ATMouse

Since I posted on March 21, gas has gone to 2.33/gal. Sigh...

We've been paying $2.12 lately and now it's gone to $2.18. I gotta tell you, it's going to definately impact my caching. I live in the back of beyond (2 hr drive to get to a real mall, for instance) and any concentration of caches tends to be far away...(at least the ones I ain't done yet.) However, caching is just a hoot when you are on vacation! We just came back from Fredericksburg and had a great time caching on and off the battlefield. ATMouse

Don't cha just cut a bunch of paper together and put it in? Or a roll or whatever..? Maybe it's me, but I guess I'm too frugal (read:cheap) to buy a logbook. ATMouse

FTF, it's a fun thing-for the hider and the finder. I love the FTF posting - it's a rush. I want to yell: "Somebody found it! My coords were good! It's ALIVE, do you hear me? ALIVE!!!" On the other hand, I have a puzzle - I know that in one of my caches I put two gift certificates worth $5 each to a local business and neither has surfaced. It's kinda funny, every time I go in there, Mark says - I ain't seen them yet - and this is a nice pharmacy/gift store place. Beats me.... So I have no idea about some people's idea of swag or what to do with it.

I agree - I have wondered about Sparks as well... Especially when I have enjoyed so many of his moments in the forum while I was lurking, mostly, don'cha know.... Hey Sparky, I'm glad you're back! ATMouse (formally ATMousebuster90)

I'll admit to liking a clever hide, but I do object to an impossible one. If I'm out there over an hour, I get snarly and "who-gives-a-darn". Micros in the woods are just dumb, unless they are coords that lead you somewhere else and are not too dificult to find. I have happy memories of several of this sort, being led around an area, enjoying the sights and smells of the woods....And then finding the full-sized cache. Micros in areas too muggle-ridden are just primed to be exposed and the cachers that do this had best just suck up the eventual cache-theft. Puzzles are okay, if not too unwieldly. I haven't seen too many ciphers, tho' I know they are out there. One of the most difficult to find caches in my area had wording in it as though you were going to the final location when it was another micro with the coords in it. That one gave me fits until another cacher told me it was a micro and I walked to it in under two minutes, where I had spent literally HOURS searching for a full-sized cache. Don't like trash-filled caches. Don't like wet caches. Don't like cachers with a zillion caches who don't take care of their caches after several cachers have logged issues they should have addressed. I love beauty spots, walks in the woods, history tidbits and thoughtful layouts.

In my county (all 48,000 or so) some cachers and I have been trying to talk up the sport, placing caches, etc. and a local HS gym teacher decided to get some of her classes caching. Well, to make a long story short, one of my caches that the classes (she has taken several groups out) found was taken. This was a cache (Workin' on the B & S RR) that had DNF on it. It wasn't near any homes and the chances of anyone seeing the cache was slim to none. I ended up calling the teacher (whom I know) and talking to her about it. I'll say the same here that I said to her: it is worth the risk that some idjit comes back and does damage to attract newbies to the sport. However, my heart is heavy and I'm not happy and I'd like to borrow "Mr. Baseball Bat" for a few seconds (irrational, but so sad, so true.) The student they suspect had been sullen and hadn't wanted to go. In addition, brownout's "One Sorry 'Saurus" was vandelized shortly after this same school group(s) found it. What a pain. ATMouse

In 1990, my husband and I got the chance to hike the Appalachian Trail as a thru-hike. We didn't know about trailnames and were struggling with some nickname that we would like (as one of the hikers who was allergic to peanut butter, which is a hiking staple, was called "The Nutless Wonder" - ouch!) . Early in the hike, we stayed at the old Hawk Mt. Shelter in GA, which was infested with mice. At one point in the night, my husband leaped to his feet and grabbed his walking stick, banging it around, chasing a mouse that had run across his forehead as he tried to sleep. It was not a restful night. The next morning, I wrote about it in the register and included a crude drawing of a mouse head with the international symbol for "no" over it. The next day, we were getting supplies in Helens, GA and a fellow hiker came up to us in the grocery store and said "I knew you were in here: I recognized your 'mousebusting' sticks." So, rather than get some other name not as nice,we used it. Even had a friend send us t-shirts that read on the back "...I ain't afraid of no mouse.." When we became involved with geocaching, it seemed like a nickname I knew and liked, so I used it. And if any of our old friends from the AT were out there, they would know me! My husband, who was an engineer at GM, now a maintenance man for a local HeadStart program, is toolman47. Toolman, because he is a tool-usin' man and 47 cause it's his year of birth.

My only worry is when I re-cover them. The material used to hide the cache is often brittle in freezing conditions. When you remove it to bring out the cache, it breaks or is compromised in some way. When you put the cache back, it is not possible to tell if the cache is adequately hidden again. It worrys me but it hasn't stopped me yet. Still, I have visions of naked caches come springtime. ATMouse

I like the tenor of this thread. One hopes that the community has pride and that issues like a damaged cache can be self-correcting through good modeling. I was brought into geo-caching by brownout. Some of the first caches I went on with her had bad plastic bags. Wet, nasty, ugly stuff. brownout re-bagged and dried out routinely. Impressed the heck out of me. I mean, how classy! When she replaced a filled log book and shelped it out to send it to the owner, I was over-the-top impressed. I now ALWAYS carry extra bags (and sometimes re-bag the whole cache), paper towels, a new logbook and extra pencils. Good practices are much cooler than being a slob cacher. Now we just need to find mentors for them.

Geocide! I wouldn't geocide for you sons of a guns! Ha! No! I'm gonna lurk and read your miserable trashy, off-topic comments and just once in a while comment (always about me, me, ME!!!! AND NEVER about you!). And those mods! Ha! They'll never know what I'm thinking, oh, NO! GEOCIDE? Me? edited for a really stupid error of spelling.

I was sending out an agenda for a meeting that is to be by phone. (It alternates between a physical meeting and a long-distance discussion.) I almost typed in: "It's a virtual locationless meeting this time." Oh, dear.

My first cache was a multi cache that used the house numbers on a private residence. The theme of the cache was an abandoned railroad line and the people who built it. It started in a cemetery at the graves of a family who came from Italy and worked on it, went to the freight house of the railroad that the grandfather (section foreman) had purchased and made into a home for his family (granddaughter still lives there), then used the house number for the coords for the cache. I talked to the family in the development of the cache and information about it, and it was okay with them to have "drive-by" cachers . It was alot of work, but I'm really proud of it.

I just changed mine. I thought the "no" symbol over the mouse was sorta boring. I like this one. Probably won't change for a while, tho'

Please stay seated. This is a test. There is no need to panic.

Yes, it's been cold... Went to a training in a nearby city and cached every moment we could. My hands are a mess from having to de-glove when opening, closing and sometimes re-hiding the caches (did 13 this weekend). Next time, I'm bringing tighter gloves. brownout and I kept laughing as our hands would stick to the metal in the -10 degree weather, saying: "Who would be nuts enough to do this..." Well, this thread answers that: GEOCACHERS! edited for temperature

Being made a mod by ambush. Now, that's interesting.....

I just snuck into the forums here at work to see what's going on. Goodness, I cache because my professional and volunteer life is too stessful. I mean, caching is the ultimate instant reward: either you did or didn't find it, you did or didn't enjoy it. You know, or you wouldn't be doing it. Doing the math seems too hard for me.

Hee, hee, lookit thar, my own (sorta chopped, but whatdaheck) atavar. Makes a body proud, it do.

Darn it!

Okay, I'm gonna try this atavar thing....(helpmehelpmehelpme)

I'm wondering if our current state of alert has inhibited anyone from the search. I know that living near an international border has me spooked a bit. Really, think about it: strange person with electronic equipment, loitering about for no good reason... Tom Ridge would have me locked up forever. "No, Mr. Secret Service Man, I was just looking for an ammo box..."

I've begun to leave small wooden mice we found at a craft store. They are about 1/2 inch long, with bead eyes, and leather ears and tails. The only problem is that I can't seem to find them anymore. Ain't that the way it is? You find something you like and they stop making it.

Just a question to you gun-totin' types. What do you figure you all are gonna do with your weapons? PS: I have a pistol permit and have more firearms than people in my home, so I'm not "anti-" ... just curious.

Hey, JMBella, liked the TX site! Didn't know that was out there. Thank you for making me better informed.