The Spirit Was Willing

But GREAT GOOGLY MOOGLY! The SUN!!!

Yesterday, I went out to find a cache. Walking down a path beside Lady Bird Lake (which I still call Town Lake, but I don’t want to hear anyone complaining about proper geographic nomenclature), I was beginning to compose today’s entry in my head. Because Austin‘s so-called lake is actually the Colorado River that’s partially dammed up, I was going to call it “Riparian Entertainments.” I may actually use that title at some point in the future, but that’s not important right now. What matters is that I gave a good long search for the cache I expected to get and came up empty-handed. Having given it a good effort, I DNF’d it and went on with my day. There was another nearby cache, so I continued down the path to take a shot at it but came to the remains of a decaying tree, and two previous DNFs. With no joy to be found, I went back to my car and relocated to another GZ, only to be disappointed again. I decided to change my thinking and do something completely different. I drove over to a cache that had published that morning in the hopes of picking up an FTF. I knew that there would be little chance of finding it. It was high Difficulty and hidden by a notorious hider known for his evil hides. The cherry on top was that he even referred to the hide as “evil” in the title. But I made the attempt and ended with no cache to show for it. But there is something you should understand. There has been an epic heat wave here for a couple of weeks. There’s been a weeklong stretch of days topping out over 105° Fahrenheit (40.5° Celsius for those of you using the King’s units), and I was wandering about just before the mercury hit its zenith. The search for the first one sapped the energy out of me. The second wasn’t too bad because it was on the way back to the car. The third had no shade, and my hat could only do so much. I made the fourth and final attempt without water because I had drained my water bottle. By the time I was done with that one, I felt both sweaty and crispy in equal measure. On a different day, I would have headed off for another part of town and started anew, but yesterday was not that day. I was tuckered out. So, I went home, logged my oldest completed challenge, and called it a day (from a caching perspective, that is).

Heat ain’t no joke. Water is absolutely essential. Listen to your body when it’s not feeling quite right. A lot of you have been following the tragic story of Robert Owens Jr., known as BlazeOn. For those of you who don’t know, he was a cacher from New Jersey who recently went missing in Louisiana. His car was found in Rapides Parish, and his remains were found on the path to Wild Azalea Cache, the oldest cache in Louisiana. He wasn’t prepared for the Louisiana heat and succumbed to heat stroke. We don’t need any more incidents like that. I myself have had at least one cache where the heat unexpectedly got to me, and I had to break off the search. And with temperatures only getting hotter, both for this season and the climate generally, we have to take better care of ourselves in that regard. That means I’m giving you a cache photo from a few days ago and a story of repeated DNFs. It also means I’m here to tell the tale of my disappointments. I often shake my fist, railing against the Spear of Apollo, but the story of Icarus is a better metaphor.

The Sun can mess you up badly. Be careful. We need you here. I need you here.