Technical Difficulties?

A couple of days ago, I received a bunch of emails. They were mostly notifications of new caches—just over half a dozen. Most of them I merely glanced over with little thought; they were part of an annoying series placed by our most prolific (and annoying) hider, and I had little (if any) intention of going after them. One was placed by a friend, but it was far enough out that I didn’t feel like going for it, especially since other cachers live much closer and would most likely beat me to it. Another was placed by cachers I don’t know in a tiny town I’ve visited but mostly avoid; it’s far enough away that going there must be an intentional act. After the new caches were examined, I went back to my regular day.

Fast forward a few hours. I was looking at the map to decide on my daily cache when I noticed something. There was an FTF opportunity a couple of miles from home! How come I didn’t see anything about it in my emails? Was it some kind of glitch or something? I thought about it for a couple of minutes. That cache presented an interesting problem. The location was in a heavily trafficked muggle area, making me hesitant to shoot over and get it. It was already the end of the month. I already had an FTF for April, so it made sense to let it wait until May (the next day). On the other hand, it would most likely be gotten by the most aggressive local FTF hunter just before “first thing in the morning” (he seriously rolls at 5:00 a.m. for the newest caches). I opted to let it go for now. It was close enough that if I ever needed a daily cache, I could grab it easily anytime I wanted, and I had an entire month to get another FTF. But I was still stuck on the first question: Why hadn’t I been notified that it dropped in the first place? I went back through my emails and didn’t see a cache by that name. And then I caught my mistake, if it can be called that.

One of the emails was a notification that it had been published, but somewhere in the few hours between when I received the notification and noticed the cache on the map, the CO had changed its name! That might be a new one for me! Or not. Enough things have happened in all these years that I may have seen this and forgotten. I used to be able to remember every cache by seeing where it was on the map and concentrating, but now I can only remember about 70 percent of them, and the more local it is, the less likely I am to remember. I can more easily picture something I found on a side road in the middle of the night in Kansas, New Mexico, or Illinois—even years after the fact—than I can something in a Round Rock parking lot that I pass by three or four times a year. And I photograph most of the caches I find these days, so I guess I don’t really have to remember them, do I?

As for the FTF question?

I just went ahead and got it after midnight. May is now taken care of!