Just When I Am Ready To Start Enjoying Myself...

...I get notified that a job I put in for - and for which I have been: going through a background check, submitted to a drug test, filled out and submitted several documents - finally wants me to start working this Friday. Actually, it is an on call job and they want me at work on Friday and Monday to cover for someone else; I guess my training will be on the job. Disappointingly they gave me no advance notice, prior to an email today, as to when I would be starting. I simply cannot work this Friday due to prior commitments and hope they understand and will accept that. I guess I will find out tomorrow if that will fly. I can work Monday though. I hope that works for them because the sooner the better after this Friday.

A paycheck is sorely needed, even from a part time, floater, kind of a position for which the pay is good but not great. It is certainly good enough for me though! Apparently I will be filling in for people who take vacation or call in sick or have to miss a day for whatever. I imagine they cannot expect me to always be available but since it is just going to be weekdays, I will probably be there when needed (except for this Friday as noted). There is, as I understand, no holiday work either and that is fine by me. The only real drawback is that if someone calls in sick, they will be calling me at about 0600 to tell me they need me. Me and 0600 do not see eye to eye right now but I suppose that will only require a somewhat minor adjustment in my sleep habits.

It will be nice having some spending cash flowing in that will let me catch up on my credit card bills and after that will give me enough cash to pay for heating oil this winter. With luck, I will have some left over for ammo and a hunting trip. Hopefully the job, my coworkers, my bosses and I will all mesh well together. Looking forward to it.

All the best,
Glenn B

The NY State Hunting Seasons Are Almost Upon Us

This coming license season is from September 1, 2014 through August 31, 2015 as opposed to years past in which the license year ran from October 1 through September 30th. That is an improvement because to hunt gray squirrels, for which the season still begins on Sept. 1st, one does not need last year's license. Other parts of the new license rules here in NY seem totally screwed up to me and why they changed the purchase system as well as deleted the Sportsman's License (hunting and fishing combined) and Super Sportsman is beyond me. The fishing license has to be printed immediately after purchase and now is a piece of computer paper from my home printer with less than waterproof ink; this state is screwed up or should I say the bureaucrats in NY are such.
 
Anyway, the seasons will start soon. Squirrel season, as I said on September 1st, many other small game seasons in October and regular deer and bear in November. With all that in mind, and since I have not gone upstate for even a single day trip so far this summer, I am long overdue for a scouting trip. Once again, Brendan and I will probably hunt NY State public land; although, he can also hunt private land owned by his girlfriend's parents. Lucky him. Unlucky for him was that he did not get a deer management permit (doe permit) for the area where their property lies. We did get three others between us, two of them closer to home than usual. I will be heading out tomorrow to scout out at least one of those areas and maybe to at least find the other one. I am already somewhat familiar with the one I will scout and the other is totally new to me so I may just do a drive by for now to see where it is and how easy it is to find.
 
I've got my day pack stuffed with gear I usually carry when hiking - not that I usually go hiking but when I do I want to be prepared. I figure I could live off of what is in it for at least a few days if something happens to me and I get stuck in the woods. Chances are though that would not be for long where in NY I plan to scout as someone would likely find me within a day or two at most. Anyway, I am happy to be going to get out and do something I will truly enjoy. Have been in a bit of a funk lately and need the change in pace.
 
If I am lucky, I may get a chance to op a shot at a few red squirrels, chipmunks and or woodchucks. The woodchuck would wind up as table fare, so too might the red squirrels depending on whether or not they look big enough to bother with and as for any chipmunks, they will make good snake food for my ball python. It would be great getting an 8-10 pound woodchuck for the smoker or BBQ. Hunting small game aside, it sure would be nice if I get to see some deer sign. Last time we were at this particular place, we saw some deer but did not get a shot. We sure got eaten alive by ticks though; as I recall, it was soon after that when I came down with my second bout of Lyme Disease. So, I am bringing some 99% deet with me tomorrow and will anoint myself thoroughly with it.
 
I may also get in some frogging if the pond on that tract of land looks to have any bullfrogs. Yummy, frogs legs are delicious but you need some big frogs to make it worthwhile. If I also happen to see a snapping turtle in the shallows and can get off a safe shot, I may try bagging one of them too - snapping turtle soup is to die for and I have not had any in years.
 
If all goes well tomorrow, I may do this at least once or twice per week right up through firearms deer season in November - that is taking scouting trips. The hiking I would do can only help lower my blood pressure while getting me in shape for hunting season. Who knows, I may lose a few pounds while at it. It's bout a couple of hours drive each way but I might be able to stand that a couple of times each way every week. Time will tell if I do it or not, so too will the results of my first scouting trip of the year. There are a few places closer to home but that mean closer to NYC. They probably would tend to be crowded with more hunters and hikers and horseback riders and bicyclists and whomever else, even during hunting season, than my first choice that is a bit further. If I get lucky though, I may find something suitable closer than a 2 hour drive. If not and if the first choice also stinks, I have a 3 1/2 hour drive to up near where my uncle owned his farm. At least I know the lay of the state forest there, the problem with that is that I have never gotten a deer there except on the farm when he owned it. Not once in many years have I connected on the state land. Plenty of time between now and hunting season though for me to find a place to hunt.

Edited to add: Well so much for tomorrow, my uncle - the one who owned the farm - is arriving from Florida tomorrow. Nice of him to remind my muddled middle age little gray cells at the last minute but better then than never. Maybe Ill go upstate wih him over the weekend.
 
All the best,
Glenn B



 

Money From Heaven In Atlantic City - Just My Luck

There I was driving down the road in Atlantic City, kind of lost on a side street, hoping for divine intervention to get me going in the right direction, when all of a sudden there was this huge armored car that swerved around the corner in front of me and cut me off. Then as if out of nowhere there was something coming at my windshield. Since I had slammed on my brakes to avoid hitting the armored car, I was positioned just right - just my luck. It was a big grayish blob as best I could tell and crash it hit the windshield and smashed it to smithereens, then bounced onto the hood and dented it badly, rolled off and wound up going under my still moving but slower car and bumpity-bump-bump-bump got caught in the undercarriage causing me to lose control. I crashed into a fire hydrant at about 7mph. Lucky 7, maybe for some but not sure if it was for me. Even at only 7mph the crash caused an awful lot of damage to my car. I keep calling it my car only because I was driving, in truth I had borrowed it for the trip to AC and neither the owner or I have insurance for such a catastrophic event, just my luck - really it was.

Well, when I finally got out and checked on everything, I could see it was going to be expensive and bemoaned that I would be paying it off for about 10 years when I took a second glance at what was under the car that had hit the windshield and caused this mess. It was a money bag and it was full of money. Just my luck though, only twenties, tens and fives - not a single hundred in sight. I pulled it out, put it into my gym bag and threw it into the trunk. Somehow not one person saw me do it, my luck seemed to have changed.

Got a tow and took my gym bag out of the car leaving the wreck at a local shop. Went to my hotel and once there I counted the loot which had been in the bag, a casino money bag. They won't miss it, I suppose. It amounted to $21,000.00 a mere pittance for a casino. Just my luck again though, a money bag from the heavens (or an armored car) falls onto the car I am driving and it only has 21K in it instead of millions. What the heck, I went right down to the casino in my hotel and lost 5K quick - yeah of the money from the bag. Then figured I had best hold onto the rest for at least tonight if not tomorrow since this was supposed to be an overnighter. Counted it again and confirmed only 15K remaining.

The guys from the body shop just called, the estimate for the body work on my pal's car is $14, 998! Shit that leaves me with $2.00 after what I lost in the casino and now I can't even find my own wallet or my own cash - must have lost that in the wreck. Just my luck. Wait a minute, let me pause here, someone is knocking on my hotel room door. OK, I am back, they are letting me sign off. It's the police, they want to talk to me, they got me on a Department of Homeland Security video camera as the money  bag smashed into the windshield and wanted to know if I know the whereabouts of it. Just my luck, they are saying something about an extended stay for me in AC....

In truth, I imagine someone found the money bag with the missing 21K and is all that much happier for it but it wasn't me. Of course, had I found it, I would have turned it in and settled for the reward. See: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/08/20/21g-falls-off-truck-after-pickup-from-revel-casino/?intcmp=latestnews

All the best,
GB