The Team

My "stats" are down. I go and check on my own hides, to make sure I can find THEM! Add a geocoin, to one of them, to boost some business. Hey, people MINE are easy hides, no ticks, no scary woods, it has everything but a neon sign pointing to it! As I search some new caches, I see that some people, must cache in teams. Like the log will say, "found with Team Razor". Hey, now... that is a new idea. That may be the answer, I will get a team together, we will cache together, pick ticks off each other and have great stories to tell. Ok now.....who could I put on a team? Well....peanut is having triplets, so that is definitely a big NO! The pot stirrer, is really not into geocaching, especially after the whole cannon thing. My friend Ray is STILL gone. So, that leaves.... uhhh, no one. Well, I guess I have my "other" friends. Before the days of geocaching, I got through the winters with netflix. So, I am up-to-date and personally friends with quite a few people. So...on MY TEAM, the first pick, of course, is Goldy, he would Love to do this. Then Grissom ( from CSI) he would be perfect for all the bugs, picking them up and calling them all by their Latin names. And since I truly do believe in Love stories, I will let him bring Sara with him. Now, I know, 1st Sgt, you would want Mariska Hargitay ( Law & Order: SVU), but NO, you can't. Besides 1st Sgt you will be with Jonas (from The Unit) You two can Roger this and Roger that. He is also the Allstate insurance spokes person, just in case. Now from Lost, I kinda like Hurley, ( we walk about the same pace) but in reality, everyone loves the "bad boy", so I am going with Sawyer. You should realize by now, that I would never take Jack, because he is a doctor...and I deal with Doctors all day long. And let me assure you, NONE of them, are like Jack! Besides Jack needs to stay on the island and repair Fiona's ( Burn Notice) lips. There is no way I am taking Michael ( Burn Notice) with the sunglasses and the suit, I think he will be an easy target for Muggles. So Sam it is. After all, Sam reminds me of Big Sis's husband. ( Pinkie ring and all) So...there is THE TEAM. Someone have their people contact my people.

Note to self: I need to get a life.

Consult...1st Sgt

I still wake up itching, but I no longer dream of ticks, I am dreaming of cannons! Where is that cache? I decide to send off an e-mail to 1st Sgt. I tell him to look up cache # blah, blah, blah. I tell him we scoured the cannon, we couldn't find it. I tell him it is a "magnetic", so "You think it is a bolt? What say you?" And then when he responds, it just totally rips my mind. Now remember he is clear across the United States! He responds, " It is in the tail of the missile" What? I just KNOW he is smirking! The tail of the missile. Did I TELL him there was a missile there? NO... Has he been there? NO... Did I check the tail of the missile? NO.. Does he know what the heck he is talking about? Probably. This is killing me. How, did he do that? I put, what little brain cells I have left, to work. I re-read the cache info. Yep, it refers to the previous cache. I look up the original cache. Here it tells the story of a veterans memorial park, it talks about the various memorials, and the people in his family that served. It does not mention cannons or missiles. It does talk about "right wing" and "left wing" politics. NOW... we are talking, so I deduct that 1st Sgt reads the original and guesses the missiles due to the "right and left wing" comment. After all, the missiles would be under the wings, right? Hell, I don't know! I relay the info to the" pot stirrer." Even though she doesn't let on, I think she is down right impressed. I know I was. She thinks he "googled" an earth map, and saw the missiles? Yea right. The pot stirrer won't go back. She says it is not there! She says the gps did not take us anywhere, BUT the cannon. She says, she was more intimate with that cannon anything in her life! She is NOT going back! Period! Well then... This still killing me, is it in the missile? Is 1st Sgt right? Did he google the site? Well, the only way to find out is...just as I did. I put the cache on my watch list, and after the next person finds it, I will go back... in the meantime, I tell myself it has been muggled! ( Geez, " in the missile")

Loser, loser, loser

This whole tick thing has me paranoid. I have washed all the sheets, all the comforters, shampooed the carpets, and inspected the dogs. I even touched my " roots" up with some hair color, knowing the smell alone should kill anything that is crawling. But I continue to have nightmares about ticks, woods and flying monkeys. To cure this, I am going out for a normal day of caching, and I am taking the " pot stirrer". Now, she is the first to admit that she doesn't have the " drive" to geocache, as I do, but she goes along, "to keep me alive". Nice. So we head out to a town...how hard is a town? We pick up a couple of "no brainers" and then we get to the park. This is a cache, that has been adopted from a previous owner. According to the story, the previous owner disappeared, or something. The cache had been disabled, but some cachers,( who had found the cache earlier) checked on it, the cache was still there ( kinda hard to find) in a cool hide, so they adopted it. Still following me? So, we follow the present directions, which doesn't say too much, but it takes us to a cannon. We know it is magnetic. We search....we search...we search. No luck. We read the other logs. We have been in the same place as everyone else. We found the birds nests, we found the wasp nests, we found everything but the cache! We had our hands in every nook and cranny of that cannon! It is not there! Ok, so one of the other logs said it was " a find" on his 4th try! No, way we are getting it today! We are going insane. The "pot stirrer" is fed up! It is not here! So, we reluctantly leave. I am starting to feel these losses. I am starting to take this personally! I am ready to turn in my geocaching patch. I am not worthy. But, I say on the way home...maybe it is a bolt? Yep, that has to be it... a green bolt.

The "other " cache.

When I finally make it back to the car, I realize my hands are shaking. That was ridiculous! What was I thinking? So I turn on the I-phone, and head for my next cache. Hard to believe, I was lost in the woods for 45 minutes! The next cache is on a trail, where I was with my friend, the pot stirrer. Not a bad trail, but a long one, so I think I will just go to the college, the back corner of the college, and cut into the trail. Not like I have ever been that way, but it should work. So, when the TT wants me to turn ( into a "bad" neighborhood) I ignore him...I will just go to the college. I arrive safely, no one in sight...but according to my I-phone I am no where near this cache. Ok, enough is enough. It, of course, must be the I-phone. So, I leave and go to the entrance of the trail, so If I have to walk 3 miles, then I will walk, but I will go home with this travel bug! There is one car there ( empty) and now I am paranoid, so I need to re-think this. I check the info on the I-phone ( yes, of course, I bypass the screen warning of how geocaching can be dangerous ) So, wait, what side of the river is thing on? It wants me to go on the other side, by the boat docks. ( Yes, 1st Sgt's gps system points out rivers and creeks... of course it does!) But MINE does not. Hmmm...it is a holiday weekend, there is a fishing derby taking place. With every boat , there is at least, one drinker. Oh screw it... I am out of here. So, I head home. I dial the pot stirrer up on the phone. Now, normally everyone answers the phone with hello, or yea, or something. Not, " did you get the travel bug?" So, of course, I answer " Nah... decided not to, What?...margaritas? Sure, I am on my way". I am such a loser!

The wizard of Oz

When we were growing up, every year, and I mean EVERY YEAR, we watched The Wizard of Oz, and every year, I was scared out of my mind. I was under the covers (every year,) at the same point in the movie! But( none the less) the next year, we would do it all over again!! I think I liked the cowardly lion, but maybe I should have related to the scarecrow. Because suddenly I am in the "witches woods", acting like the scarecrow ( If I only had a brain) Just a "few feet down the path", turned into just a" few feet into the grasses". My I-phone could not pick up a gps location, due to the height of the grass. And I am looking for... what? Oh, yea a "tall clump of grass" I just kept putting one foot in front of the other. I didn't want to look down, just in case I saw a snake. Do we even have snakes here? And, what would I DO if I did see a snake? There was no way anyone could run in this ! I decide this is crazy. The travel bug will just have to sit. So, I head back to the dirt trail, but, ( as you can only imagine) I am turned around. The tall grasses lead me into a chained link fence. Where was there a chain link fence? OK...focus. Chain link should be around...where?... the outside maybe? Ok, just head out of the grass and for tall trees. I finally find myself on a dirt trail, with a steep incline. Now, that wasn't there when I entered, so obviously I am lost. My I-phone says I am 1.4 miles from the cache, how is that possible? I just want to get out. It was way TOO quiet, some animals were making scary noises ( I swear "it" was calling my name) and I was just waiting for the flying monkeys to appear. My first thought is ...what would 1st Sgt do? . Lets be realistic here...1st Sgt would NOT be here...not in tick filled grasses over his head, not with a gps of this caliper, not in these Woods. ( he will never admit it, but the flying monkeys scared him too) second thought... no one would find my body till...when? I decide to put my scouting skills to the test. Yea! what skills? I take a deep breath and head towards some light. When I finally see some light and asphalt, I brush off the seed pods, the ticks, and the thorns and head for my car. Well, the other cache with a travel bug... is on the way home.

Now is NOT the time.

After doing a 13 hour shift, I check the web site and see a couple of nearby caches, with travel bugs! Hmmm... well, I could just jot over there and pick up a coin, or bug or whatever. See, it is whatever, that I should have been concerned with. According to my new obtained knowledge, this travelbug has been sitting there for a month now! Totally unacceptable. These bugs got to move. Since one is only 2.7 miles away, It is like it is calling me! So, I head out, turn the TT on, and I am off. In my mind I know it is located at a certain, family oriented park, nice trails, easy cache. So, when TT tells me to turn left...I am a little confused, but you know, he does know his way around. I just do what he tells me. I am now winding in and out, up and down side streets, only to end up by... the sewer plant? Ok, lets check this out. I guess I never knew there was a little park back there, but what the heck. How hard can this be? The cach info says it is a terrain of 3, size regular, Tupperware container. The hint says look for a large clump of grass. I spray myself down with off. It is 85 degrees out. I head down the asphalt, not whistling ( because I can't whistle) but you get the idea. The info says follow the deer path? Ok now, we are getting serious! Is the deer path, the same as the dirt bike path? And the grasses to the side, are up to my chest! You have got to be kidding!! I think I saw the ticks doing somersaults, off the tops of some over grown bushes. No, way I am not going in. This makes caches that1st Sgt and I did in look like a kiddy park. Finally I get my wits about me. This is a park, I have never been in..The trails are undefined...the ticks are waiting...the "lump of tall grass" is long gone, just down right drowned! It wasn't like a bolt of lightening from above, but I did suddenly see the light. This is why, the travel bug has been sitting for 30 days. No one in their right mind, would go in there. Well, maybe just a few feet, to check it out.

Obsessed or Possessed?

My friend Sandy, the pot stirrer, says I am obsessed with this new hobby of mine. I really don't think so, after all, anyone new into geocaching does all the same things. When you are driving down the road, and see a car pulled over, doesn't everyone wonder if they are picking up a cache? Suddenly you can spot trees with great holes...historic signs that would work....gazebos located at the perfect spot... ditches that are waiting for a nano sized , cammo colored, container. They are everywhere! Now possessed, well that one is a different story. We grew up or down , whatever, from a family that I think was truly possessed! I was" skeered" of them. Apparently Big Sis, other sis, and the brother-in-law (future) were not! Not until the night they tee-peed their house. Yep!, that 12 gu shot gun, made a statement. The stories of hell, temptation and damnation had been etched in my head! I was never sure if Ma and Dad heard about it, that actual night, or maybe 15 years later at a Thanksgiving dinner. Those people were possessed!

So, to prove I am not obsessed, I am actually meeting a non-geocacher girlfriend for a drink. I am not taking the TT,( it is only 3 miles straight shot). I will not check in all the bushes before I enter...I will not check for magnetic holders under counters and bar stools... I will not talk geocaching...I will not be on the look out for muggles...I will not turn on my i-phone to the geocaching logo... I will not look for nearby sites...I will not pay for my drink with a geocoin.....I will not leave swag for the tip. I promise!

But, just in case, this whole possessed thing is bothering you...don't worry I plan to drink the devil right out of me! CHEERS!