Yesterday I was eating an early dinner and looking at the map for a daily cache. I lucked out and found an FTF five minutes from where I was eating. I was immediately suspicious when I saw it had been placed three days before. I couldn’t believe any of the more hardcore cachers around here would have left a simple one for that long. Turns out that it only published that morning; that I could believe. After I was done with food, I went over and parked near GZ at a senior center adjoining a neighborhood park. I had been to that park at least twice, possibly thrice, before for caches that disappeared into whatever ether where old caches go. I took a short walk to a loose gathering of trees, noticed some rocks stacked at the base of one of them, and found a 3D printed bison equivalent. I cracked it open and found a clean white log sheet waiting for me. I almost felt bad sullying it with ink, but that feeling didn’t last long. Having both invenied and inscripsied, I reposuied it back to its earthen resting place and headed home.
Once I got home, I thought for a moment; I couldn’t remember the last time I had gotten an FTF. Luckily, we have tons of tools for tracking those kinds of things. I warmed up Project-GC (who am I kidding? It’s always open) and checked. Apparently it had been four months since I got an FTF. Why so long? It wasn’t exactly for lack of trying, but it’s also become less of a thing since that streak was broken. I had forty-three months in a row, starting with the pandemic and ending while I was with the TexaSix in the Northeast. Since then, it’s not been as big a thing for me. I used to push myself to get them, but now it’s more a convenience thing. Of course, I also wonder if it’s not a case of my greater caching habits changing. I used to be more a neither rain nor sleet nor snow type, often braving the dead of night to acquire my daily cache. These days, I don’t push myself anywhere near as hard on a day-to-day basis, and very rarely after the sun goes down (unless I’m out getting counties, but that’s a special circumstance). No doubt that attitude is reflected in my FTF finds; I’m not likely going out late for an FTF or getting up early, either. Or, much like with swag, maybe I care less in general. I think when I started, I cared about all the things and wanted all the accomplishments. Now, having acquired some of those accomplishments and others I didn’t even intend, I have a different, clearer view of what matters to me. FTFs are nice, but they don’t mean to me now what they once meant. C’est la vie.
So yesterday, I got an FTF. That was nice. But what am I gonna find today?
Geocaching While Black 