Tipping

A couple of days ago, I was Austin’s beloved Zilker Park for my daily cache.  There’s an Earthcache there at Barton Springs, the spring that feeds the main pool and, as part of your geologic education, one has to measure the water temperature.  I’ve already done it (thanks to the always prepared Magftplanner), which is good because on nice days like that one (despite a short drizzle in the afternoon) the place is filled with swimmers, sunbathers, and various manner of park and pool ne’er-do-well (myself not least of them).  No, I wasn’t there for the Earthcache nor the Virtual beside it.  I was there for something else.  As I have mentioned previously, a cacher has been methodically taking over South Austin and Downtown, even reaching slightly more northerly, close to my own neighborhood.   Among the caches he has placed in and around Zilker, he has added one near the Earthcache containing a thermometer.  I remember that when I started there was a similar cache nearby, but it was archived before I ever got to it because the thermometer it held was stolen.  Bravo!  And kudos for fulfilling a need for all cachers.  The CO kindly requested a favorite point as a rental fee, but I went ahead and left one of my stingily hoarded favorite points as a tip for the mitzvah he was performing.  To be fair, it was a meaningless gift for me; I have 900 of them gathering dust.  But some people seem to like them so why not?  One of these days I’m going to take the trail along Town Lake and knock out a bunch of his caches, but a) it’s starting to get too hot for that (I am not a hothouse flower) and b) I keep colliding with my desire to keep caches around for daily servicing of the streak I claim I no longer officially adhere to. 

All that said, what I really need right now is a few caching buddies, a power trail far from home, and a couple of days to just find and move and talk.  That said, solitude and a bunch of new counties would work, too. 

That is all.