Juan E Cache

Not quite caught, but close. I was behind a grocery store in a mall. I checked all the obvious spots for the cache, and all that was left was a phone junction box on a telephone pole. Just as I was about to dismember the box, a police cruiser sauntered by. They eyed me with great interest, but I feigned a coffee break on the nearby lawn and they passed by. The cache was there, I was happy to find it, but I knew I would have had some serious explaining to do if they had caught me red-handed (probably at the station). I didn't like the cache placement - seemed like vandalizing phone property.

Here is my 3 cents worth ( Used to be 2 cents, but I got a raise ) 1. As a programmer, I know the demands of programming maintenance, which can be even greater than the original project. This puts GC.com in the position of being both techie AND police. It's a virtual certainty that they will get emails like 'You've got to dock cacherXYZ, he cheated on cache ABC'. If I am GC.com, I don't need the headaches. 2. But I'm not totally against any statistical info. I like the differentiation between Comparative and Competitive. Comparative gives a relative picture, but no absolutes. Much less incentive to cheat or whine if I see that I am in the 19th precentile bracket (of 20) in my state (or 91% to 95%) of searchers, and trying to work up in the standings. Then the conversation goes like this: 9-yr-old son: Hey, dad, where are you ranked in the state for number of finds? Dad: Well, I don't know exactly, but for every 20 cache seekers, I've got more than 19 of them. 9-yr-old son: I'm proud of you, dad. Dad: And I'm proud of you, son. 3. I do feel that statistics breeds competition. Is competition good for this pastime? Will it create a popularity swell? Most sports/hobbies are improved with increased exposure and interest, but that has a limitation here. I'm greedy with the activity as it exists now: the quiet hikes, the secretive cache extrusions/replacements, the lack of beaten down trails to the cache sites. The day that I wait in line to sign a logbook is probably the day I move on to another activity. But this idea of popularity extends beyond just the statistics question. 4. This is a personal issue, as I am a bit obsessive/compulsive at times. With pure stats, the urge to surpass cacherXYZ may cause me to go after that cache titled "Ledge Of Death" at midnight Sunday with my penlight battery fading. ( Oh, no, Mr. Bill ... ) . P.S. As it happens, the celebrity from which my moniker was taken passed away this morning. May Johnny Cash rest in peace, and his music live on in our hearts. "He who shall, so shall he who." - Anonymous [This message was edited by Juan E Cache on September 12, 2003 at 09:02 AM.]