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A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

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Day Zero Project: Completed No. 14

September 18, 2012

Niagara Falls is quite impressive up close.

A Day Zero Project goal of P.J.’s has been completed!

Goal completed: Visit Niagara Falls

Date completed: August 25, 2012.

Number: 14 (remember, these goals will not all be done in order. It’s a random list where the numbers actually are).

Description: One thing I’ve wanted to do since I’ve gotten a tad older is to see more of the state in which I live. New York offers a lot — from the city to the Catskills to the Adirondacks to Niagara Falls and so much more. Niagara Falls is something I stopped by many years ago, but have no idea about it. So I wanted to go see it again.

Why I wanted to do it: As noted above, I want to see more of my state. I am also a massive waterfall nut, so getting to Niagara Falls was a must.

How I did it: This became a geocaching road trip, with the bonus of having Niagara Falls on the list. A couple of us came through here filling in grids and such for the DeLorme and county challenges. We also spent about an hour and a half in Niagara Falls, exploring a little. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to the Canadian side, which appears to be where the best views come from.

I’ll be back for that side for sure.

Still, we walked around and checked out some of the really nice spots. We might have thought about exploring a little more, but it was so hot that day, we did all we could handle and headed out for the rest of the road trip.

It really is an amazing place and I look forward to going back sometime. Hopefully soon. I’d love to do some long-exposure night shots from the Canadian side once the falls are lit up at night.

For those who haven’t been there, it’s worth a trip. From the looks of the websites I’ve looked at, there’s always quite a bit to do besides the falls, which could make it more of a reason why the Niagara Falls area — on both sides of the border — is a vacation destination.

About P.J.’s Day Zero Project: Day Zero is a project where people come up with 101 things to do over 1001 days. I started the project on Oct. 10, 2010 with an anticipated finish date of July 8, 2013. Goals will not be revealed until they are completed. A private list is at the Day Zero website and the list will be made public upon completion of the project. It’s my thoughts that if things are kept private, should I not do them, change or find a way around it, I’d only be cheating myself.

Filed Under: challenges, Day Zero Project, Geocaching, My world, Photography, Travel Tagged With: day zero, day zero project, falls, niagara falls, niagara falls ny, travel, water, waterfalls

6 Comments

Chasing DeLorme grids in a day of geocaching glory

August 16, 2012

During our geocaching odyssey, we came across a couple of rainbows and this was one of them.

When I’ve explained geocaching to people before, I’ve often gotten the look of them asking me if I was crazy.

“You do what? You look for plastic hidden in the woods?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Simply put, geocaching is another hobby. Some people do other things. I like to go find things people have hidden throughout the world. Sometimes it can get boring and old. Other times it’s crazy and fun.

The Jay Covered Bridge was one of the trip’s highlights for me.

And even other times, it’s probably downright insane.

This past Saturday ranks up there with the insane part of things.

One thing I don’t know if I’ve shared about geocaching are challenge geocaches. These aren’t the “challenges” that Groundspeak unveiled last year, rather ones I blogged about not too long ago.

These challenge caches require you to do something else to be able to claim the cache. In the case of the one we were working on, it’s the New York DeLorme Challenge.

Ready, aim, geocache!

Basically, DeLorme’s New York Atlas is broken up into 80 squares. To be able to claim this final cache, one must find a geocache in each square. A few years ago, I got it to the point where I had 17 to go — 11 in the North Country and six in the Northwest corner of the state.

I kept saying all along that I needed to make a few road trips to color in those boxes. In the post I did not too long ago, there was an image showing what I needed.

This past weekend, I finally made one of the trips.

About a month ago, I talked to a few others about making the trip. With three others on board, I started the planning. When going on a trip through the North Country and looking for square filler and everything else, it’s not too easy. After all, we’re looking at several hundred miles, so long hikes wouldn’t work.

This roadtrip took us to some interesting cache locations!

In the end, I made a list of more than 70 caches.

I went over the list several times and kept an eye to make sure things weren’t disabled or hadn’t been found. Still, you can never plan perfection for a day. Things will always take longer. Or, something could screw things up — such as a DNF.

The day of the trip was interesting. I needed to wake up at 3 a.m. I had tried to hit the hay at about 11 p.m., but was wide awake. See, I’m used to going to bed at 3 a.m., not waking up at that time.

Needless to say, I got about a whopping 45 minutes of sleep. I set out at about 3:40 to pick up one member of the crew and to go meet the third member by 4:30 a.m. From there, we stopped for a few other caches before meeting our final member at about 5:30 a.m.

Signing after a find.

The sun was coming up and we were already geocaching!

The day was filled with many things — laughs, geocaching finds and memories. We found some really amazing caches — creative and well-hidden. Depending on the person, we crossed off anywhere from one to 15 Delorme squares and covered many a county.

It was worth the trip.

We covered more than 700 miles that day. I left my town at 3:40 a.m. and arrived back at 3 a.m. the next day. All on 15 minutes of sleep. (It’s a good thing I wasn’t driving the whole day — I might not have made it).

Besides the counties and DeLorme squares in New York, we also managed to nab three caches in Vermont.

Throughout the Adirondack Mountains, there were some amazing views. And a lot of trees. Oh were there a lot. We hit one pretty crazy rainstorm.

One of the highlights for me was the Jay Covered Bridge. I’ve long wanted to visit each historic covered bridge in New York State and I honestly wasn’t sure when I would be able to visit this. When I saw we were going past here — and that there was a cache here — I made sure this was on the list!

My updated Delorme map… getting closer!

Geocaching.com has a feature where you can give a favorite point to caches that you really enjoy. On this trip, I handed out five favorite points and at least one of those caches is, by far, in the top five caches I’ve ever found when it comes to favorites.

This trip was fun. There was no craziness. No bickering. Just a lot of fun and a lot of caches.

In the end, we all had a different amount of finds. I finished with 55 (a new record in a day for me). Of those finds, two were mystery caches, two were virtuals and one was a webcam, of which there aren’t many left. I filled in 11 DeLorme squares (six to go) and colored in, I think, four counties (five to go for that challenge).

This is what geocaching is all about. Good times with friends and a bunch of find. I’ll look forward to planning the trip for my final six squares in the hopes of getting the DeLorme final for my 3,000th find, which is fast approaching.

Hopefully, it will be just as fun!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Filed Under: challenges, Geocaching, My world, outdoors, Travel Tagged With: caching, delorme, delorme caching challenge, delorme challenge, geocaching, geocaching challenge, new york delorme challenge, new york delorme geocaching challenge

2 Comments

Notes from my noodle: Aug. 7

August 7, 2012

My noodle has been speaking lately — and it’s asking why I haven’t written one of these in a while?

My answer? No idea.

So, here it is. For those new to the blog, this is basically a spot where I’ll write about some things that have happened or caught my eye recently, but didn’t really work as its own blog post.

For the first time in a few years, our softball season ended before reaching the league final. We’ve won our league the past two seasons, but this one was a bit of a struggle. Despite a large roster, we had issues getting some people there at times.

No three-peat for us this year.

The problem with that?

We never really had the same lineup or people in the same positions. Though we had a lot of good players, we had to move people around. That makes things hard.

Still, we finished quite strong.

We earned the fourth seed in the playoffs and opened with a 2-games-to-1 series win over the fifth seed. We then took on the top seed, who we beat last year in the final.

In the opener, we played well. Our top pitcher got hurt and I had to finish. We ended up losing, unfortunately, in a game we played really well.

I pitched Game 2 and did as well as I’ve done in a long time. We ended up losing, 5-3.

Though not all their faults, the umpiring we had in these two games was downright awful. It seems like that was a theme for most of the year. Both teams suffered from it, too. The second game really hammered us, though, as we lost three close plays where I think he was dead wrong. He also threw one of our players out of the game for “throwing a bat.” The umpire didn’t even see it. He heard the bat clip the fence on the toss (and it was a toss, I was right next to it). The guy was downright awful and was for most of the year.

Look, bad umpiring is one thing. It’s at all levels. All I ask is to be consistent. If you strike zone is a shoebox, fine. Make it both ways. These things can’t — and shouldn’t — change every inning. But with some umps, they do. And for the money they are being paid, there should be some accountability. The semifinals of the playoffs should have the two best umps, not some of the worst. We got that in our two games and I’m sure the other team will agree.

In the end, it’s all good. We still won 10 games, found some new players for the future and have an idea on how to move forward. I’m sure we’ll be right back in the thick of things next year.

****

When it comes to geocaching, I’ve gone through several phases.

The excitement of being new, the numbers hound, someone who chased first-to-finds to now, where I kind of just dig playing the game and having fun.

One thing I’ve always done, however, is plan when it comes to a bigger trip. This, too, has gone through phases. I used to be an in-depth planner and then it got to the point where I basically wrote down caches in the best order to grab to be efficient.

Every once in a while, though, I go back to the in-depth planning. This upcoming weekend is one of those times.

My current Delorme map — which will hopefully be filled in much more by the end of the weekend!

Four of us are going on an insane trip through the top of New York to fill in squares for the Delorme Challenge. For those who don’t geocache, the Delorme Challenge is based up on the New York  Atlas and Gatetteer, which is published by Delorme. In the atlas, the state is broken down into 80 squares. Your job is to find one cache in each square. Once you do, you get the coordinates to the Delorme final so you can go find that cache. My hope is to make that my 3,000th find, of which I am approaching.

At this moment, I have 63 of 80 pages filled on the Delorme map.

As long as nothing goes wacky, by the time this trip is done sometime Saturday night, I should have filled in 11 more squares and will be a mere trip to the Buffalo area to get six more squares to finish it up.

At the same time, I’ll be getting all the counties I need (sans the Buffalo-area ones) for the New York Counties Challenge.

The three others on the trip will also be filling in squares and counties, but on different levels. Some have more and some have fewer to get. We’ll also be taking a quick trip into Vermont for a few caches.

In the end, I had to go in-depth because with a trip that will eclipse 600 miles and be for more than 12-15 hours, we needed to make it as efficient as possible. We have some good caches on the list and we have a lot of quickies, too. But in the end, it will make for a memorable and fun trip with caching friends. I’ll be blogging more about this next week.

****

Speaking of geocaching, I’ve recently gone on a hiding spree. I archived some of my older caches and decided to place some new ones. Another cacher in a town not far from here has placed a whole heap, too. Hopefully with all of these new caches, some cachers will come our way to make some finds.

One of my recent hides.

See, this area isn’t easily hit by major highways and such. We’re in a rural area, so sometimes people don’t want to come here and find caches. I know one cacher who basically refuses to come to this area because all the roads are winding and such.

Their loss.

On top of the ones I’ve recently placed, I have several more to put out. I just need to find where to place them.

The hides have been fun to do. I like writing the descriptions and I like getting the notices when people find them all. It’s kind of a cool thing to know people are out finding the ones you hid and are enjoying them.

I have two caches, specifically, I need to get out. One is one I got at a cache I found and will be a “spawn” cache and the other is one I received from a fellow cacher when out in Chicago in 2011. These caches are his signature items. He gave me two, so I want to get one placed with the other remaining in my collection of sig items.

Further, I just have some other lock-n-lock containers I want to put out there!

****

As many of you know, I dig attending independent wrestling shows. One, it’s great action and usually better than what you see on television. And when it’s not better, it way worse, which makes it fun that way.

I know how hot it was for three of us to watch this card — I can’t imagine what it was like in the ring performing!

One company we watch often is 2CW, based out of Syracuse. They always put on a great show and this past Friday was no exception.

Except for one thing — it was hot!

The company returned to the Pastime Athletic Club in Syracuse for what seems like it will be the final show at this building, which is affectionately called the “2CW Arena.”

Herein lies the issue — it was hot as can be outside. Inside, which was basically a small gym, had the ring, wrestling, probably 400 fans inside and… no air conditioning.

Holy cow was it hot!

With the action going on, it got hotter as the night went on, too. It easily had to be above 100 inside.

We stayed for the whole card because we wanted to see the main event, which featured former WWE superstar John Morrison against one of the top indy stars, Sami Callihan. The match didn’t disappoint. Overall, the card as per normal, was solid. It was worth going to and watching.

I just wish it had been cooler!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook! 

Filed Under: challenges, Geocaching, My world, Notes from my noodle, Pro Wrestling, softball, Sports Tagged With: 2cw, caching, caching trips, counties challenge, delorme challenge, geocaching, geocaching trips, john morrison, my world, new york geocaching, notes from my noodle, pro wrestling, sami callihan, softball, softball playoffs, sports, wrestling

2 Comments

Foto Friday: July was a blink

August 3, 2012

In regard to photos, July went by quickly.

Yes, July was a blink.

Let me explain why.

You see, I have been getting into the habit of posting my 366 images on Flickr once per week. It’s easier that way. However, July didn’t happen that way. I got through the 14th and then didn’t process or post anything until … August 2.

Yikes!

Let’s just say it was a whirlwind to go through all the images, pick the ones I wanted to use and place them in the right spots. Crazy enough.

I’ve come close to ending my 366 a few times this month, I won’t lie. It’s been tough because, well, it gets old taking photos of the same small area. Sometimes I get some good stuff. Other times, it’s plain.

One thing I’ve learned to do is this — recycle.

By that I mean an area. So if I go somewhere and there are several things to take photos of and that would work, I take one. Then I keep a note and I might go back the next day. I don’t take photos of all of it in one day because then the backups are gone. So it becomes a situation where I might visit the same part three or four times in a week, just to utilize the photo opportunities.

I’ve also kept going with nature stuff, so there’s always flowers and such available.

I’m going to try and push myself a bit more in August. Softball is over now, so hopefully I can get into a photographing mood a bit more.

Now for my top images of July…

Paddles waiting to be used. (July 1)

Old glory. (July 4)

Coke. (July 5)

Fair on the Square, (July 13)

Looking out. (July 23)

You can see all my 366 photos from this year at this Flickr set.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook! 

Filed Under: challenges, Foto Friday, My world, Photography Tagged With: 366, 366 project, foto friday, july photos, photography, photos, project 366

4 Comments

Foto Friday: June brings heat

July 27, 2012

The summer months of the 366 have been a little slow… but this was one of my favorites from June — a person running through the Hamden Covered Bridge.

Ahhh, June. When the summer officially starts and when photography should be a breeze.

Right?

Not so much.

This summer has been hot and humid. Mix that in with softball, caching, the job hunt and many other things and my camera hasn’t been out as much as normal. I plodded through the month with 366 shots, but at times it wasn’t so easy.

That has kind of continued in July and I’m extremely far behind from posting all my imaged from July (the 14th is the last day I’ve processed/posted! Yikes! I need to get going!)

But, it’s the summer nonetheless.

I got some fun shots this month as I mixed things up with sports, events and everyday things.

As for the 366, it’s been tough! Though I thought it would be much easier than when I did it in 2010, it’s been harder. With taking the photos, processing them and posting them. I’m behind on a lot of photo things. I need to get rolling and get them on my Flickr!

Anyway, here’s my top five (plus one) from June (in order of date posted):

Wiffle ball (June 2).

Disc golf clinic (June 3)

Fog settling in (June 5)

First to find (June 11)

Coming clean (June 20)

Sliding home (June 28)

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook! 

Filed Under: challenges, Foto Friday, My world, Photography Tagged With: 366, 366 project, foto friday, june photos, photography, photos, project 366

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A great bark in the park day Sunday at the Bingham A great bark in the park day Sunday at the Binghamton Rumble Ponies. Harper got her first foul ball (as you can see she enjoyed!) and we also had the chance to grab a couple others and give them to some other dogs. All in all, four dogs walked away with balls! 

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One year ago today, I put a down payment on this g One year ago today, I put a down payment on this goof. Two weeks later, she came home … look at her now! 

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Life is good. My dog. Good beer. Photography. Baseball. Hockey. Blogging. Take care of yourself. You're the only one who can control that. #isles #ringthebell

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2008philz John Foley @2008philz ·
16 Aug

Through 115 games...

2022 Phillies: 64-51
2008 Phillies: 62-53
1980 Phillies: 62-53

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15 Aug

I rarely sit on a window seat when flying, but both flights today had open spots, so two of us could comfortably be in a three-seat row. Sat next to the window to do some photos/video and got some nice shots. Flying still amazes me. @SouthwestAir #Southwest #Flying #Airplane

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jomboymedia Jomboy Media @jomboymedia ·
5 Aug

Absolute rollercoaster of a sequence

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P.J. Harmer

P.J. Harmer
When these boxes come, there usually some excitement. But this one ... is the ultimate unboxing! 

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Music: Happy to be Happy (Dapun)

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I hate being in front of the camera, but also realize sometimes it's not the worst thing in the world. So, I'm getting better with it. Week 4's theme was all about us and having us in front of the camera, so I tried to come up with a creative way to do it. 

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The theme for Week 3 of the 52-week video challenge was "Show your process of making something." Alas, I didn't get the time to do what I wanted to do, so I attacked something I filmed over the summer that I kept putting off. 

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