shadango

I entered the Army Reserves when I was a Junior in high school back in 85...via the "split entry" program.....Went to basic training at Ft. Dix....then trained as a 91D---Operating room Technician-- in Ft Sam Houston and then Walter Reed AMC. Stayed in the reserves, attending drills at the 339th General Hospital unit in Pittsburgh PA until right as the Gulf war got started......my time was up and I didnt re-enlist....I have always thought about "what if". I had some friends from my old unit end up going to the Gulf war.....

"The bottles full of syringes rarely withstand the pressure of processing. They pop open in the garbage truck, leaving the "pickers," who have to sift through piles of trash hunting for recyclables, at high risk of getting stuck with a needle that may be contaminated with HIV, hepatitis viruses or other bloodborne pathogens." Sorry...I know this is an old thread but I just found it.....and had to add my $.02 My opinion is that the solution is to get rid of the pickers and institute a more reasonable (and less digusting) means of recycling...In our community, we have recycling containers that we put our recyclables in for pickup. Eliminates the issue. Contaminated needles are not the only dangers for these "pickers"......rusty razor blades, sharp metal garbage, feces-filled diapers etc etc etc all pose severe health risks for these folks. I think the point I am making is this: While disposing of a used needle in a pop bottle may not be the "best" way to dispose of it, it is certainly a better alternative to leaving it lay on the ground for the next person to deal with or worse yet step on....writing it down in a log book or posting the info on a website is not a good solution. Calling the authorities is better, and taking steps to mitigate the risk yourself is even better. You can get infected from a contaminated needle by touching just the plastic portion of it as much as you can get AIDS from a toilet seat.....unless you have open wounds, you won't. True, a kid shouldn't handle the needle.....but a responsible adult can (should be able to) pickup the needle/syringe and dispose of it with little risk to themselves...... Ideally, the folks using these would dispose of them properly.....but since they don't we as responsible folk have to pick up their slack so that others wont get hurt...or at least that is how it SHOULD work.....Although these days everyone is in it for themselves, so its no surprise that folks dont want to get involved. But as far as the danger: We cache in places where we can step on a poisonous snake, fall off cliffs, get stung by bees/wasps, get poison ivy, get infected with Lyme Diesease, be attacked from some psycho in the woods and a host of other perils but balk at the thought of getting cooties from an inanimate piece of plastic? Handle it properly and the threat is much less than those I mentioned, because you are controlling it. Education on HOW to handle it is the key. Come on folks....we chant the CITO mantra but leave dangerous items laying there??? Sure, it's inconvenient to find a way to transport a needle out....but then, I have hauled a stinky bag of CITOd garbage in the back of my truck 20 miles til I found a public trash facility, so thats just me. I say, leave the trash and get rid of the dangerous stuff, if you have to choose one to participate in.

"Following protocol is not an excuse either. That is what the guards in the Nazi death camps were doing. " I would say that murdering people is a lot different than blowing up a box or stopping an internet game.... But point taken......True, protocol shouldn't over-rule good sense. But unfortunately we live in a world that punishes people for thinking outside of the box, especially in the "law and order" realm. Protocol is there for a reason....if the protocol is defective it should be repaired. That way everyone is theoretically protected. But we know that isn't reality..... I guess it really is perspective. I dont view them blowing up a box as taking my freedom, I look at it as possibly protecting someone else's. If the game starts to create too many issues, then that has to be looked at....SOMEONE has to pay for the ramifications, even if they are caused by "paranoid" people "panicking". My neighbor called the cops on me after I stopped in front of her house to have a word with her after she almost ran me off the road. She told the police that I was in "road rage". So they had to followup. They said she came across as irrational and that they just had to followup. From her perspective, I guess maybe I may have scared her (though not as much as when she almost ran me off the road)....so the cops did what they had to do....she has as much right as I do...and unless a crime has occurred everything is done..... As a country that is only beginning to feel the effects of terrorism, sure there will be incidents like the one about the flour you mention and more like what I went through....becuase people ARE scared and on the defensive whetehr you and I think that is "normal" or not..........there is a learning curve for all. But again, better to err on the side of caution, no matter how silly it may seem to some..... We live in a country where many people want the government to ONLY be involved in their lives where it benefits them...people who want to pick and choose what we do not have to take responsibility for. Some folks I know favor government's intervention into the health care market yet they recoil in terrror when I would suggest that the government might then want control of their guns (true story)....You can't have it both ways. Multiply that by millions of people each with their own agendas and theories on how it *should* be. Kind of scarey, really.........

We are not the only ones.....men with dark skin and beard are targetted as terrorists, as is anyone buying large amounts of fertilizer....people who act suspiciously will be targeted....period......Its human nature. Look, these days you basically have to follow the good old rule of "Don't do anything to make yourself look suspicious".... If you DO, then it is at your own risk. The terrorists on 911 stole 4 planes...yet they didn't get caught...was it because they were acting suspicious?? Apparantly not. Oddly, we might learn a bit from them on that front. No one is forcing us to play this game......and it is certainly not a case of life and death or livelihood where we must play it....its a game. The solution to this issue is that folks need to have a little more common sense on hides. If an ammo box is hidden in the middle of a large woods, off the beaten path, it is unlikely to cause folks to panic. If an ammo box is hidden next to a police station or airport, it IS likely to cause a panic. Now, with that being said, is it the fault of the police for following protocol or is it the hider's fault for not looking at how the cache could be percieved by some....? We know the rules of the game as well as the state of our world going into this game......."it's just a game" doesn't give us the right to throw common sense and respect for others out the window.

It's not always that easy. As others have said, the owner could be one of three, out of town, or whatever.....in those cases, what then? The police have to err on the side of caution for the greater protection. shadango

My feelings are: The cache is a community chest of sorts and represents all the folks who came before you. I dont mind of a political or religious item is there....finding that item will not sway me from my personal beliefs so what harm is there?? As long as everyone trades equal or up, it shouldnt matter....Trade for what you want and ignore the rest...you will never visit that cache again, so who cares? There is one cache that is in my area that is a dog-toy themed cache. Not being a big pet lover, I was a little disappointed, but I did the ache anyways and had a good time doing it. My 5 year old couldnt understand why we couldnt really take anything, but we had a good time finding it anyways and reading the log. Isn't THAT the sport? More on topic: Kid loves McD toys (in fact we have a travel bug that is a McD toy) and he also loves golf balls (go figure)......I would prefer to find tools and maybe a couple hundred in small unmarked bills, but I am not holding my breath.... I havent really found anything that was terible.....although we found one cache that was a bunch of rubber bands, paperclips, etc......Disappointing but the find was fun.

I have ben thinking about placing another cache, this time in a ammo can.....But I havent gotten around to buying one... Well, on teh way home yesterday, what did I find?? Someone was throwing out a perfectly good ammo box!!! I was on my motorcycle but needless to say I couldnt pass it up......interesting ride home, but hey I got a free ammo box! I guess I need to plan out my next cahce now! Just thought I would share that....

Amen....I think that he is making light of it because, really, that is all that is left to do after getting medical treatment. That, and cross your fingers. It's either make light of it or get all panicky over it,. LD is a serious health issue, but so is heart attack, stroke, obesity, alcoholism and so forth....and we all make fun of them everyday....have you ever told a "two drunks walked out a bar" joke or made an alzheimers joke?? We tend to make light of things that we dont have answers for. *ALL* are preventable, but only to a degree..... Really, there is no guaranteed way to prevent LD...sure you can spray the bug repellent on you and wear long clothes, etc....but that is no guarantee.....the only guarantee is to NOT go into tick-populated areas, which means that caching would be out of the question for many of us if we were to subscribe to that rule. And even then, you can pickup a tick in your back yard mowing the grass. I ride a motorcycle everyday and I take all the precautions I can ...but I know that there is risk involved.....if I go down I can be hurt seriously or killed......I have poked fun at myself describing that I would be "hamburger" if I went down while riding on the highway at 70 mph.....I am crossing my fingers and doing everything I can to NOT have that happen, but sometimes fate is a big part of what happenes to a person. And understanding that and not hitting the ceiling over it is the biggest part of dealing with a health issue, and with life, I believe. shadango

I think that the map sizes were pretty close to the same as when I did the same trip last year, so the same ones were left out.....But the ones that were left out were only the ones where my route followed a MAJOR interstate, so it should have been fine with the basemaps.... This year it just acted funky.......even after recalculating, it strayed from teh basemaps.... I am pretty sure I am up to date on the firmware but will check that as well.... "You should open CS6 in Mapsource on your computer and make sure all all the map segmens are CS6 and all the waypoints are done against the CS6 maps and the route is done using the waypoints against the CS6 maps. " Well, I created a route from scratoch theoretically suing CS6 (that is what was shown in the op drop down).....Not sure how I can check to see if some map sdegments are CS4 and CS6....I would have thought they would all be one or the other....? Thanks for your help!

Does anyone have any thoughts on this??? I would appreciate the help... Thanks... shadango

I apologize in adavance for the length of this, but I want to be thorough... Have been using my Garmin V for about 18 months now.....taken it a lot of places for chaching and for road navigation.....Been pretty happy with it....up till now. I just got back from a trip to the Outerbanks, NC....from Pittsburgh, PA.....and had problems. Now, I recently upgraded to City Select 6 from the CS 4 that came with my Deluxe package.... I had ordered the CD from Garmin and all, and then went to their site......The odd thing is that when I entered the info they required, I recieved back an activation code that worked...but it never required me to pay for the update...I *thought* that there wasa charge for it.... Anyways, when I first called up the routes from last years trip (which worked great by the way) I got a message saying that the routes didint match the available maps.....thinking that this was associated with the new maps, I decided to rebuild the routes.....which takes forvere IMHO.....I have a very specific route I take and I use the GPS more for a backup more that to tell me where to go...Even after the new route was created I got the same message. Now, due to the CitySelects RIDICULOUS clumping of map segments, I could not load EVERY map I needed but loaded all the ones that had specific side streets etc., including the starting and ending points....The only maps left out were those that were just interstate roads. But I attributed the message to the left-out maps.....On the trip DOWN, I did not let it recalculate as it wanted to do.......The thing was ALL OVER the place......the route didnt follow the roads and directions were all goofy.....On the trip back up, I did a brand new route again and got the same message and let it recalculate.....Again, goofy results. Is this a case of the new maps not working with my V? I didnt have this issue last year or on my trip to Boston earlier this year, both which were prior to my getting the "upgrade"..... The maps seem to work fine on the laptop I am using and they are "unlocked"..... Also, on three occasions during my trip this time, the GPSr simply locked up.....froze....I had to remove and reinstall the batteries to get it to work......once it locked up and had a steady beep...like the beep was stuck in on mode.... And lastly, when I tried to "invert" routes, it doesnt translate properly...in other words, if I have a waypoint on a road that goes on the south side of an interstate, when I invert the route it keeps that waypoint and routes me in a big U-turn or loop to cross it.....I think this is probably a user error, but not sure.... Can anyone give me some guidance here??? Thanks all.. DZ

This happened with my V......on my motorcycle... I contacted Garmin and they sent me (free of charge) a little springy gizmo that you put in the battery bay after the first two batteries are in... It worked great. DZ

"Caches are in effect "mass-produced unspecialized products." " I wouldnt agree with that one. Every cache is unique in its own way...

Well, I guess becasue I am so used to my Garmin V I have looked primarlily at the Garmin line......The yellow seems to be the best priced as well...$90 or so..... Althogh I am now considering a Venture or even a Legend, figuring if the kid decides he doesnt want to use it, I can use it as a backup complete with maps........ I dunno.........

If the other fellow falls through I would be interested,., Please email me at zavetsky.dg at mellon.com Thanks!

Does it have the trip computer too?? I find myself confused as ever...Just because I dont want to buy too little GPS for him......I mean, mapping really isnt needed.......but the WASS might be, which it doesnt have...so I have been looking at the venture...... <sigh> Add to that, I wanted to get it for his birthday, which is this weekend.... Yeah, I procrastinated.....

In otherwords, can I punch coordinatesi nto a yellow and press "go to" like on my Garmin V and the Legend?? I am looking for a CHEAP GPS for my 5 year old and the yellow seems like the least expensive option.... Thoughts?? Thanks! shadango

They wanted $24.01 to deliver to Pgh PA......Thats nuts. Shipping should be under $10....more like $6.00.

I dont know if that is 100% on.... Not to bust Warheel's cahounas, but if I owned a parking lot and there was a strange vehicle parked at the deserted opposite end of it, and I see a guy coming out from behind his truck, I might be suspicious as well.....remember, most property owners know what is "normal" for their property, especially if they are there on a daily basis....I would have come out to see what was up. The property owner had every right to inquire, and to state that he was the property owner....If it went down exactly as Warhell explained, I think that his reponses probably did more to make the guy concerned than anything..... A straightforward answer would have probably calmed the guy's concerns, whereas "nothing" sounds like a tennage coverup story....obviously, Warheel was doing SOMETHING there (my Dad made taht abundantly clear everytime I used that "excuse", as I do now with my kiddies)....why not say what it was?? In the owner's mind, that meant potential trouble.....Remember, a property owner can be held liable for activities on his property in many states.....plus it IS his property. This is a typical "fight or flight" reaction and I have done it more times than I'll admit to.... As new cachers, we feel a bit out of place...once we have been seasoned by some of these types of encounters we will know better how to handle it well.... I wouldn't worry about it Warheel....If you are near that area daily, you may want to stop by and visit the fellow, first apologizing for the replies you gave and for leaving him with a bad feeling about what just went down....and explain why it happened and what you were doing....If the fellow is reasonable all will be well and you will have helped a fellow human feel better about something that might keep bugging him for awhile, and maybe even wil a new Gecocaching recruit. If the guy is a jerk, he will not want to hear it and maybe even get a bad taste for Geocaching....but if that IS the case, it is better that the cache be moved or whatever ANYWAYS....andif he's a jerk we wouldn;t want him around anyways, right?? Just my $.02....I wouldn't stress out over it. Shadango

I just want to chime in and second the idea that the pilot has the ultimate decision.... I was travelling on a small jet, a US Airways flight, but the plane was operated by Chataqua (sp?) airlines.....I had read that US Airways was ok with GPS, so I pulled mine out......When the stewardess saw it, she said "Oh, you cant use that up here"...I said "GPS isnt ok?" She said "No." So, I was bummed......didn't think it would be a good idea to argue the point either... shadango

I think much of the article was written toungue in cheek, with the author critiquing his own lack of appreciation for outdoorsy type stuff..... The end of the article made that clear.....he was actually calling attention to the fact that these are people who spend time with their kids instead of setting them in front of a TV screen... On the surface, it DOES seem silly, doesnt it?? Grown adults running around the woods in search of a box of trinkets?? I know I really enjoy it.....but in a day when everyone is so pressed for time etc, I can see how easy it would be to condemn geocaching as another "waste of time".... I didnt see the article as that negative really.....the author's sarcasm is what I think threw some folks..... This thread just goes to show you how the written word can be interpretted in SO many different ways....we should all remember this the next time we punch in a post.... shadango

This topic has been beaten to death itself, but I am always up for more disussion... I'm not too sure that the dead folks really care all that much anymore about what is going on on a 8 foot by 4 foot piece of property they happen to be lying under.... I have seen a dog poop/pee on a gravesite...was that dog dishonoring the person in that grave?? I personally feel like caching is the LEAST offensive thing that can be done by humans on a gravesite......winos that hang out in graveyards, kids that go there to "get wild" and party, etc etc etc ...... I work in downtown Pittsburgh and the whole downtown area is built on an area once inhabited by Native Amercians.....it is very likely that dead folks from LOOOOONG ago are buried somewhere under the streets etc but no one seems to be too worried about those folks..... Dead folks are dead. Their bodies would be dust after a few years if it werent for pickling and cement vaulats and copper/steel caskets...... We should worry more about disprespecting the living than the dead. Just IMHO and my $.02.

Another vote for the V.... I love to autoroute to the parking area and then switch to offroad mode.....I usually have great reception etc...good size, easy to navigate buttons etc while driving/hiking/biking.... shadango

Everytime I get up in the AM and go to work I say the same thing, almost. Hey, caching is supposed to be fun and relaxing....If you arent getting that, maybe its time to take a break from it.......if it seems like work it is no longer fun..... And unless you are after the numbers or you like McD toys, I couldnt see doing geocaching for any other reason BUT relaxing/fun/adventure....Lets face it, unlike most sports or games, no one will ever be declared "winner"...so the goal of the sprt is the hike and the relaxation....at least that is what I see... Just another $.02 shadango

Agreed! I really dont have an extra $75 just laying around but I am bankig on them having done major fixes to all the errors that were in there.....If I get it and my street is STILL reversed numerically, though, I may go off... I had reported that problem a year ago..... I have copied the email thread between myself and Garmin below...if interested... ***************************** Thank you for contacting Garmin International. $75 is the price to update the maps. The cost is less then it would be if you went to a dealer and purchased the version 6 maps. Our maps are made by a third party company. We are charged to have the maps done and unfortunately must pass that charge along. If you have any further questions, please feel free to respond to this email or call Garmin. Best Regards, Scott T. Cowman Product Support Specialist GARMIN International www.garmin.com 1-800-800-1020 Fax 913-397-0836 -----Original Message----- From: shadango Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2004 8:18 AM To: TechSupp Subject: RE: Sales support request for GPS V Thanks Scott..... Is it pretty much a flat $75 upgrade cost?? Like I said, I just bought this thing less than a year ago and the software currently, quite honestly, seems to have quite a few errors in it......$75 is a little steep to get maps that have the correct info.... Thanks in advance (again).... -----Original Message----- From: TechSupp [mailto:techsupp@garmin.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2004 9:10 AM To: shadango Subject: RE: Sales support request for GPS V Thank you for contacting Garmin International. When you downloaded Mapsource v 6.3 off of the internet you updated how the program works on your PC. This did not update the maps. The updates for the maps are on a CD that you must order. I have included a link to our site where you can place the order for the update CD. http://shop.garmin.com/cartography/mapsour..._details.asp?CD =011-00803-05 If you have any further questions, please feel free to respond to this email or call Garmin. Best Regards, Scott T. Cowman Product Support Specialist GARMIN International www.garmin.com 1-800-800-1020 Fax 913-397-0836 -----Original Message----- From: shadango Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2004 6:54 AM To: Garmin Sales Support Subject: Sales support request for GPS V Contact Information: (deleted) Inquiry: Hello... I am hoping for some help.... About a year ago (maybe just under a year....10 months?) I bought a Garmin V....it came with City Select v5 and the full unlock upgrade. I have been very happy in general but found that the data on the maps was outdated and incorrect in some instances....for instance, the street numbers on my street are all reversed....in one neighborhood, I was routed to a treet that couldnt have existed, as it would have taken me over a cliff.... So, I have been waiting for map updates. I understand that City Select v6 is now available. I downloaded the v6 software update on the Garmin site....it seems like the software updated but the maps didn't.... Can you advise what I need to do to get the updated maps??? Thanks in advance.... shadango Request emailed to mobile@garmin.com