...even though you have most of the area cache's loaded into your PDA, you should alway check the latest logs to find out if the cache has been disabled by the owner!
Right after work I had to run an errand in Springboro, but had some spare time after that to do some caching. I did a couple and ended up on one that required some walking. The cache logs said that there was a lot of mosquitos in the area so luckily I had some bug spray with me. The bad thing was that I was wearing flip-flops again. I thought I had a pair of tennis shoes with me but I guess they were at home. I did have a pair of socks with me but thought I would look like an ass with socks and flip-flops on. The cache was 2/10ths of a mile so I set out on my little walk. When I reached the edge of the woods I was still a good 200 feet from the cache.
I decided that there should be a better way around it than through what looked like a dense wooded area. At least I had jeans on! I walked around the woods and was able to find a path that led me half way into the woods. From there it was pretty much bushwhacking. I was not too thrilled because I just knew there were snakes waiting to bite my naked toes. Those damn stupid snakes. Also, there were so many spider webs! I ran face-first into a couple of them - yuck! After about 100 feet of bushwhacking my GPSr said that I was within 20 feet of the cache. First off, I was already cussing about the snake potential and all the spiders but what REALLY pissed me off was that this jackass hid a fucking micro in the deep woods where a regular cache should have been! Weinernoggin.
When I arrived at what I though should be ground zero I looked for about 45 minutes. It was hot. I accidentally put my hand on a daddy long leg and had a mini-freak out -ew! I stuck my hand in scary places... okay, I stuck a stick in scary places... still no cache. I finally gave up. I walked out of the woods a different way and had to walk through some farm land with some sort of crop growing. I shook all the bugs and all the leaves I thought were bugs off of me and walked the 2/10ths of a mile back to my car. I think I lost 5lbs by sweating, alone.
Tonight when I got home I looked up the cache and found that it had not only been disabled, but archived as well. Fuck. I did all that looking for nothing! The post said that the cache owner couldn't maintain the cache, which probably meant that he was too freakin' lazy to deal with the mean snakes and scary spiders himself! Grrr.
Who the hell puts a micro in the woods, anyway??
I placed three cache's in Greenville over the weekend. I really can't believe with the places up there, like Annie Oakley's grave, that there aren't more in that area. I have been putting off placing cache's because I was so afraid that I would screw up the coordinates. I pretty much just said WTF and did some anyway. I thought it was pretty funny that Pinewood was FTF on them since I always have a hell of a time finding his. He sent me an email and later called me about one of the cache's that I hid. Apparently, as I had feared, my coordinates were a bit off. I temporarily disabled it and his daughter, who works in Greenville, went and got better coordinates for me. I thought that was really nice of them to do that for me. Sad thing for him is that I now have his phone number and will be calling him for hints on his cache's mercilessly!
After Friday night's game night in Greenville, Sharon and I went to Indiana to do some caching. I got to add another state to my map, which is cool. I dropped off the travel bug and geocoin that I had, also. We woke up late so we didn't do many cache's that day. What's really cool is that in one of the cache's I found a Podcacher card! I was really excited and Sharon was like, WTF? I think it was Team Itchy & Scratchy that dropped it off. I know they live in the area and I have heard their name on the show.
Enough about caching.
My poison ivy is almost gone. That shot worked wonders. Screw creams and pills! I wonder how many shots you can get and at what frequency? I also wonder if the steroid stays in your body for prevention? Probably not. They really should make a spray, like bug spray, that acts as a poison ivy repellent.
Not much else going on. I am craving the sun. I really want to go swimming again. Becky, if you are reading this, let's go swimming!
I miss the beach... the REAL beach,. Lakes are not beaches!
I have been thinking a lot lately on my plan, or lack thereof. I think I have made the decision to go back to South Carolina. I left almost 3 years ago on some bizarre quest to prove myself to me. A lot of shit has happened in three years. I can't even begin to describe the ups and downs. Linda... coming out... moving to Ohio... lesbian drama in Dayton... more lesbian drama in Dayton. I know one thing. I am a totally different person than I was the day I left Charleston. A better person, I think. I will miss the awesome parks that I have discovered geocaching, especially with a certain person and all the other friends that I have made, but there is really nothing here for me. I miss my friends back home... yes, I said "home." My sister's are being losers and not helping my Mom out. Traci does a bit, but the poor woman only leaves the house for doctors appointments. It's just time I give back to the people (or the person that's left) that brought me into this world. So, now that the decision is made, I must make a plan, save money, purge a bunch of belongings. I want to move before the anniversary of the day I left, which I believe is October 15th... 3 years is a long time in the life of a girl.
It's now 12:14am and officially my Dad's birthday... he would have been 60... but, he smoked. C'est la vie.
Happy Birthday Dad!
Ya know, I never claimed to be a butch and most people would laugh that I would even remotely think of myself as butch (which I don't.) I mean, I can change a tire, change a headlight or taillight and do most of the necessary evils that a single person has to do to make it though life, even though I get absolutely no pleasure from doing these things myself most of the time.
Today I decided I was going to conquer the constantly looming task of putting up mini-blinds for a couple of reasons. FIrst, I have a tendency to walk around my apartment half-clothed and the way I look at it is that if the neighbors are looking in, then that is their problem. No one told them to peer through my windows... right? I don't really care about what the neighbors think. Second, my apartment gets so freakin' hot and I kept thinking that if I put some damn blinds up it would be a more pleasing temperature throughout the day.
So....
I had to go to the Dyke Depot to exchange the blinds that Brian got since they were the wrong size. They sat in my trunk for a day or two. I thought of taking my new friend up on her offer to install them for me (since she is the Dyke Depot expert, and all!) but thought that might be a bit much since we are just getting to know each other (and who knows when I might really need her expertise/handywoman talents!) I decided to suck it up and put the damn things up myself... and I am not a fan of mini-blind installation!
I bought a powertool.
Mind you, it's not really a major powertool. It's just an electric screwdriver, but it does come with all sorts of little attachments for the screwdriver head to fit all types of screws. Call me a Princess all you want because I must say that I was pretty damn butch putting these things up... all 7 or them! you should have seen me go!
Sorry neighbors, had to do it!
It's 4 am. What the heck am I doing up?
I think I have poison ivy, or some sort of bizarre reaction to a plant. I have small rashes all over my body, mainly on my left bicep, a couple patches on my neck, on the tops of my feet and several other places. I suppose I should stay out of the woods during the summer, or at least protect myself from unidentified plants! I was looking for a cache by myself last week one day after work. I was wearing jeans, a t-shirt and flip flops (my usual uniform!) I thought the cache would be a simple one since it was off of a bike path. When my GPS brought me close the the cache location I was like, WTF! it was still 20 feet into the woods! I debated on whether to wander into the wooded area since I was wearing flip-flops. If I had tennis shoes on it would be no problem. The snakes can't really bite through Nike's, you see. However, bare flesh in flip flops probably looks pretty enticing to a hungry reptile.
Being the determined person that I am, I decided to venture further to look for the cache. The coordinates brought me to the place most overgrown with vines, weeds and God knows what else. When I walked the "path" (covered in overgrown vines) I did my "snake walk:" which consists of me stomping on the ground chanting "snakes go away!, snakes go away!"... I'm so not joking about this! I ended up finding a snake/walking/poking stick to assist in my search. I used it to lift vines and hit the ground in front of me as I walked (you know... to ward off those snakes). I looked and looked for the cache to no avail. While looking, I also had to dodge the biggest bumble bees that I have ever seen... not so much fun, really. I was getting irritated so I decided to leave the woods.
On the way out, I was accosted by one of the killer bees and in my mini freak-out decided to run through the trees. It was like that scene in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy and the gang get attacked by the trees in the woods. The branches kept scratching me and grabbing on to my clothing. I was poked all over but managed to escape with just a little blood shed (again, not joking!) I called Kat since this was her cache to ask her where the hell it was. She gave me basic directions the same spot where I had searched before. I hung up with her and sat in the cool AC of my car (that would be factory installed AC, and NOT a window unit). I fought back and forth with myself about whether or not to go back to the woods to look again. Again, being a glutton for punishment, and armed with my snake stick, I went back in for a second look.
This time I was a little more bold with my search. I was determined to not let my fear of what lies beneath the vines hinder my search. I tore through the vines like a crazy woman. I still didn't find the damn thing. So, instead of getting an insignificant small trinket as my reward for finding the cache, I now have an itchy rash instead. Kat later told me that another cacher was stung twice when looking for the cache. Having been stung recently I have decided to not look again until Fall. I really need to stick with urban micro's, but I think I have done them all in Dayton!
Sharon is naming a cache in my honor. She sent me a text today asking if she could use my name in her cache title. Of course I was totally curious about why she would want to do that so I called her. Apparently she put her first cache together - an ambitious multi, at that! She wanted to call it "Pero's Pesky Po-Po Park". She's putting it near where I was pulled over for speeding in Centerville - I was laughing my ass off!
Nothing much else happening these days. I'm making new and interesting friends, so that's fun. I will be meeting one in particular this week and am really looking forward to it! I need to remember to keep my freak in my pocket because I normally tend to let my freak flag fly and that gets me in trouble most of the time. I'm trying to not be too optimistic because that would go against my newly embraced cynicism and bitterness towards relationships and we can't let that happen... now can we?
I enjoy living alone. Strange how one forgets these things in such a short time. I like silence... not that there's much of that on Xenia Avenue with Brian's non-stop barking dogs and the barrio next door. BUT, I can hear the birds chirp amidst the sounds of the passing cars so I know that nature is not that far away... AND if there's a mess, it's my mess AND I can walk around naked if I want! Perhaps I should get some mini blinds for the windows in the dining room and living room? Ah, well.... they shouldn't be looking in my house anyway!
What I should be doing instead of blogging is gathering my camping gear! Why do I always wait until the last minute to pack and shove everything (even things I don't need) in my car? I am looking forward to the escape from life's drama. My skin needs sun and my mind needs the fresh air desperately. I am feeling optimistic. Must have been the mention of doors opening and closing to get me thinking in the right direction :)
In other news, I am the proud owner of a brand spankin' new microwave. I suppose that I can now stop cooking my pre-cooked bacon in my hot pot, which is really meant for water! Thanks Mya, Cleo and Aflac!
(And yes, Sharon... they still make regular popcorn that you have to cook on the stove! I saw it at Wal Mart tonight and thought of you!)
Being (sort of) from South Carolina I am used to weird things and strange people. This week I saw a couple of unexplainable things in Ohio that made me think South Carolina isn't so backward after all!
First, while geocaching in Piqua, I saw an old 1970's-style van with an AC installed in the back window. It was parked along the side of the street. I was driving so I didn't really get a good look. Days later I still wonder where the AC unit plugs in and if they drive this thing or live in it? I will be in Piqua this weekend so if I see it again I will be sure to take a picture. What was I thinking by not taking a picture of such a thing?
The following day, speaking of air conditioners, I had to shop for one because the one in my apartment went out. A friend suggested I got to Big Lots to see if they had any cheap one. When I got out of my car I heard a bunch of noise and wasn't quite sure what was happening. Well, up on the sidewalk, in front of the store, they had a table set up. On the table was a karaoke machine. On the front of the table was a sign that read "Sing a song and get a gift!" Behind the table were two scary Big Lots employees... one was singing "Wild Thing"
I don't frequent Big Lots often and now I know why.
Needless to say, I didn't get a gift.
