Life interferes!

[+Jayeffel]

Looking back in stats in ProjectPC I see that in August 2018 I cached 18 days and got 52 caches; that was the highest number in August of any year since I started Dec 2016.

This year in August I need nine caches found to match last years August total , which was nine! My overall stats show a large decline in caches found over the past few years.

 

 

 

 

Wife's health issues and gas prices keep me from going too far from home to go caching. But I still enjoy the activity. 

 

 

Edit: 9/1/24: numbers for me are only to keep track of mine fun- and check on myself - not to outdo others.

Edited September 1 by Jayeffel
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[+Smitherington]

Yes, life does get in the way at times. But it also helps too if we let it. My example involves a request from my nephew to drive van for them while they bike. I like to travel so it was a no brainer. What started as a way to assist a family member has made August my most prolific month for geocaches. It grew from bicycling across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to biking from coast to coast with Canadian provinces added in as I traveled independently before and after the bike trips. I have contiguous counties from coast to coast and they have dipped their wheels in the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. I try to find 10 caches/day while they just pedal along. 14 years so far. We both love what we do so it is a win-win situation. 

Edited August 31 by Smitherington
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[+KYcachingguy]

I have 10 years worth of zeros for my stats. Started in 2007, then 2011 was the last year I did any caching. Had about 175 finds up to that point. 2012 to 2021 are all zero. I started back at it in 2022 finding 23 and 22 in 2023. This year has been my most prolific. I am up to 257 so far. 

 

I understand how life can get in the way sometimes. We had moved out into the country. The kids were starting to play sports and marching band which meant our weekends were booked with games and competitions. It happens.

 

Now my kids are grown. We live in the city so there are more caches close by. 

 

Don't let the numbers bug you. I hate seeing all those zeros in my stats, but that is the past. I am enjoying the caching now. That is important thing. Be in the moment. Make caching what you enjoy. The numbers are just numbers on a screen. It's not about the game or the numbers, it's about the journey and the excitement of finding something in the world that somebody else took time to hide. It's about going places you never would have gone if there wasn't a cache hidden there. 

 

With your wife and gas prices it may mean planning more to go caching, but that is just part of the journey. Enjoy it. 

 

Edited August 31 by KYcachingguy

[+JL_HSTRE]

I have no finds since my last vacation. It's too darn hot for caching in the Florida summer. Same thing last year.

[+Smitherington]

I should add that several years ago I lived in a country with few caches with responsibilities that kept me busy and I ended up with 2 finds one year and 3 the next. That was life. One must deal with life as it comes and geocache within the limits one has.

[+thebruce0]

Life this year has just slammed my stats. I managed to complete a challenge of 3 consecutive years of 2000 finds - through covid - and now I'm newly married with a step child and one on the way, and my stats are, relatively, flatlined, lol. I have more events attended this year than physical geocache finds, and we're almost in the 4th quarter!

 

[+MNTA]

Cache when you can. Life definitely interferes. Supposed to be sitting on an airplane heading to Hawaii for some fun on the beach and a few caches a day, but alas daughter had an unexpected stay in the hospital so looking forward to going in December now. 

 

@thebruce0 don't do what I did which was burn out my kids from caching early on. Try to limit it and have fun. My daughter will still cache with me occasionally my son rarely. Fit in a cache or two and the kids let me grab a cache or two for my fix. Plan bathroom breaks for road trips around a cool spot same with meals.

 

But you also get interesting opportunities. Being a huge challenge fan, every trip to Seattle to drop off/pick up my daughter from college I swing by and get to grab a few caches that help with challenges. 

[+geodarts]

My numbers were going down every year but then life really interfered and I spent four months in a hospital.  I had disabled an earthcache when the area was closed for restoration but a reviewer archived it when I was still in the ICU — so by some measures my real numbers went down. But I am grateful that it was simply an interference.

 

I had long felt that that if your numbers were greater than mine . . . Perhaps its better just to say that our priorities are far different. During several visits to the SW desert, we have seen people caching along the ET highway, but there are too many petroglyphs, ghost towns, security dudes in camo, art installations, and other things to keep us busy.
 

When I am left with just my memories I want those things to remember.  At same time if there is a cache to find it can make it easier to identify the time and place those memories were created,
 

So if life is interfering it is a measure of success. It’s better to have life interfering with caching than caching interfering with life.
 

 

 

 

[+thebruce0]

20 hours ago, geodarts said:

When I am left with just my memories I want those things to remember.  At same time if there is a cache to find it can make it easier to identify the time and place those memories were created

 

On that note, lately there have been two random stand-out instances of a friend posting a non-descript photo at/near a cache, and I recognized both locales by the fun experience I had there. One was in a suburb of Sioux Falls, the unicorn farts cache (stick your hand in a bucket of glitter) next to the CO's home at the time (a road trip for me), and another was at a trailhead to Ben Nevis (with a sign but I hadn't read it yet), for Scotland's oldest cache and the highest mountain in the UK.  Both photos were very generic and could have been any number of places, but the memories of those cache visits and trips stuck out and it's funny how the brain works. I guess little elements of the photo composition and natural content were enough to bubble the memories to the surface, merely from two geocachers' unrelated photos.

 

Memories are huge.

[+hzoi]

My Augusts have been up and down over the last 17 years. My worst three Augusts are 2024, with 17 (south Texas), 2012, with 24 (Alabama), and 2023, with 30 (south Texas).

 

We had the windows open all weekend, though, and so far we've already gotten more finds in the past week than all last month. I know it isn't technically autumn yet, but already I am feeling relief.