cimawr

The OP seems to think it could be confused with geocaching because the eejits involved apparently used GPS units; I don't see it, myself. However, it CAN be related to geocaching in terms of the way that some geocachers think there's nothing wrong with placing caches where the caching activity will disturb private homeowners, never mind the concept of common courtesy.

Trespassing and disturbing the peace in a residential neighborhood, at the time when most people are going to bed or are already IN bed, are illegal AND not exactly "harmless" activities. If they were running around in MY bushes, I wouldn't have bothered with calling the police, I'd have set my dogs on them. (They don't bite, but they would have let those f-wits know exactly how unwelcome they were;.) And it sounds to me like the police let them off easy, since they would have been perfectly justified if they'd arrested them.

And I KNOW that you're wrong, "period". Many people, myself included, like to visit older cemetaries, and we do so with a great deal of respect. If we look for a cache at the same time, that in no way diminishes the respect we have for those buried there. Mmhm. IOW, you really don't want to hear what anybody has to say. And there's the fatal flaw in your theory - your entirely erroneous belief that every single person who ever geocaches at a cemetary is behaving disrespectfully.

Sorry, but I find the idea that people should be FORCED to hide caches fairly obnoxious. First, not everybody is good at it, nor has the time to properly maintain caches. Second, in some areas, it's pretty dadgum hard to FIND places to put caches, especially when you've got local cachers who are so "into" hiding caches that they don't leave much room for others to do it. I have two "home bases" that I cache around, about 50 miles apart, and in both areas hiding is dominated by just a couple of local cachers who hide literally dozens. In one of the two areas, the hiders are actually teams of several people, some of whom are retired and apparently do nothing but cache. (One team is also somewhat notorious for somehow managing to FTF nearly every cache for about a 35-mile radius.) Trying to force everyone else in the area to compete with them for cache placements would be both ridiculous and obnoxious. And where is it defined that "hiding is giving and finding is taking"?? First, sorry, but your theory falls down with the idea that everyone else makes an effort when hiding caches. Of the last three new caches I did (all within the last month), two showed little or no effort on the part of the hiders. One guy put out a cache with nothing in it but ONE page torn out of a small notebook, and a broken golf pencil. (And he's not a noob, either. ) Another cache had a proper log book, but the cache itself is a discarded coffee container, and the "swag" was clearly cheap odds and ends that the hiders had simply had lying around the house. And second, again, I can appreciate who puts out an effort and who doesn't without being forced to try to find some spot in my extremely saturated area to put out a cache of my own. There are 122 caches within 5 miles of my home, and approximately 700 caches within a 20-mile radius; forcing everyone who caches to put out more whether they want to or not would NOT, IMO, improve caching in this area.

I love puzzles - crossword, Sudoku (correct spelling, btw), acrostics, etc. It's a fun and relaxing thing done at home, on a rainy day or a quiet afternoon, with a cup of coffee or tea, maybe listening to music, maybe being "alone together" with my S.O. I love geocaching. However, I don't care for combining the two; for me, they just don't mesh well. On a side note, we have one local puzzle cache which has a high find rate because for some odd reason, the final stage is about 40 feet from a traditional cache hidden by another person....

I'll second that one - the "Discovered" option is unnecessarily confusing, especially to newbies. If you find a coin or TB in a cache it's not properly listed in, it's not at ALL intuitive to "grab it" - the most logical choice is to "discover" it, because that's what you actually DID. IMO, it would be very helpful both to the owners of TBs/coins and to finders of improperly logged one to make the distinction between "grabbing" and "discovering" clearer.

When I was a kid in rural PA, I basically never wore shoes - other than to school, church, shopping - from late March or early April until late October/early November.... and by mid-April or so I could run barefoot on a gravel drive or negotiate a multiflora rosa thicket (I had a "fort" in the middle of one). As an adult, I kept doing that as much as possible, but never got my feet quite THAT tough again. In the last few years, though, I've not had the time to harden off my feet in the spring. I used to get some VERY weird reactions from people at the park mentioned up-thread, btw, since you get a lot of citified types in the "park park" area of it; I swear some of them had never seen a person without shoes. Heh, well... *I* ain't the one worried about it. My S.O. grew up on 12 rural acres, and returned to them a few years ago - but he was always forbidden to go barefoot because of "getting worms", hence the ongoing debate about whether or not I'm risking my health when I weed the garden etc. sans shoes. I need to bestir myself and find some factual ammunition before next spring.

Thanks! I did a bit of Internet research on the term, and am now sure that's what I found. I guess I'll never know whether it was ever in the cache, or if it was a coincidence that it was lying near it, especially since the cache's logs go back to March of 2005, and there's no mention at all of the coin being there. If it was intended as swag, I do wish 1, that I knew who left it, and 2, that I'd left something in trade - the cache is small, had only a couple of cheapo kid's toys in it, and wasn't in very good shape. If it WASN'T, I hope somebody's not missing it!

Last week, I found a coin or medal near a cache - not in the cache, but on the ground, partially buried in leaves, as I was hiking away. It's not a trackable geocoin, but otherwise looks like one; same general size, weight, etc. When I got home, I read back through the cache's logs as far as I could go (which was well over a year back) and didn't find anything that obviously referenced the item... so I thought I'd ask in here if anyone has ever seen something like it and/or might be able to shed some light on the subject. The coin or medallion is approximately 1.5' wide; on one side it has the heraldic insignia for the U.S. 1st Field Artillery, including the motto "Primus Aut Nullus", with "9th Battalion 1st Field Artillery" across the top, and "Deep Strike" at the bottom. On the reverse, it has four smaller insignia for "A-26 FA", "B-20 FA", "HHB-41D-D/A", and "31st Chem". It's gold in color, with the large insignia enamelled in red, black, and green, and both the words and insignia are embossed.

At the end of September, I took the REAL bug out of a TB hotel and logged him, and recieved an ecstatic e-mail from his owner because he'd been MIA for over a year; he'd somehow mysteriously travelled from Georgia to Maryland, to boot. At any rate, his mission was to visit other bugs, both real and fake, and I've had tremendous fun (approved by his owner, btw) carrying him from cache to cache and finding various bugs to take pictures of, some with the TB, some not. Since it's getting cold here in Maryland, next weekend I plan to drop him about 35 miles south, not too far from BWI, and hope whoever picks him up continues his mission... Anyhoo, these are my favorites of the various pictures I've posted:

What he said! I'll add that my relationships to humans tend to work much better when I DO get that time out in the woods with just my companions-in-fur.... I've always been a barefooter (see avatar photo, or for larger version see my profile) and couldn't agree more here, as well. Although I'm not able to hike barefoot any longer, as I don't have time enough to harden off my feet in the spring these days. WRT hookworm.... I need to look up how prevalent it is in NE MD, as I have an ongoing debate with my S.O. about going barefoot for that very reason.

Me, I was born in Chicago, but we moved to rural PA when I was 5; if it wasn't for some of the parks around here, especially R.E. Lee (the trail head's just a couple of miles from my house) I'd go nuts for lack of open spaces.... If you ever see us out there, and feel like saying hello, feel free. (I'm fairly easy to recognize by my dogs; not only their looks, but the fact that they have good trail manners. Although we were more easily recognized before I lost my little Jack Russell... everybody remembered her! ) As a side note, R.E. Lee's actually in the county; belongs to the City, but it's just outside city limits.

Hrm. Guys ain't the only ones who need to pee out of doors, which brings to mind the suggestion to female hikers (cachers or not) that it's wise to A. be careful of the spot you pick and B. carry tissues or wipes. And in a pinch (hope I don't gross anybody out, but this is actually important health info!) - one should either drip-dry - urine is sterile unless you have an existing infection - or use a shirttail or the like. Many years ago, a friend of mine ducked into the woods to pee at an outdoor festival, because there were insanely long lines at the portajohns; it was dark, and she grabbed some nearby vegetation in lieu of TP. The result was extremely nasty, because said leaves were poison oak. Not to mention that bacteria from dead leaves or other vegetation can result in nasty UTIs, which can be life-threatening if the bacteria is virulent enough to travel up to the kidneys. I'll add, since we're on the subject, that male OR female, if you find yourself "caught short" with the need to do more than pee, PLEASE remember that proper woods etiquette is to dig a hole and cover. Few things are more disgusting when hiking than encountering the leavings of someone ignorant of this common courtesy.

Heh. I'm glad to hear that I made the right decision when I chose NOT to fill the scrip for Pred that my doctor gave me after the dripping-JRT episode. Which was also prescribed due to a secondary allergic reaction, aka allergic dermatitis; two days after the initial exposure broke me out all over my legs and arm, I started breaking out on my stomach, chest, and face, as well. I filled the antihistamine scrip, but decided to give the steriods a pass - I've seen some nasty reactions to that in both people and dogs.

Link to story on electrocutions of animals and humans in Boston and NYC" link

Bingo. That's precisely what caused the death of Deanna Green, the 14-year-old girl in Baltimore. The electrical equipment WAS safe when first installed, and the problem was actually with the FENCE, not with the cable... I Googled and found some links on the incident: link link 2 link 3 And here's a story on the two dogs who were electrocuted simply walking down the street: City utility boxes are a powerful danger The story also references several cases of humans being killed that way.

Ditto! I was lucky enough to be able to spend most of Monday morning hiking in Susquehanna State Park; getting a couple of caches while I was at it was just the icing on the cake. We've been blessed with some really glorious weather in the last couple of weeks... I'm making the most of it while I can.

Gotcha. (Btw, I don't mind removing the post, if you'd prefer. ) I've bought a few coins, and I have to admit I'm a bit reluctant to release them due to the possibility of theft. What I'd like to know is what they gain by stealing them; as mentioned up-thread - what on earth can someone DO with a stolen activated coin, other than gloat over it in secret? Are there collectors out there who buy them in some way that's not trackable?

I'm pleased to see you mention that, because it's something I've been wondering about WRT a cache I've been to where the cache owner states in the notes that the initial coordinates are off, and suggests using alternate ones - but didn't change the official coordinates. Problem is, of course, that at this point the notes with the correct coordinates are back in the logs - IOW, not visible on first view of the cache's page - and people are searching with the wrong coordinates again. That, and another cache where the owners have relocated the cache a bit & only put the new coordinates in the notes, had me wondering whether it IS possible to change official coordinates..... now I know.

How so? "Naive" and "stupid" don't have even remotely similar meanings. In any case, you're the one who initially used the term to describe yourself, and I'm baffled as to how you're interpreting the response you got as "rude". The conversation, to MY reading, went like this (paraphrased for brevity and to make it clear how it came across to me): <general conversation> "It's an outrage, somebody stole a coin." <you> "I don't think people steal coins, but maybe I'm naive in thinking that; maybe there really are people stealing coins on purpose." <brian> "Unfortunately, yes, it's naive to think that, because there ARE real thieves out there." I just don't get how that can be interpreted as being deliberately rude or insulting. OTOH, unfortunately, you directly calling people "jerks", "brownnosers", and "ignorant" is impossible to interpret any way but as deliberate.

There was a similar case in Baltimore this year. A middle-school girl at a church-sponsored softball game in a city park happened to touch two fences at the same time, and was fatally shocked due to current from un-maintained underground wiring. Similarly, at least one dog was killed by walking over a metal sidewalk plate in the city which conducted ground current from, IIRC, wires nearby that had not been properly closed off when a building had been taken down. The same thing happened in NYC about two years ago, and in that case the dog's OWNER was killed as well when she tried to help him.

<raises hand> You are not alone! I don't manage the WOODS every day - wish I could! - but the dogs and I do go out and walk or run NEAR the woods almost every day. And we all tend to get a bit cranky during the winter when it's hard to do except on the weekends. And it's NOT a bad thing, IMO; it's good for mind and body of everyone concerned. My lurcher was 8 in July, my Redbone Chowhound will be 12 in February, and both of them are lean, fit, and active, and successfully competing in NADAC agility, as well... although the Old Man only does a couple of runs a day now. Getting back to geocaching, one of the things I like about it is that it fits so nicely with my other favorite activities, e.g. hiking and photography... and even most urban ones can be done in company with the beasties and/or my S.O. and/or his kids.

Just don't get too confident about that, because you can develop an allergy at any age; all it takes is a sensitizing dose.

I believe the poster was making a joke about how ignorant people think the way to sound like, or talk to, an Italian- or Spanish-speaking person is to put "O" on the end of English words.

COM 1 is one of the serial ports on your computer; does the error message actually say "file", or does it just say it can't find COM 1? What port on your computer does your GPS hook up to? Also, did you set up GSAK to run with your particular GPS?