Musings about Geocaching: 2007-12-16

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Some new maps of my Found and Hidden caches

Yesterday I had a great time caching with fisnjack and dillweed. When I cache with either of them, we usually go for long hikes, like my recent hike with dillweed around the west side of Mt. McGinty, or the hike all three of us took out to Morena Butte, or the hike fisnjack and I made through the burned area near Lake Hodges.

This time we found a number of "urban/suburban" caches. I revisited some I found a couple of years ago. It was good to see that these little caches were still in place, and still "doing their jobs" after a couple of years. I found a total of 13 caches and had three DNFs. One of those was hidden where there was no legal parking. I don't know what cache hiders are thinking when they do that . . .

The sky was extraordinarily clear when we hiked to a couple of caches above a new housing development where the homes have million-dollar views.

After logging my finds and moving those caches to my Found database in GSAK, I created a .gpx file I uploaded to the ".gpx Maptool" on the Keen People site. I produced this map with lots of magenta "pearls" all over San Diego County.

I also updated my Placed map which now includes my third Terracache, the one I placed on the top of Twin Peaks in Poway and the first Waypoint for my "San Diego "Historic" Cache Adventure -- V.2.0," a cache that has only been found twice, the second time just today, by FlagMan. There are still a few other cachers working on this challenge.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

You know you're addicted when . . .

A friend sent me this email this morning. I don't know who the original author is, but there have been a few threads in the Geocaching Forums like this:

We woke up this morning with a feeling of grave agitation and high anxiety. Our hands were shaking, our eyes were watery and we had a driving desire to go outside. After a few minutes of searching our symptoms on the Internet we quickly found that we were suffering from “Obsessive Compulsive Cache Craving Syndrome” or OCCCS. There is no question, we are addicted to Geocaching!

You know that you are addicted to Geocaching when:

A colleague brings out their Tupperware lunch box and you automatically reach for your pen to sign the log book.

You can’t walk down a path without thinking, “Hmmm, that’ll be a good place for a cache!”

You type in your home co-ords and not the phone number.

Your idea of decorating the Christmas tree is to conceal all the presents at its foot, beneath a camo covering of tinsel.

Your idea of gift-giving is to hide the gifts in the garden with co-ords and a clue.

You are watching TV and think “that’s a beautiful place; I wonder where the nearest cache is?’”

You purposely take the kids to McDonalds to buy them a happy meal so you can pinch the toy to use as a swap.

You leave your PC and first to find running overnight, with the volume cranked right up - just in case…

You give directions by which caches are passed, instead of which pubs are passed.

You start having nightmares about muggled caches.

You sort through your pockets at the checkout at the supermarket and can only offer Geocoins.

The Easter Egg hunt you organize for your nephews involves the use of GPs units and is in the form of a Multi.

You automatically look around to ensure that you are not being observed before opening your lunch box at work.

You routinely gauge everyday object for their suitability as cache containers.

You spend more money on trinkets and swaps than you do on fruit and veggies.

Your party invitations include GPS coordinates.

You always look up caches before you go anywhere.

You waypoint your car at the shopping mall.

You panic because you forgot to waypoint your car at the shopping mall.

You consider moving because you’ve already found all the caches in your area.

You see a commercial for the new "Folgers AromaSeal Canister" and think "Wow that would make a great cache container!"

You are considering buying a new car and before you worry about airbags you think....is this a good caching vehicle for a terrain 5?

A dollar store is exciting.

You plan your vacation with cache density in mind.

You use your GPSr to go to the local store for a bottle of milk (and you label the final destination as milk)

Whenever you plan to go anywhere you call and ask for coords before heading out.

You skip breakfast to run out at 0-dark-thirty to get a new cache before work.

You come home late because you had to stop off for that new cache after work.

You come back to work dirty and smelly, because you went after that new cache instead of eating lunch.

While driving to work, or church, or the store, you are looking for the next spot to place a cache.

You have the local Army Surplus store on speed-dial.

You have the local Army Surplus store waypointed.

You get the Geocaching icon tattooed on your body

Your friends call you giving the coordinates of the new caches they hid even before they are posted on the web site.

You do groceries based on the type of containers the items come in.

Your house has no small items left in it. All trinkets are hidden in caches somewhere.

You pray your boss doesn't find out how much time your spending geocaching or reading the forums instead of working.

You pass out your calling card many more times that your business card.

You spend more time at night preparing for the next days cache than you do preparing for the next days work.

Your 4 year old is more concerned about going out in this weather than you are, and you find yourself telling him it’s fine, let go.

That book shelf you where going to build for the wife sits unfinished, but you have 37 new sig item ideas in progress on the workbench.

You are conducting a statistical analysis of trade item value based on demographic location and container size, and your spouse is not only interested, but helping.

Your first step when planning a trip is checking out what caches are there.

You consider driving instead of flying to Florida for the sole purpose of finding caches on the way down. Wife won that argument and we flew down.

You couldn't care less about the spectacular Illuminations light show at Epcot because you're looking for the micro there.

You're on vacation but do you relax? No! You wake up at 6:00AM and go geocaching.

You know you’re addicted when your license plate reads WGS84, NAD27, NAD83 or any of the like

You find a message in a bottle on the beach, pull out the message, sign it, and throw the bottle back into the surf

You take a nasty fall in the woods breaking all three bones in your left arm in four places. However on your way to the ER, you find 10 more caches and resolve 3 previous DNF's.

Keep on cachin’!

And, you know you aren't feeling well if you go into the big city where there are more than a thousand caches to find . . . and you don't even turn on the GPSr . . .