Always time for a quickie.....

GC4E08 - Belfast By the Bay, Maine

At noon today (1:49 min ago EST) I had a 30 minute lunch break and thought I would try to get a cache and get out and enjoy the weather. If you look a the Maine map for geocaching you will see that most cache locations are spread out within a certain region. Since we no longer have a manager...I discussed with my peers that I was off to bushwhack for a cache. I challenged myself to find the cache and be back to work within 30 minutes. I got my coords and took off to my vehicle. I had to maneuver through traffic and head towards the ocean to a fish factory. I parked out back where some of the workers hand out and take breaks. From my vehicle to the cache was .33 miles away. I started to jog in the nice summer sun with my jeans and polo shirt on. When I was about 140 feet away I lost a signal several times which ate up a few minutes. I realized I had to get off the old train tracks and head down a hill which was grown in with weeds and large green plants. I lost my footing several times and almost tumbled to the cache. I found the cache and at this time I was drenched with sweat and twigs all over my pants and shirt. I found an ammo box and it was loaded with goodies.....I left a Dial America tape measure and took a Santa Pez dispenser. I had to run back to the van and drive back to work. This cache adventure to 40 minutes total, so that means I was late from lunch and I have to make up some time. I don't mind making it up....after all I find that cache and had an off road adventure that I wasn't expecting. What would you do for a cache quickie......and try keeping your head out of the gutter.

Finding Time to Geocache!

photo taken by Kevin Kratka

Thank You Kevin for morphing some of my photos into spooky self portraits. This is my "alien skin" photo...you will turn blue also if you get the shakes from lack of geocaching. I have not been able to get out for the day and trample through the woods to find those wonderful plastic treasures just waiting for me.
Well the kids are at summer camp for the week and I the weather has been great here in Maine....we have warm sunny days and cool evening (temps in the 60's). You would think hmmm....no kids, no plans. I could act like a kid again....not really. I have been eating all my veggies and eating less. I do crave chinese food....and have an urge to eat bad. I am on a role loosing 5 lbs in the last few weeks. Okay, I am off subject again....back to geocaching. I have to pick up my kids on Friday evening, I have a 5 hour gap to hang around the town I work in until I have to pick them up. I plan on getting 5-10 caches in Waldo County. I live an hour in the other direction....so it looks like I will be bush wacking. The woods in Maine are very buggy with mosquito's and more and more reports of deer ticks. I guess walking around in the woods in the summer can be a challenge. You can add a level to your terrain tracker when it comes to those caches in the wooded area. I love those caches that are planted along the coast line in Maine....it is usually cool and breezy which keeps most of the bugs away. Fall here is great....no tourists, bugs, and the leaf folliage is amazing. WInter consumes at least 5 months of cold weather and at times heavy snow coverage. Caches slowly get burried and some of the plastic containers freeze and crack. It is common to find wet and water logged caches in April. I have no plans for a vacation out of state anytime soon....I cant wait to cache in warm weather in the winter....maybe a cache in the Dominican Republic. I will be there maybe in October. Stay tuned!

weekly recap

I hid my 8th cache last week in an area that is used in the winter. I placed a cache along a snowmobile trail that is used to get to a few gas stations and diners. The ironic thing about this cache is that you can park out behind a police station to start out. Well since I planted this cache last week, the local police are wondering why so many people are "all of a sudden" using this trail during the summer. I decided to invest in an ammo can and paint it Red, White and Blue. It is called RED SOX NATION and I thought it was time we had some neat themed caches to find that you could trade swag for items cache related. check out the log entries on http://www.geocaching.com/ and this is the reference number GC1E6TP

Camping: I went camping last week here in Maine. http://www.moretolifecampground.com/
This is a Christian campground that is growing by the year. I normally do not hike or camp out in National or State Parks but, I did a few years ago and didnt really enjoy all the people walking across my lot in the middle of the night in order to get to the bathrooms. It felt like I was in a field with 1000's of others who didnt want to stop partying until sunrise. More to Life was quiet and most noise was gone by 9pm and the weather was perfect (no rain). Fishing was bad...I had seen more turtles than fish that weekend. Along the way to camping there we're at least 5 caches to find. My wife begged my to leave the gps behind....I did. It is hard to pass up a trip without a few finds. I have a personal goal to get over 100 finds this year without traveling too much. I have almost hit every cache within a 15 mile radius of my house. Now I need to travel outside the county to find more.

Maine Moxie Festival this weekend

This is my spoof on Magic the Gathering card game. I thought I would incorporate some of my job requirements into my personal card. I am thinking about making a few of these for my other co-workers. We have several true geeks here that could morph this into a monthly incentive contest and make it fun enough for everyone here to participate. Remember my last blog mentioned "having fun at work" logic could spark newness into you daily job duties are home and work.
caching: last weekend I was able to break away from house sitting for some friends who had animals to look after while they went to Wyoming and Yellowstone National Park. The weather was hot and dry...I needed to work off some calories, so it was off in the woods I went. I found 3 caches and transported a geocoin. I plan on going to the Maine Moxie Festival this weekend...if you do not know what Moxie is? then check out this link http://www.moxiefestival.com/
One of the oldest soda's on the market today!

Do you have fun at work?

Do you have fun at work, hmmmmm?

I work for Bank of America and you would think that working for a large corporate company would be smug and dry when it comes to fun. Once a quarter my department area gets together and has a "Boast" it is more like a social with food. Last week the weather was great and we all got a chance to get out and enjoy the sun and each other. Our Boast was scheduled to be from 3pm to 4pm...I decided to start a little earlier than that. I was able to break away from my desk and set up some games at 1pm and prepare for 40 others to arrive. I decided to set up a few games and make sure that they all worked and the set up was accurate. Some of us decided to stay outside and mess around all afternoon. This to me was a blast....and since it is only warm and sunny half of the time, we all decided to blow of some stress and kick back with an ice cream sundae buffett and some prizes to raffle off.

The photos taken are of me with playing croquet with "Wade" who seems like a backyard pro. The grass was a little too long...so we really had to hit the ball quite hard.

You, who work for large corporations need to get out and have some fun at least once a quarter. If you have any stories to share, please leave me a comment or a link to your blog. I am still adding other peoples blog links to my blog page. I like all the geocaching blogs that are out there and look at them almost weekly.