Poppa Duck

As long as your house it tied down first, it should be ok. I use the following as reference that was published in a local paper many years ago: What To Do If a Hurricane Comes Detailed Instructions on What Action to Take If All the Dogs Start Barking September is hurricane season on the East End. If you are a visitor here, XXXXXX' s Papers would like, as a public service, to present the following guide to what to do in the event you encounter one. 1. Usually, there is a lot of warning if a hurricane is about to hit the area. Even before the weather forecasters notice the storm swirling in the ocean, the dogs of the East End commence an uncontrolled period of barking. If you hear dogs barking everywhere, begin to take the actions noted below to protect your possessions and your family. 2. You will need to tie your house down. Go to any hardware store and get twenty spools of 1,000 feet nylon rope, 500 pound strength. Also get a sledge hammer and 200 steel tent stakes. Make sure you get nylon rope. Sometimes when nylon is out of stock, (there is a run on this stuff when the dogs start barking) unscrupulous hardware store owners, noting that you are a visitor, will try to sell you thick clothesline rope, telling you it has the same strength as nylon. It doesn't. Don't learn the hard way. 2a. The best way to wrap your house, a method used by locals for years, is to go over the roof north to south first, go in through a south facing basement window, then out a north facing basement window, then turn the rope ninety degrees and wrap the house east to west. (Hurricanes usually come from the southwest, so you are going with the flow.) Do this ten times. End it with a bowline halfhitch floozle knot tied to a tent stake hammered four feet into the ground. 2b. As you can see from just driving around, no local has ever had a house blown away. They are all still here. It is because they adhere specifically to this procedure. There are actually another 20 or so points listed after this. -Poppa Duck

Poppa's a volunteer EMT and also an instructor. -Poppa Duck

I've actually found my goals have changed over time. When I started it was: - hit as many caches as possible - get to all 5 caches in the park in one trip - start hiding caches - make time during every trip to cache - make that magic 100 mark But now my goals are (and I can't explain why they changed): - get out and have fun and explore - don't worry about the 5 caches in the park - if we make 3 and the kids spend an hour in the playground it was worth it - I can go on trips without driving everyone crazy to go caching It's as if the fever has broken and instead of being driven to cache, I can be more selective as to when and where I want to cache. -PD

Poppa's up for it - say when.....

Hey Joe - the shot you posted of Bella under the rock at the beach - was that my cache in Montauk? -PD

Yeah JMB...... It was good to see you at CITO on Saturday - too bad about the GPS though. -PD

JMB - most of the DEC lands on LI are Conservation Areas (not wilderness or forest). The only requirement for them are that each person have the DEC permit for access.

Team YellowDog you have my condolences. Our sweet Charity is up there also. She was a dobie we got from a rescue agency - she was a special dog - she had been abandoned and hit by a car. Her front paw was fused, but she ran and played as if she had no handicap. We were picked over several other families to adpot her. We had to put her down in May of 2001 because her kidney's suddenly shut down and there was nothing they could do. GPSKitty - your post brought me to tears. On 9/11/01 my brother crossed that bridge - whether he met up with my Charity or some other dog I won't know till I see them both again. Funny that I happend across this post today - I just set out another cache this afternoon - all of my caches are subnamed with my brother's initials and all start out with an American flag pin. -PD

I stopped by this cache last summer while we were visiting my wife's aunt. Plenty of single guys in the parking lot as we all headed onto the trail. Left the wife in kids on the trail while I went after the cache - good thing too based on what I found there. After we were done and talking about it while having dinner, my wife's cousin decided to warn us about the area. Another time, we stopped by another cache (further up 95) in a similar roadside side parking area (park and ride actually) - my wife and I both realized right away that it was a 'working lot', but luckily the kids had no idea. -PD

Wow wimseyguy - you're good - at least you got some yard work in. My additiction had me out Sunday searching for one between dropping the kids off at Sunday school and then picking them up. After that they joined me for an afternoon of hunting. Never did get to the yard work (but we did find all we sought out) - figured there's always next weekend (but I'm already getting the shakes not using the GPS for the past two days)... -PD

C'mon LI'ers - nobody wants to step up and take over this event? JMB - as I said in a previous post, I've got an ambulance shift to work that morning so I can't commit to running it. But I will be in the park in the afternoon for CITO - if anybody wants to join me I'll have the FRS radio with me on channel 2. -Poppa Duck

Huntington / Melville / rte 110 definately have plenty of places to eat.... As far as West Hills goes, I don't think we need a permit this early in the season - I think it's first come first served for the picnic sites. I know with the Cub Scouts we've been there off-season and haven't needed a permit. (camping is another story though)

Z-Man - you've been doing too many caches they must all be melding together in your mind - you've been to West Hills (you found the cache dedicated to my brother there) back in September Anyway - it's off Round Swamp Rd - between Jericho Tpke and the Northern State Pkwy. There's one parking lot on Highhold Rd (off Round Swamp), another on Sweet Hollow Rd and street parking by Jayne's Hill (Reservoir Rd) JMBella - I've got an ambulance shift to cover the morning of 4/17 so I can't help you organize, but I'm going to try and meet up with everyone in the afternoon. Any thoughts on what part of the park you'll be in? -PD

Way to go Z-Man ....Congrats... (and I won't tell about your secret dumping spot - honest).... -PD

Hi I'm Poppa Duck and I'm a geo-holic. I thought I had it under control but the events surrounding this past Monday's 'quick,simple lunchtime' cache proved otherwise.

Bummer - I'm less than a 10 minute walk from there and I'll be in Florida for the weekend. Have fun - and have one for me (but wait - they serve in two's there - so have two for me). -PD

And the best thing about caching in the city is no worries about parking. The subway will get you to almost every cache in Manhattan. -PD

"Don't forget the 27 8x10 color glossy photographs... " With the circles and arrows and paragraph on the back and - oh yeah - the judge's seeing eye dog.. And just to relate this all back to the original post, the song was 25 minutes long (I think) which would make it .41 hours....... -PD

I have several caches in the NY Metro area and I wouldn't mind. I think TPTB would have a problem, but I wouldn't mind. -PD

Being in a volunteer rescue squad, I've got some connections to the FDNY/EMS division. If no-one steps up I could help out that way. Also I haven't seen / heard FDNY260 on the boards recently, but he is an active FDNY firefighter. -PD

Hmm - Saturday morning - I've got an ambulance shift then ... I could bring the bus but then I'd probably get dinged for being out of the response area (not to mention the state). But I know my partner would be game.... -PD

Myabe I'm dating myself, but I think the correct answer to "Son......have you rehabilitated yourself?" would be "You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant" (sung in five part harmony of course....) -PD

Welcome home Z... Not only did he undertake that exhaustive trip, but he and InkyCat were out local caching again on the 24th. Too bad I missed meeting up with you at Cunningham #2. -Poppa Duck

CD's definately work. I've picked up a few from local folks that were left in caches. One even had original artwork on the disc. So go ahead and leave 'em. If I come across one I'd definately give it a listen. -PD

I've actually used the Earthmate for both work and some caching. Here are some of my random thoughts on it: - the version I had only had a precision of 2 decimal digits - I had it hooked to a tablet PC (not a laptop) and the combined form factor was still cumbersome for caching - To rig it into a PDA required special cables and additional software - I still do use the earthmate / tablet combo for driving I'd say skip it and go for a handheld unit that you can link to your PC. -PD