Relieving The Burdens of Mother Earth

A challenge near Bandera requires attending a CITO on each of the seven days of the week. This challenge has been on a lot of people’s minds as of late. Consequently, there has been a spate of mid-week CITOs on the calendar. One, in particular, has been bouncing around for the last few weeks. One planned for Thursday was three weeks because of rain and other delays, but it finally happened!

We gathered together, some of us for the first time in a while, at least since Challenge in March. We spent a little time catching up about various details of our lives and generally shooting the bull. The CITO host, DrPflug, arranged for a few caches to drop around the same time in the same area, including his 200th hide, and several attendees took shots at them before the main event. From what I understand, they were quite successful. They found all but one of them before we started. All but the 200th hide, that is. That was of no import once we all got on the job.

With grabbers and gloved hands, we took to the trash piles. Many different beer brands were represented under the trees, in both can and bottle form. They were so numerous that we actually sorted the recyclables into bags. Admittedly, some of the bottles had contents of … questionable provenance, but it was a little better than the sopping cardboard from the beer cases. Unexpectedly, one of the cases wasn’t devoted to beer. It was full of fireworks! Two dozen of something or other were popped off nearby, explaining the random tubes everywhere. They didn’t have labels or burn marks, though, so maybe I’m mistaken. Regardless, we were like locusts. Some people arrived improperly attired for pulling trash. They got off work and dropped in to make an appearance. But they still helped by taking full bags away for disposal or recycling. Everyone had a part to play. Collectively, we made a little corner of the city a nicer place. Of course, we still had one last task to perform.

That 200th cache of Pflug’s still lay unrevealed, so we caravanned over to it and put our eyes on the task. Of course, having the CO there to confirm that it was, in fact, still there helped. A dozen of the best cachers in the area, yours truly included, put ourselves to the search and came away triumphant! We signed our names (yours truly not included because I already had a cache for the day) and spoke of more small victories to come because not everybody found all the new caches sprinkled around. But that was my cue to make like a baby and head out. I had chores and writing to do. One day I would come back for those caches, but it would not be this day. Besides, I had performed a mitzvah for the day. Mother Nature could breathe a little bit easier, even if it was just a patch of park behind a convenience store.