Jake_E_Cro

What's with all the people being so testy in eastern Iowa lately? I have been party to and have seen several instances of people being really defensive and/or really short with each other lately. I myself received what appeared to be a hostile email on the day I posted my last cache. The author of this email was a little harsh, accused me of trying to puff myself up, and I still don't know why. The description I posted in my cache was strictly self deprecating. I was making fun of myself for hiding nothing but micros when my original purpose in geocaching was to get off my duff and get some exercise and to get out to new and interesting places rarely seen by others. The next episode was a few days later when I tried to pay a compliment to some cachers because I saw their great methodical ways of attacking a cache. I was impressed by their methods: they used tools, they split the area up logically and did a great job of covering the area in a short amount of time. When I logged on the next day, there was an email with a defensive email asking what they had done to offend me. I explained to them that there was no offense taken nor implied in my message, I was just trying to pay them a compliment. I even saw a posting the other day, when someone felt like they were pondscum because they saw a cacher froma distance who may or may not have heard them calling and did not come back to say "hello." Maybe the other fellow was busy, or didn't hear, or maybe he was feeling anti-social that day. No reason to take offense. Could it be the divide between the numbers guys and those who like to traipse off into the woods for theclassic ammo can that is causing this problem of offense taking? If so, can't we just let it go, and say you hunt those and find enjoyment in it, and I will hunt these and find enjoyment in it. That way we can all enjoy it without angering everybody.

I don't have a problem with all the micros that pop up here and there. IMHO, there are some areas where there are no other choices. I do find it annoying when as others have stated, they take up areas where there could be "good" hides. The thing that annoys me about the majority of the ones showing up in my neck of the woods, is that they really serve no purpose. There is no nice hike, there is no nice view, no mental challenge. Some caches appear to be small or micro containers that are just thrown out the window of a car driving down the road at 0.1 mile increments for the purpose of satuartaing an area. I'm not the only one who has noticed this either. When I recently asked permission to place a cache in Cedar county, the county officials told me that theyhad been having an issue with the large number of caches being placed along the highways and in parks without permission. They said they weren't going to do anything about it for now, but were looking at finding the owners of these caches, and citing them nder the county littering ordinance. Just venting a little!