Month: January 2010

I picked up Emma’s ashes today. Very weird I wanted to place a cache in her honor near the vet’s but the terrain isn’t conducive. I’ll keep looking.

On an otherwise unseasonably cool day for the area I just had time to grab a few. We’re expecting 3 days of rain beginning tonight. We do need the water in the Sonoran Desert so I’m not complaining.

Out on a cool grey day with my friend Clint – “MacHammer” – hunting for caches in his neighborhood, Chandler, AZ. It’s definitely more fun going with another geocacher, and Clint and I have been out a few times now grabbing what we can. Thanks Clint for your friendship and being a caching buddy.

A marathon day going solo. There is a road on the west side of town – Sun Valley Parkway – along which there are over 100 caches. I topped out at 64 and that exceed my best day by 3 times! Now to go back and get the ones I missed.

The hard part of putting one’s pet down is the grieving. We adopt animals whose life spans are significantly shorter than ours. We love them and in their own way, they love us back. And the when they die, we truly feel a loss. Yesterday I drove past the animal hospital twice on my way to and from Fountain Hills. I wasn’t a happy guy despite adding four more to my total. Emma played a significant part of our family’s life and it’s the little things that make her loss all the more difficult. When I would retire for the evening, I’d whistle for her, she’d come out from wherever she was, walk towards the bedroom mewing all the way, wait for me to pick her up and toss her on the bed, and when I lay down, she’d drape herself across my leg. I’d rub her belly and she’d lie there purring as contented cats do. Her absence is deeply felt. Rest in peace pussy cat – chill with Alvin who knew you well.

Today I had to have our cat of 12 years euthanized. She’d been very sick, didn’t eat, vomited what she did, lost half her weight, and it was time. Nikki and I held her as the injection was administered. Sucks. The two FTFs I found earlier in the day seem a little insignificant. She was my snuggle buddy and I’ll miss her a lot. As a friend opined, Emma was a “fine feline”.

I love my birthday. Whenever I hear people complain about theirs, I always state, “Consider the alternative.” I’m 58 today and will become a grandfather later in the year. Gillian has already decided that the baby will call me “Poppy Cache”. Works for me. Sharon will be “Granny Thal” (her maiden name is Rosenthal, and her friends always called her “Thal”), and Nikki will be “Auntie Snook” (Don’t ask). Took the day off from work(!), met some friends for Dim Sum, did a little caching, and otherwise had a great day. And now for your listening pleasure… Birthday

Today would have been my father’s 85th birthday. Sadly he died in November 2002. When I first started geocaching I agonized over when & where to place my first cache. I bought the container I liked, and wanted to do something a little challenging but also close to home so I could maintain it easily. It wasn’t until July of ’08 that I figured out what to do and how to do it. Read the story of Alvinize (GC1E0QY). He would have loved geocaching. Happy Birthday, Dad.

One of the great things about living here is the proximity of wilderness. One such area is Tonto National Forrest. Today Gillian and I went up a wash through the Forrest that we’d been up quite some time ago to find a cache. This time there were four waiting to be found. While getting the last of the four, a fellow drove by and confirmed that the wash would ultimately lead us out to a paved road that leads to Bartlett Reservoir, one of the major reservoirs that supply water to the area. And yes, after driving about 8 more miles we made it back to civilization! A splendid time was had by all on this gorgeous day while the rest of the Midwest and East freezes!

Went out running some errands and picked up 7 including my 2nd FTF for 2010. The title is in reference to an article I read on a blog this morning about Venn Diagrams, and how difficult they are to create starting with the elusive n=7 minimum vertex Venn diagram