Highly Infectious Geocaching Disease

[+Haffy]

This is to inform you that a highly contagious disease has been found in people that go geocaching. Could it be brought on by the satellite radiowaves?

 

 

It apparently has been in existence for a considerable time, but only recently has anyone identified this disease, and begun to study it. It is called the Obsessive Compulsive Cache Craving Syndrome or CCCCS.

 

CCCCS was originally thought to be caused by the satellite radio waves affecting the brain waves in a small percentage of geocachers, but after a team of researchers decided to become geocachers, to study this disease, it wasn’t long before they realized that they were dealing with a very serious and highly infectious viral disease. A few of them even became infected with it, and had to be quarantined, until they were cured.

After a couple of years of research it was found that that satellite radio waves aren’t the cause at all, and that it is a virus passed from one geocacher to another. It is thought however, that the GPSR's may be the carriers of the virus. It has been further found that there are four stages of this disease and that there is hope if you have stages one through 3. If you progress to stage four though there is only one known cure, and it isn’t pleasant.

 

Research has shown that in most cases those affected don’t usually progress past the second stage.

It also seems that those exposed to the disease at a very early age become immune to it. Some people afflicted with CCCCS at Stage II and Stage III have close family members (children, husbands, wives) who have absolutely no symptoms at all, but in other cases both spouses can be affected equally.

 

What can you do to prevent this disease from infecting you? Until a cure is found, prevention is the measure. Avoid anyone you see with a GPSR in their possession, since it is thought that their gpsr's may be carriers of the disease. If you hear of any geocaching events in your area, avoid them like you would the black plague.

 

If you unfortunately come into contact with a CCCCS-afflicted person, make up an excuse to leave them, and if they start talking about geocaching, run away as quickly as you can.

The following are the four stages, and the symptoms to watch for at each stage.

(Stage I) You have early symptoms off CCCCS if:

 

1. You think it’s fun to spend a day crashing through underbrush, mud and muck to find a cache.

2. You go out on a Saturday for a day of geocaching and you feel you should have found more than 5 or 6 caches.

3. You tell your wife that poison ivy isn’t really a big deal, and its safe to go the bathroom over by the shinny leaves.

4. You can’t remember having a day with only one find.

5. You don’t really mind that it started raining cause you only have 3 more caches you want to get.

 

At this point the disease can be stopped. Simply don’t go caching or near any geocaching website for the next month. After waiting a month try it again and see if you can be a bit more reserved about it.

 

(Stage 2) Once these symptoms start showing up, if your not careful you could be in trouble.

 

1. You start thinking that it might be fun running for a First to find.

2. You hardly even notice the poison ivy itch any more.

3. You get up early so that you can grab a couple caches on your way to work, or you get home late because you “had to stop and pick something up”.

4. You think that driving 50 miles for a couple caches isn’t too far.

5. When you plan your next family vacation you don’t go to Disney world because there are only a couple of virtuals there.

6 You are spending more money on batteries and bug spray every week, than you would on a nice meal out with your wife.

7 You like the smell of bug spray on you wife more than her favorite perfume.

8 They know you on a first name basis at the dollar store.

 

You’re starting to get serious symptoms now, but there is still hope. You will have to stop caching for at least two months and stay away from the geocaching websites as well. Maybe after you have had a chance to get it out of your system, you can try doing one or two caches a week. If you can stay at one or two for a month or more, recovery is working for you.

 

(Stage 3) Luckily most people don’t go any further than stage two, but if you are having any of these symptoms you are starting to be seriously affected, and may need professional help.

 

1. After having a cast put on your broken leg (that you received falling down a hill racing for a FTF.) you seek out “park and grabs” and “virtuals” to get your cache fix.

2. You have more pictures of the caches hunts you’ve been on than you do of your family, or all of your family pictures have them holding a cache.

3. Your conversations all revolve around cache hunting, cache containers, cache bags, cache hiding tips, and where to buy geocaching accessories for the best price, or all of your co-workers shy away from you because they are sick of listening about geocaching.

4. You have to trade your vehicle in two years earlier than you planed on because some how the mileage has been “racked up”.

5. You think that any cache within 100 miles is near by.

6. You enjoy getting up at 5 a.m. in the morning to drive 50 miles to go to a mosquito infested bog to look for a FTF.

7. You tell the kids we’re going for a ride, and they ask if they can stay home with a baby sitter.

8. You start watching the numbers other cachers in your state have to see how many caches you need to move up a notch or two, or three.

9. You spend more time evenings in geocaching forums than you spend with your significant other.

10. You think you need a new GPSR because yours is a year old.

 

If you are in stage three, you need serious help. You need to get away from geocaching and get it out of your system, or it will take over your life. You need to sign up for G.A.A. (Geocachers anonymous association) immediately. Luckily for you the GAA offers meetings once a month. In extreme circumstances a specialist will see you on a one on one basis. The latter is quite expensive, but much cheaper than letting yourself get to stage four.

 

(Stage 4) If you have reached this point there is only one known cure.

 

1. You think you're being frugal if you spend less than $2,000 dollars this year on electronic equipment, cache containers, geo coins, and other caching necessities.

2. The most important factors when buying your new vehicle are: A) Is it 4 wheel drive? Will it hold all my cache gear, C) Does it get good mileage? (that’s not really important though) D) Does it have a 100,000 mile warrantee? And E) Does it come in camo.

3. You leave the house at 11:00 at night to go for a FTF run. - In a blizzard.

4. You have to get a part time job , or dip into your savings because you need more money because of your addiction.

5. You make plans to go to geo-woodstock with your caching friends even though it’s your anniversary weekend.

6. You know all of your caching friend’s names, handles, and cell phone numbers, but have trouble remembering the name of the person that shares the house with you.

7. Your spouse tells you that they have found someone else and the first thing you ask is “how many finds do they have”?

8. You've been looking for caches so long that the only way you can get home is to punch your home co-ords into the gpsr and follow the arrow home.

9. The only way your spouse can get your attention is to instant message you through the geocaching forums.

10. You lie to your spouse about how much caching you do, or you lie to your boss about being sick so that you can cache today.

11. You don’t let your friends call your cell phone anymore because a new cache might come up and you don’t want to miss the chance for a FTF.

12. You get mad when your wife tells you that you cannot name the new baby Garmin.

13. You look forward to the day when you can retire and spend every day caching, but it’s driving you crazy because you are only 30.

 

Since you are now a risk to the general population you must be quarantined until you are completely cured. You will have to check into an institution (yes, that kind) and go through shock therapy and deep regression hypnosis. You will probably have to have at least a dozen treatments before you can again be released back into the public. But by then, you will be numb to the world around you, and a useless member of society, (much like you were before the treatments).

There is one other possible cure that is being tested but is not yet approved by the FDA, and that is having someone drive you around and make you do 500 lamp pole micros. It is thought that this may be the permanent cure.

 

 

Thanks to Homedezinahs for sharing this with the rest of us.

Edited March 3, 2007 by haffy

[+willy1970]

I think I'm only Stage 3 -- although I have done #3 and #10 on the Stage 4 list.

 

-Jeff

[+tenacityj]

I think the condition is actually considered OCCCS considering the first word is obessive.

 

Having a little bit of OCD, I think I might have moved onto this new disease as well. It appears that I could be in the 2nd stage moving into the 3rd, but a couple of the indications of the 4th stage fit me also. I'm not even sure finding only LSMs will work.

 

Thanks for posting about this illness, now I have an idea of just how sick I could become!

[+bccruiser]

Looks like I've been able to resist the worst the disease has to offer. I'm still in stage one after 3 years. Although.... Stage 2 doesn't look too bad.

[+TrailGators]

I must have no obsessive compulsive tendencies because I've been doing this for over four years and I've never reached Stage 1. To me, it's just fun to get away sometimes and enjoy some of the awesome locations that surround us. Geocaching is a great way to do that.

[+PJPeters]

Well, I tried stage 4's #3 last night (except for the 1100pm part). And, of course...

 

March 2 by PJPeters (46 found)

What am I thinking, caching on a day like this? It's snowing sideways, I have to shovel my way out of the house. I drive by at least 3 cars in the ditch. Then, I get to the cache...

Ahh... Pristine white snow. It's gorgeous! It's also a FTF! Whoo Ho... Uh, wait. It's up there. There's footprints. AAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!

And, of course, it's the same guy I'm always behind (it seems). WTG, GH Patriot.

Ah, well... that's the way it goes, sometimes. On the other hand, a tenth of a mile further away, and I never would have known about it until the weekly update.

[+avalanchewolf]

I enjoy speading the disease to all i come in contact with !

 

what can i say , anything that can get 3 kids away from video games and cartoons into the outdoors without a leach even if it is just a few blocks away is a great thing in my book !

[+JennM]

Well with *only* 30 finds to my credit and no hides yet (although we're going to scope out a park this morning that is so in need of a hide...) I'd say I'm stage 3.

 

The only reason why I don't think I'm stage 4 yet is because I'm not married (no spouse to lie to - and I don't think I'd want a spouse that didn't enjoy the sport!), I'm self-employed so no boss to account to (and I can't fudge time off or my customers would kill me!), and being self-employed I don't have extra cash to spend on the addiction, er sport... although I did squeeze a few dollars out of the budget to get a GPSr on eBay last summer, and I did pick up a few trade items when I went to the dollar store the other day, to get something for my business... and ended up spending $27 instead of the $10 I'd planned to spend...

 

OMG - maybe I am stage 4!!!

 

I think being up and attum and on these forums at 6 AM on a Sunday does send up a big red flag - I'm waiting for my daughter to get up and the sun to come up so we can go find the 3 I downloaded last night --- and check out that park that appears to have no hides in it.... You see, I work 7 days a week and other than the night cache we went to get last night (theme cache, required to be hunted at night - we thought a lunar eclipse was a great time to do that...)... Sunday morning is the only time I really have to cache... so instead of sleeping in, I'm ready to go!!

 

I'm Jenn M and I'm a Cachaholic....

 

Jenn

Edited March 4, 2007 by JennM

[+JennM]

I think you missed a symptom... not sure what stage it falls into...

 

- You eyeball every piece of Rubbermaid or Tupperware that you own, pondering whether you can spare it to use it for a hide, and/or if your spouse will kill you if he/she finds out you took the good Tupperware to hide under a rotting log.

 

I don't have a spouse to seek approval from - but I have to admit I'm looking in the cupboard now and then wondering if I'll regret using this container or that one for a hide - then I'll have nothing to put my leftover spaghetti in!!!!!

 

I think that definitely qualifies as a symptom...

 

Jenn

[+cachenut06]

I am a stage 2, slowly progresssing into a stage 3, im not that bad yet, i still have some hope lol

[+halffast]

The op has only scatched the surface of the simptons of this disease.A few other at stage 1,While driving you are always looking for a place to hide your next cache.Stage 2,you are always planning your next cache outing.It has to be a weekend cache run because you have found all the caches within a day trip.Stage 3,you wonder why all the other local cachers dont put out more caches so you can try to get another FTF.Stage 4,You spend all winter planning and getting caches ready to place as soon as the first sign of spring has arrived.Level 5,Oh my Psychiatrist wont let me talk about it.