Back in the Saddle

Long time, no see

How've you been? Life got very hectic towards the end of Feb. and into March, continuing into April. Then it was just a matter of being out of the habit of keeping this blog up and I let it slide and slide and slide into home! So here we are--the end of August and I'm finally doing another update.

Wow. So much has happened, both in caching and in the rest of life. I'll just cover the caching stuff ;) 

Going backwards in time, I placed my third cache finally! The two very industrious local cache-hiders said they were taking a break from placing hides, so I figured that was the cue for me to get off my butt and get some of my ideas finished. I have a list of cache titles, A-Z of Babylon 5 quotes. "A Shining Beacon in Space" was my first hide. Then I tried to place "Currents in the Universe", but I need to apply for a permit from the Gainesville City Parks Division for the location I want. I'm still procrastinating on that. I instead went for a new one closer to the neighborhood, "How Will This End? ~In Fire~ ". It was approved with no issues, which was a nice change of pace ;)

It's in there, somewhere ;)

I was so encouraged, I spent another week putting the finishing touches on three more caches around the neighborhood that I thought were a nice little mini-tour of the place. I created a puzzle cache, a 2-stage multi-cache, and another traditional cache. When I submitted them, the reviewer came back with the comment that I needed permission from the Homeowners' Association Board. I thought it would be a rubber stamp thing, but instead they denied permission :( I'm disappointed at that outcome, though I understand the reason (insurance, of course). I had such nice spots picked out. My favorite was a "trail tree", which I hadn't heard of before I started geocaching. There are historic trails of these in the Great Lakes region, made by native americans. The one in the neighborhood is not historic (too recent), and I don't know who did it or why, but it's still neat and I wanted to share it with other cachers. Oh well.

It points to the exit ;)

Well, I'm on the lookout for new locations that will match the titles. Two of them are flexible: "Be Somewhere Else!" and "My Second Most Favorite Thing in the Universe" (as I type that right now I thought of the perfect spot for it!). The one that was to go by the trail tree was "Dreamers, Shapers, Singers, and Makers". I can think of possible generic spots, but nothing specific, available, and of the right size to hide the container. I already filled out the label on the lid with the cache name, so I'd like to use the same one, though rubbing alcohol will work to remove the Sharpie ink if need be.

There's a new challenge cache in town to find caches that begin with A-Z and 1-9 all in the county, so even though I'd like to place the ones that are now listed in my profile as "disabled", maybe I should jump to the less frequently used letters and do those. Eh, I'll get to them eventually. I really want to clear out my backlog.

Cache Count: 550