3 Gargoyles and a Potato

It came down in buckets all morning, so we watched some DVDs to pass the time, TDTVS Season 5 Episodes 2 & 3 and Disc 1 of Series 1 of an English police show called Blue Murder.

About mid afternoon we couldn’t bear to stay inside any longer and hopped in the car with GPS in hand. There were several new caches on the north side of town that were begging to be found. And we found 6 of the seven attempted. One was in a magnetic key holder, another in a Jack Daniels bottle, three in small gargoyle statues and another in plastic potato. The one we missed must have been hidden using a Romulan Cloaking Device.

Tomorrow a road trip is planned to continue our state challenges. We are aiming to fill a couple of holes by bagging the elusive Sumter County and DeLorme Pages 45 & 47.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 514

Accidental Geocaching

Algae Covered PondAfter spending the morning cooking (quiche, bread, cookies, lasagna) and watching TV (5 “Christmas” episodes of West Wing) we decided to get out and take a walk in Hitchcock Woods before the threatened rains came (still waiting.)

We walked the Palmetto Trail and had a pleasant little walk except for the time I slipped trying to avoid a muddy spot and got my knee dirty. On the way back up the hill from Crazy Creek towards our car Donna said, “Didn’t there used to be a cache around here?” “Yeah, ” I said, “I remember we had to ask for a hint from the CO.” She wondered out loud, “Think it is still there?” I allowed that it probably wasn’t, as it, along with ours and others, got caught up in the Great Hitchcock Woods Cache Purge of ’09. We looked over towards the small tree it was hidden in and there it was, still hanging in a branch eye high. It was easily spotted because of the lack of foliage this time of year.

We went over and opened it up and right on top was a Travel Bug. Poor thing it had been stranded there since July. We decided to take it with us and then after some consideration we decided to take the cache itself. It was supposed to be picked up and removed by the owner in August. We’ll move the TB along and I’ll contact the owner and see if she wants her container back.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 514

102,000 Gray Hairs in My Beard

We went to Kroger this evening to buy supplies for the 4 day Christmas holiday we have off work, needed the stuff to make a Paula Dean breakfast quiche we saw her do yesterday. Plus various other things to keep us fed on Christmas Day because the Weather Channel is telling us we have an 80% chance of T-Storms on the 25th.

Apparently Wednesday is Senior Discount Day because the cashier took 5% off our total when we checked out. The demarcation line is 55 and even though I still have 9 months to go until I reach it, I didn’t correct her, I’ll take any $2.38 break on groceries I can get. Must have been all the gray hair in my beard, couldn’t have been the thinning hair on my head because that was all covered up in a Santa hat that I wore all day.

On the way home I noticed that the Emperor was a few miles north of the 102,000 mile mark…

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 513

Christmas In Hopelands

Every year the city lights up the nearby Hopeland Gardens and tonight was one of our semi-frequent visits to the event. We just went ahead and walked the 1-1/2 mile, one way trip over, which makes more sense than driving a mile to park the car and ride the 2 miles on the mandatory shuttle bus. I took along the camera using my walking stick as a monopod. It is amazing how hard it is to hold that combination steady for the 3 to 4 secs of required exposure, even with propping it against the something. To overcompensate I tried some intentional movements with only a couple of minor successes.

Carolers Nativity Scene Skaters
Cartrails Present Horse and Carriage

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 513

Feeling A Little Like Hansel

Along with the usual cornucopia of food stuffs that I normally get in my lunch, I had a bonus, a a 2oz. bag of Zapp’s Hotter ‘N Hot Jalapeno Potato Chips. The Accounting Manager had some pound cake in her office. In a cube in PIC there was both a German Chocolate Cake and a sort of Lazy Man’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Thing, i.e. one big thin cookie from a tray and chopped up. The department next door had their holiday luncheon and had left over (large) Chocolate Chip Cookies. In the afternoon there mysteriously appeared a Whitman Sampler box in Engineering. On our doorstep when we got home was a Christmas box from my brother that included chocolate and cajun cashews, a chocolate peanut cluster thing and some almond wafers.

I am a little nervous that one day soon I will walk into a darkened room, someone will lock me in and then up the heat.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 513

Sweet Home Augusta

This afternoon I did something I should have done yesterday, wash the car. Today was the last 3rd Saturday of the month Miata Club breakfast event of the year and the Emperor was still wearing the dirt he picked up in Florida from Thanksgiving. I usually wash the car before a Club event, but recently I have been letting that slip. Maybe because the countdown clock is under 365…

The TV situation is so bad that I am intentionally watching Sweet Home Alabama.

I miss Mad Men.

Started down, went up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 513

Break's Over

After 3 weeks of not geocaching, we ventured out of the house this morning with GPSr in hand. A couple hours later we had found 4 (Donna 3, Brian 1) and missed two. One of the ones we missed was one we missed before, but that was because the second and final stage was MIA. It was just replaced about a week ago and I don’t know if we were the first to try and retrieve it, nobody had logged a find or a DNF, but when we plugged in the coords it was pointing about 40′ outside the park. Didn’t seem right, so we went back to the first stage again to check if we had the right numbers. Yep.

Emailed the cache owner and she said it was halfway between stage 1 and where stage 2 was before and it definitely was inside the park. She said she would check on it after the holidays when she gets back from Florida. But the seed of doubt has been planted, we are going to have to go back and triple check to make sure we got the final stage coordinates right.

We are at 291 finds and have a goal of making it to 300 by years end. Shouldn’t be too hard as long as the Christmas weekend weather isn’t too rainy.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 510