The Perils of GeoCaching

Well, no one ever said it was all fame and glory geocaching - there are some SERIOUS risks involved in this hobby.

Every GPS I have owned has a disclaimer/warning when powering up that basically tells you that if you walk off a cliff while watching the screen instead of the trail - you are on your own :-)

Until recently I have only used my GPSs while driving my cars or riding my motorcycles and have not had to worry too much about this cliff business. Now that I am geocaching, I can finally appreciate the merit behind this warning: the other night while hot on the trail of a local cache, we were walking along a bridal path and I was concentrating on the little GPS arrow instead of the path. Luckily, my highly hoaned survival instincts sprang into action and guided my left foot safely beyond the horse offering I almost encountered. *Whew*

Alas, while I was able to safely dodge that near catastrophe, I was re-acquainted with one of my arch-nemesis from the days of yore: Yep, the Insidious Purveyor of Suffering - Poison Ivy!
In the Flesh! Mine!

It has been many, many years since we have crossed paths, I had grown complacent thinking that this foul beast had been slain - but as I am finding out today, that is not the case.

One of the caches we had searched for was hidden at the end of small drainage culvert half buried in the ground. Standing astride the pipe and knowing that the cache had to be inside of it, I summoned up my prodigious courage - brushed aside the nearby vegetation and reached inside - aware that there might be terrible beasts hiding within!

Well, luckily (for them) it turns out, there were not any terrible beasts lurking ready to pounce onto my arm - but the harmless vegetation I had shoved aside turned out to be the real enemy!

I am now writing this entry with my unafflicted left arm - my ravaged right arm hanging by my side.

Fear not though - for modern science has come up with a treatment that should hopefully reduce my urge to gnaw the affected limb off to end the torment!

So, let my hardship be a warning to you - if you are going geocaching in unknown woods and are allergic to Poison Ivy - wear long sleeves ;-)

Should I stay or should I go now?

Change.
Life is full of changes - some expected, some unexpected.
I find myself today at a crossroads - a chance has come for a major change in my life and the time to make the decision is short.

I have been with my current employer in various forms since 8/8/88, almost 19 years now.
An Opportunity has arisen to leave this employer and join a MUCH smaller company, a company where I'll be more than just an ID number on my badge.

After being with a company for so long, one can start to become complacent - it is a rut, but a comfortable rut.

A lot of people would probably love to be in my situation, happy in the current job - and being enticed by another one to switch. It is definitely a good feeling - to feel wanted.

However, as in most things in life, the decision may look simple on the surface, but deep down, it is MUCH more complicated.

If I leave my current employer "Company X", I leave behind the many friends I have made over the past 19 years. I also leave behind my reputation and what little "fame" with my co-workers I might have.

"Company Y" offers new challenges and new opportunities, but being a smaller startup company, there is always the nagging worry about how long they will last.
During the "dot com" years of the late 90s, "startups" were equated with shooting stars - flaring up brightly very quickly, but then dying down just as quickly.

"Company X" - my current employer was a startup itself at one time - roughly thirty years ago.
You can bet there were people just like myself having similar thoughts when they had the chance to make the change in their lives and come to work for this company.
For a lot of those people, this was the right move. For others... well...

The decision is not a quick one - I am finding that if I had to make a snap decision - whether to stay or go - my answer keeps changing almost as fast as the hands on my clock.

Unlike the song by the immortal band "The Clash" - there will not be trouble if I stay with "Company X" and I certainly hope there would not be twice as much if I join "Company Y".

Sometime I wish life had an "Undo" button like a word processor - this way you could take a chance, and if it turned out to be the wrong decision - no harm done.

I was told in the interview I will probably have a couple days to decide - to decide "Should I stay or should I go now?"

More geocaching fun!

The wife and I have decided to drop our separate geocaching.com accounts and create a joint one - "Team Grey Cat". This was inspired by some of the log book entries I have read in the caches I have seen - primarily by "Team Little Bear". "TLB" has a signature piece, a small rubber teddy bear which they deposit in caches that are large enough for trade items.
Now, we of course want something similar - a small grey cat - in honor of the first cat we got soon after getting married back in 1989.

Since we had no Mothers Day plans (possibly because we have no kids) we decided to get some geocaching in this afternoon - the weather was perfect, almost 70 degrees!

A couple of hours later and TGC now have 4 finds to their credit ;-)

One of the caches we found was approximately a 1/2 mile from our house - so unless you live in a houseboat on the water, the odds are good that there are geocaches to be found near you.

Of the caches we have found so far, I much prefer the isolated ones - isolated from the public's eyes that is. Two of our finds were in very public areas, and I was pretty concious of the people who might be curious what we were doing. I'd hate to be the ones who result in caches being discontinued due to their discovery by muggles! ('Muggles' - being the term for non-geocaching folk natch)

While I do prefer the woodsy finds since I don't have to worry about us being seen, I do have other worries - namely that the bush I just brushed past was poison ivy! If you have never gotten a reaction from poision ivy in your life, the odds are good that you are not allergic to that plant and have nothing to fear from it. I'm so allergic, I can practically break out by just being shown a picture of the plant ;-)

Note to self: Next time try not to wear shorts and sandles when geocaching in the woods...

GeoCaching - finally

Well, after signing up at www.geocaching.com almost FIVE years ago, I finally went out geocaching with an experienced friend and logged my first 7 finds on Saturday :-)

Geocaching has long been one of those things I thought would be fun to try - but never quite found the time to do it. Something more important was always coming up in life - like motorcycling :-D

This past weekend was strangely available - my schedule was clear - and my friend was willing to show me the ropes, so I figured - "go for it"!

Except for slogging through some muddy woods - I had a really good time, and regret that it took me this long for my first find. On the other hand, I probably have one of the LONGEST "time to first find" on geocaching.com :-)

What? You have never heard of geocaching before?! Geocaching is a fun hobby - sorta like hunting for buried treasure (think pirate treasure!) although instead of a map - you are using LAT and LONG co-ordinates which you retrieve from a website. Every GPS I have seen with a display - can show you where you are at on Earth by displaying the LAT and LONG co-ords.

Most GPS's should be able to allow you to navigate to pre-set co-ordinates - by showing a directional arrow and a distance remaining counter.

You simply walk in the direction of the cache until you are approximately 20 feet from where it "should be" - and then the fun begins!

Unless you have a military grade GPS - your GPS is usually only accurate to within about 15 feet - assuming the person who stashed the cache also was +/- 15 feet when they recorded the co-ordinates, this means you could actually be 30 feet away when you think you are "there".

Have no fear though - if you are in the right area, you SHOULD be able to locate the cache.
Just do not give into temptation and wander too far from your starting point.

I encountered three sizes of caches on my expedition - a "traditional" cache the size of a large mayonnaise jar, a much smaller "micro" cache made from a 35mm film container, and a cache that simply consisted of a small brass tag with more co-ordinates on it.

The first two types usually contain either a log book or log sheet depending on the space available inside it. When you find a cache - be sure to sign the log with your user name and the date you found it. Then - carefully put it back for the next hunter to find.

The brass tag was part of what is called a "multi-cache" - which as the name implies, means there is more than one part to the find.

The multi-cache we completed required finding the preliminary hides which provided co-ords for the next next - until you arrive at the cache container itself.

The caches each have a name determined by whomever placed the cache and maintains it - and a reference code assigned by geocaching.com.

It is important to write down the caches you have found, so when you are done for the day, you can log your finds on geocaching.com for all the world to see :-)

If you have read this far, you are probably interested in Geocaching are wondering how you can dive into this exciting and fun hobby also!
Well - the only real piece of equipment you need is a handheld GPS receiver, there are tons of different models available at all imagineable price ranges.
As with all things - you get what you pay for, the more expensive models have more features than the less expensive ones. Which GPS should you start with? That is a personal decision - if you are just dipping your toe in to see if you'd like it - I'd recommend seeing if you could borrow someones older GPS. Or better yet - find someone with a GPS who is already into Geocaching and see if they will go hunting with you!

Going alone after your first find can be frustrating - especially if you spend a half hour searching and come up empty handed. A couple DNF's (did not find) under your belt can be depressing and may result in your losing interest. All the more reason to go hunting with a friend.

Who knows - maybe after you have logged some finds - you may want to place a cache of your own for others to find!

Well, here goes nothing

Hello cruel world!