All The Things I Haven’t Done

Yesterday, I went out and got another challenge because, as much as I dislike gnomes, I dislike unfinished spaces in digital collections more, probably because my brain is cracked in just a certain way. I traditionally collect challenges so that I’ve got something to log on a bad day. Consequently, I’ve got a healthy number of them sitting around for rainy (and snowy) days. However, as a consequence of picking up lots and lots of challenges, I’ve also collected hundreds of challenges that I not only don’t qualify for, but likely may never qualify for.

Some of those challenges are things I just haven’t gotten off my butt and done such as completing Jasmer. Sure, I’ve logged a bunch of mini-Jasmer challenges, but I’m not done with the full set. I’m missing four months: one that can be gotten here in Austin, one in Denton, one near Tyler, and (of course) August 2000. I could easily(-ish) take care of the Texas-based three caches. I am also, as I’ve mentioned a few times, working on the I’ve Been Everywhere challenge, which requires going to ninety towns in Texas. I’m down to a dozen towns left, most of which I’ll go near as I take the girls working on the Texas County Challenge and Texas Two-Step. Ten caches at or below sea level? I could go scour the Carcinogenic Coast for the three I need to finish it. I’ve got a good handful of ones like those where I can just go out and do it when I really get a hair to do so.

Some of those challenges, however, are the kinds of things I still, despite all I’ve done and all the caches I’ve found, cannot even wrap my head around completing. A hundred EarthCaches in Texas? I don’t even have a hundred full stop. I signed one called “35 Texas Counties Challenge.” I have more than thirty-five counties in Texas, I thought. Nope. It was to find a hundred caches in each of thirty five counties. Not even close… Eight types in eight states? Maybe if I go back up to the Northeast and start scouring some more obscure cache types. A hundred Events? Sure. A hundred Events in Bexar County? That’s not even fair!

I’ve been a lot of places (880 counties in the US, and Canada and Mexico). I’ve done a lot of things (I’ve completed almost four hundred challenges, including one I’m the only person other than the CO to complete). I’ve found a lot of caches (over 10,400 and counting). But it still feels like there are so many things to accomplish. Some of them, I will try my hardest to do (880 counties means 2,264 left to go). Others (complete a Fizzy with only caches found on Tuesday)? Maybe not so much. But even though I am actively choosing to skip them, they will still gnaw at that cracked part of my brain evermore.