JohnMac56

Congrats to kini_ont on your milestone!!! I am all set to hit my milestone/goal of 2000 finds by the end of this month/year! I currently have 1907 finds but have found a great series of 126 caches just a short drive south of home. So me and Tamster56 are planning on hitting those 126 caches on the 30th to put me over the top!!! edited to add: MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Unfortunately I have the honor of working on both Christmas eve and Christmas day so that my employees can have those days off to spend with their families so I will not be able to jump in here and say... MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! And remember, if you are drinking eggnog for the holidays, please don't get behind the wheel....

WHAT?!?!?! Say it ain't so.... They are REAL!!!

These arrived last week when we were on our annual cruise to Mexico! Always nice to come home from vacation to a few mailers with coins. Thanks for the trades!!!

Everyday I am thankful just to wake up above ground. I have posted some of this in a different thread here on this forum and will post it again in this thread. As some of you know I have a past history that involves drug addiction. Not abusing prescription drugs but street drugs. For over ten years I was addicted to crack cocaine. It was a very bad time in my life, and used up every waking minute of my life. From the time I woke up in the morning until I finally went to sleep hours and sometimes days later the cocaine ruled my life. It was the first thing on my mind upon waking and the last thing on my mind before I would finally succumb to sleep from exhaustion. Breaking out of that lifestyle took a lot of work on my part and included multiple interventions from the legal system. After being arrested a number of times and spending quite a few days and weeks behind bars I finally took the big step and found myself facing years in prison. Thankfully a compassionate judge saw something in me that I had forgotten was there and gave me one last chance to change my life. Instead of throwing me back into the penal system he offered me a chance to go into rehab instead of prison. He spoke with some of my family members (without my knowledge) to see if they would help support me through the rehab process. They all agreed that I was worth the effort and that they would help in any way they could. So after spending almost two years in a court-operated drug rehab program that involved individual, group and family counseling along with daily drug tests I graduated from the program. My felony drug charges were dropped and I was deemed a worthy citizen again. The program helped me go back to school and earn a degree and also helped me to find and hold a full time job. All of that happened over 12 years ago and I am happy to say that I am still drug free! I had given up most of the good things in life for the drugs; cars, personal belongings, jobs and even let it destroy a marriage. After completing the program I began to get all those things back. To look at me today you would never guess that at one point all I cared about was getting high. Nothing else seemed to matter; family didn't matter, where I slept didn't matter, having a job didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was getting another twenty dollars to get myself high again. So for me I am just thankful everyday that I am alive...

I actually wangled it so that I am not working on this Thanksgiving day! First time in seven years that I will be able to partake in the Thanksgiving day meal. And as an added bonus I am going to not one, but two Thanksgiving dinners!!! The first one will be served about 2:00pm at my mothers house. Most of my family will be there: My mother (of course), both my sisters (eldest sister is the elected cook this year and is cooking two turkeys), both my brothers; and they will all be bringing their spouses, children and grandchildren. Should end up being roughly 20-23 people. The second one will be around 6:00pm and will be at my girlfriends daughters home. This one will be a bit smaller affair with only about six people including myself, my girlfriend, her two daughters, girlfriends grandson and girlfriends mother. Both dinners will feature traditional Thanksgiving foods including: Turkey w/gravy Mashed potatoes Sweet potatoes (Yams) Home made stuffing (Yummiest!!!) Green bean casserole Corn Cranberry jelly Homemade Cranberry/Apple/Orange relish (MMMMM!!!!) Some kind of salad For desert: Pumpkin Pie with loads of Cool Whip Home made Boston cream pie Chocolate Ice Cream cake plus other things that will be brought by brothers and sisters who aren't cooking... I just hope that everyone has a safe and fun Thanksgiving!!!

Yep, I got knocked out because I failed to make a pick last week I did have a good reason for not making my pick, I was on a seven day cruise to MEXICO for vacation and a little geocaching!!! Good luck to all the remaining players....

Todie's Wild Ride II: Scooters are bikes too… 32.8 Miles Todie's Wild Ride II: Pre-Ride Checklist 35.7 Miles Todie's Wild Ride II: Happy Birthday Todie 36.9 Miles Todie's Wild Ride II: I Saw You... But You Didn't See Me… 117.8 Miles Todies Wild Ride II: Look twice, Save a life 400.4 Miles Todie's Wild Ride II: Check your blind spot 420.5 Miles Todie's Wild Ride II: Why didn't I see that motorcycle? 441.1 Miles Todie's Wild Ride II: Stop Driving Distracted, Look For Bikes 988 Miles Todie's Wild Ride II: Save a Biker 1251.9 Miles Todie's Wild Ride II: The SEE system 1384.1 Miles Todie's Wild Ride II: Never Ride Faster Than Your Angel 2039.2 Miles Total 7148.4 Miles

Whenever I am out in the desert hunting down caches I always think of the song 'Where The Streets Have No Name' by U2....

Not to take this topic off subject, but I believe that someone has used this list to further their own commercial gains. I received an email from cachecootie.com and when I went to their site and looked at the current leaderboard I recognized almost every single name there as folks who's names were listed in the geocoin forum user address book spreadsheet. I am wondering if everyone on the list received the same invitation to join up and play on cachecootie.com? I for one am rather upset that someone here may have used this list for their own commercial purpose and abused the trust of everyone on the list. I have done a whois lookup on the registered owner of the domain name cachecootie.com and it is indeed one of the names on this list. I will not post the persons name who I suspect used this list for commercial purposes and spammed myself and other users, if you want to know it just do a whois search for the domain name. Now I am torn between keeping my name on the list or removing it for fear of further spamming from the list. I will have to wait until I calm down a bit after this suspected violation of my trust before making my decision whether to remain on the list or not... edited for spelling...

I too received their email and I have a good suspicion of where they may have obtained the email addresses. PetersTrio, I will send you an email with my suspicions....

I shot these trees a few years ago on a road trip to Idaho in the middle of winter...

Hey Droo! Are these the ones you are looking for??? Since you are going to be so nice to my friend Nikos, I will return the favor. If these are the ones you are looking for, then choose one of the two and send me your address and I will send it right up to you...

Ok, here I am then ... Ok, the boots aren't quite right, but I am going to go to a caching event next !!! Boots are fine, Abby is such a unique character and you did a wonderful job with it. I especially like the Caf Pow in your hand - That shows your attention to detail... Now for the tough one, do you have the tattoos to complete the look???

I love NCIS and think that Abby is one of the best characters on the show! C'mon now that you have teased us, lets see the picture!!!

My final nomination would be for Tsunrisebey... I would have nominated Eartha but dont know the address to send it to if Eartha were chosen.....

Number four nominee would have to be DaFunkyFrogs!@!@!

Nomination #3 is for Write Shop Robert...

For my second nomination I would go with Rockin Roddy!!!

My first nomination would be for DJJRock....

This brought a smile to my face when I saw it and I hope it brings a smile to Heather as well... And as for her costume, I am guessing she is going to be Hanna Montana!!!

Oh my Bro! Man, I feel so bad that all this stuff is happening in your life. I just wish there was something we could do to make it all just go away but unfortunately there isn't anything like that. I know that everyone here is feeling your pain and anguish and we are all praying for you and your family. Just do your best to hold it together and be strong for your loved ones, keeping the family together is a most important thing. I will say a special prayer for you tonight and will ask Diana (Johnslady56) to ask her Native American spirits to lend you the strength you need to persevere through this ordeal (and I know she will burn some sage for you as well). Now that that is said, here are some Halloween pictures that I hope will bring a smile to your face... (none of them are of me or anyone in my family...)

Since I am the one who stays home and scares all the little kiddies (and hands out the candy) I don't get to dress up for Halloween. But Johnslady56 DOES get to dress up for Halloween. Here she is in her Cinderella costume, waiting for her prince....

Bryce Canyon in Utah at sunrise (taken from Sunset point) This is still my favorite photo and is still the background image on my computer...

Don't worry Rod, we're still here!!! This is actually the first time in a few days that I have been able to find a little time to even check my personal email let alone jump on the forums. I know I haven't been around as much lately as I have in the past or to put it another way, I haven't been around here as much as I have wanted to be... But for some strange reason my work has again crept up and taken over most of my time. This is supposed to be a slow time for us at work but this year has been a wacky one. Over the summer (typically our busiest time) it wasn't as busy as it had been in previous years and now during our traditionally 'slow' season we are busier than ever. I guess in a way it is a good sign that our economy is starting to get better but somedays it just sucks... I don't think I have worked less than 10 hours a day in the past month and numerous times it has been up to 14 hours of work in a day. They have been the kind of days that just seem to melt together and never seem to have an end to them. I get up, shower and shave, go to work and then eventually come home, eat dinner and right to bed and do it all over again the next day... I am guessing that a lot of the others who were frequently on here are going through similar things and that is why there doesn't appear to be as much activity here. I noticed that there are not as many people posting in the other threads as well... So don't worry pal, I feel certain that soon everything will turn around and this place will be so busy again that we will all sometimes have a hard time even getting on the forums....