Victory & Defeat

Lets see...how did this whole thing go so badly? I make the purchase of a "geocaching" lifetime, by finding the cammo tape...I sit up all night, making 7 new caches. I have them in various sizes, shapes, and colors of duct tape. I head out with the potstirrer for a day of great hides. We celebrate with dinner...all is good. I log all my hides...reviewer Jones, approves them all ( see, I must be getting better at this!) And I am on cloud nine. I have climbed up at LEAST 2 rungs, if not 3 rungs, on the Big Boys Geocaching Ladder!!! Life is good! ( This is the "victory" part.)

I go do a couple of shifts at work...that is where the real money is made (until the movie deal comes in) Now...this is where....the story, in my mind...plays over and over in slow motion. I get off work, I check my e-mail, I see where someone has sent me a note through the Geocaching site. Cool, someone has found one of my new caches! Then I read the note, my gut sinks...I have put a wrong number on one of the coordinates! A 5... instead of a 4! The cache info, takes them to the middle of a muddy bean field! That one number takes them, literally, many miles from the actual cache. OMG...in slow motion I can see my head banging on the desk...I have just fallen off the Big Boy Geocaching Ladder! I glance at my e-mails and see I have 12 messages from Geocaching! I can not possibly bring myself to even read them.

I brush myself off...lots of dust, at the bottom of the ladder, I go to the kitchen and grab a fork...I start eating humble pie. ( This is the" Defeat" part)