and a need to make a phone call to clear up confusion. Other times, a record needs to be pulled that requires a security clearance or other high-level approval. Most people say NICS delays are fairly random – I may buy my next 5 long guns, by walking in and walking out with the new gun – after an instant check. I’ve heard police officers and military sometimes get delayed with NICS.

When I become a resident of Pennsylvania, handguns will be purchasable with the ease of long guns in NY. That’s the norm in most states. The previous gun I bought last year, they spent 15 minutes on the NICS processing and 45 minutes trying to find the box the box the gun came in. They ended up selling the shotgun to me that I bought last year without the box or the manual. Which is fine, as I just printed up the manual myself. I don’t know at this point if I will bother getting finger printed and a NICS User PIN, but I know when I move to Pennsylvania, I will take the course to get my Concealed Carry License. The Pennsylvania CCL is a reasonable process, and while the state is not must issue, the state can only deny for cause. I’m not super into getting my CCL to carry in the city, as much for the convenience of buying future guns (no NICS required) and because it makes it legal to have a loaded handgun in your truck in most states that honor PA concealed carry licenses. In PA you can open-carry handguns when hunting/hiking (and in most public accommodations) without a permit, like most normal states (e.g. not New York).

Reading the recent article on Politico NY comparing the Southern Tier and Northern Tier of New York, I think most of the things they say are true. There are more jobs total in the Southern Tier of New York, as it’s more populated with Binghamton, but the economy is healthier with fracking. I never understood the ban on fracking. It seemed like the anti-frackers didn’t want any drilling activity in their neighborhood, no matter temporary in the inconvenience might be. Fracking boom is basically over in Penns. They believed what they wanted, and found ways to use fear, uncertainty, and doubt to get it banned. FUD-ers don’t believe in science, logics, or statistics, at least when it doesn’t agree with their political disposition.

But Pennsylvania not only has much better gun laws (even if they aren’t as good as many Southern and Western states), and they manage their state parks and lands much better. NY State Parks are often garbage dumps with decrepit facilities. There is very little pride in demoralized NY state parks workforce. Penns has publicly funded shooting ranges, and it’s rare to find litter on their state lands. Open burning and burn barrels are allowed on farms and rural houses, as are bonfires. I love fire, don’t tell me what I can’t burn on my own land, as long as I’m not annoying the neighbors too much. No emission inspections in Pennsylvania except for the most urbanized counties. Laws on pickup truck lift kits are reasonable. Lots of state lands offer ATV and snowmobile riding opportunities (although I’ve heard the NY State snowmobile trail system is better, there are virtually no-state funded ATV trails in NY). They don’t have animal rights extremists poking their noses around hard-working, marginal farms as too often is the case is New York. The Penns ban on Sunday hunting, and prohibition of hunting with semi-automatic firearms sucks, but I’m not sure if that applies to small game (22 ammo) or coyote hunting. Pennsylvania also has a lot of hunting pressure with over 1.5 million hunting licenses sold per year (versus 800k in NY State) — they filmed the movie The Deer Hunter there for a reason. I don’t know what the policy is in Pennsylvania about silencers, but most states are become more open to allowing them, due to growing public concern about hearing damage.

After I sprained my ankle I stopped looking at jobs and apartments in Pennsylvania. I was looking in the Scranton-area, as that’s the easiest for moving and day trips for interviews. I’d rather be farther west in the state for the Allegheny National Forest and some of the state forests, but Scranton is not that far away from the great public lands of the Northern Tier. The Catskills are also within a reasonable distance for recreation purposes. I would miss the Adirondacks, but if I could get established in Pennsylvania, I could eventually own my own land in the country, quite possibly off-grid, and it would be a lot like camping in the woods. I could always take a week off and go to Adirondacks from Penns, as long as I left any handguns I owned home. PA’s off-grid laws seem reasonable per that Off-Grid Fixed By Doc Youtube channel, but obviously there is more restrictions then out west, especially if your living in a building with a permanent foundation, and not just a so-called temporary cabin.

Those hills in the Scranton-area would be murder on the brakes for my jacked-up truck though, but I guess I could always just make sure to downshift earlier and think about investing in bigger binders to better handle the heat. I guess I will get back to looking, once my foot is better, but honestly, I expect to probably spend another year or two in New York before I take the plunge. Relocating is kind of challenging, when you don’t know an area except from what you’ve read on the Internet and seen on maps. My job pays well, and the health insurance has been good to me since I sprained my ankle. At times work in Albany is entertaining, if not downright funny in a sardonic kind of way.