Fregi, Currerunt, Scripserunt

First, I broke it. I was invited to a friend’s birthday party at his new house a couple of towns over from Austin in Elgin. That was no inconvenience; I sometimes drive to Elgin to grab my daily cache. Before I arrived at the party, I took a little time to pick up something from the store and grab my daily cache as I have so many times in the past. I initially had a little trouble finding a quick and available cache that had been recently found; a few too many of them had been DNF’d multiple times by experienced cachers. I managed to find one that had only recently been DNF’d by two cachers with less than ten finds between them. As I pulled into the lot at GZ, I immediately spotted the cache. Of all the signposts at all the parking spaces, only one had a cap on it. And under that cap was a DNA tube sealed into the metal. It would have been a good hide except for one little problem. When I opened the top of the tube, it popped off. The culprit was obvious: the heat of the Texas sun had taken its toll, turning the tube into a crumbling piece of shredded plastic. This was hardly the first time I had seen this, both in the general and specific senses. Just as Vermonters don’t make hides in the roots of trees because of snowy winters, plastic is ravaged by Texas summers. Luckily, the log will stay lodged inside the lidless tube for the foreseeable future, but someone will have to do some work to remove and replace the old tube. It’s a win for me, though. I’ll take it.

Second, they raced. Saturday was a little different. My cache for the day was an Event commemorating multiple things. The primary thing was related to geocaching: Big Blue Switch Day. Being the 25th anniversary of the thing that made our passion possible, I believe it’s a worthy reason to celebrate. N’est-ce pas? The second cause for our celebration was the 151st running of the Kentucky Derby. Even we who are not into sports had to acknowledge that it was the preeminent sporting event of the day (even though someone who will remain nameless tried to convince us that the University of Arkansas beating the University of Texas in baseball was more important)! Consequently, there was a betting pool afoot. Each of us chose a horse running in the race, and if that horse placed, we won a geocoin. Unfortunately, my horse (Render Judgment) came in near the rear of the pack. However, I chose it merely because I thought it had the coolest-sounding name, so my confidence regarding picking the ponies has not been shaken. The last reason for the celebration was unspoken, but a few of us knew. The CO and his wife are celebrating their own 50th anniversary! Unfortunately, I didn’t get a photo of the happy couple because my journalism skills are horrible, but everyone should raise a glass to Racer57 and his beloved!

Last, they wrote! While preparing to put all these thoughts into text, I ran across something I hadn’t seen in a long time: an active geocaching blog! I’m not alone out here! The 9 Usual Suspects seem to be based out of Cymru (Wales for those of you who don’t know Welsh), but they’re out there doing the thing and keeping everyone up to date on Welsh (I don’t know the adjectival form of Cymru) happenings. Unfortunately, they don’t update as often as I do, but they’re not dead or moribund as so many other sites are. If you have the chance, give them a look! As far as I’m concerned, it’s just nice to read about the adventures of others!