A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

first to find

Geocaching: Feeling good to get outside

This weather has made it much easier to want to get outside.

Recently, I’ve even had the chance to get out and do some geocaching. That’s something I haven’t done in a few months, so it’s good to get back at it. This week has already seen an 18-cache day, and then a day of going after work to find just a handful.

One of the four FTFs a couple of us have recently nabbed.

One of the four FTFs a couple of us have recently nabbed.

It’s been nice in that regard.

Even better? Two of us have snagged four first-to-finds (FTFs), which is nice. I haven’t had many of those over the past two years, so kind of cool to grab those. Two of them even came at night, which is something I don’t always do!

Anyway, what I’m realizing is how relaxing geocaching can be and how much I’ve missed getting out and doing it. Whether easy finds, or hikes, or whatever else — it’s been nice. As the weather gets a tad better, there are some longer hikes and multi-caches that I want to hit, so I’m definitely excited to get back in it.

Like many hobbies I am involved in, geocaching goes in spurts for me. The past few years have been lower-number years, but that’s also because of less time and fewer people around who cache and share a schedule like I do. That matters because I am not a fan of solo caching.

With spring coming up, two of us are also planning a day or two of maintenance. Basically, we plan on hitting all caches the two of us own and doing any needed maintenance. It should be a good day and the plan is to place several more caches our there for people to find.

I know it’s a long shot, but I’d love to find a way to get 800 more finds this year and get to 5,000 finds. I’m not sure I can do it without a couple of big trips, but it’s something that could happen if all aligned well.

If you’re a geocacher, how’s your year so far? Do you get the up and down feelings as well? If so, hopefully you snap out of it quickly and get back to finding those caches as quick as possible!

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

Chasing geocaches in the dark can be entertaining and fun

In the world of geocaching, there are those who live by first to finds and those who don’t.

When I first started, I was totally into chasing them. It was a rush. But as I got going in the game, the novelty wore off. I didn’t enjoy chasing after them and the competition was getting a little tired. After all, I play sports where I am competitive, I didn’t need that to be in a casual game. (And yes, geocaching is a game… never understood when people call it a sport. It’s not.)

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still nice to grab a FTF sometimes. It’s nice to see a clean log book and it’s also nice to know how the owner originally intended on the cache being found.

This is not one of the nighttime FTFs we got Monday, but it is an FTF I got a while back.

But, it’s rare for me to run out for an FTF, especially at night. I don’t cache at night too often because I sometimes thinks it takes away from the game and maybe some great things to see. This changes, of course, if doing an actual night cache or simple park and grabs.

So this past Monday, it took me off guard when I got a phone call about new caches.

See, one of my friends has recently gotten into caching. And I remember those days. The excitement. The fun. He’s gotten the bug pretty badly.

With that in mind, it didn’t shock me when he called noting some new caches had published and he got the e-mails. Being these were in our area, he wanted to go chase them.

I checked them out and saw they were in a state forest area. And on some roads that weren’t so populated, so what the heck?

Shoes on, jacket on and some flashlights, off we went to score the FTFs.

Our area is interesting when it comes to FTFs. If they are in one part of it, it’s pretty tough to land a FTF. There are several who chase them and if you aren’t really quick, you won’t get them.

But over toward me, it’s a little more lax. Not that people won’t eventually do it, but there have been times when caches have gone three or more days without being found.

Needless to say, we snaked these without issue.

It was a decent night out with a pretty bright moon. Add to that being done before 11 and it worked out well. And, I won’t lie, it was quite fun. Geocaching at night has its own issues — you have to really look at things closer on tough hides. But that makes it fun, too.

I don’t indent on getting into night caching much again, but I did enjoy this night.

And there were some FTFs to book. Not to shabby.

Fundraiser: I am, again, trying to raise money for the Relay For Life. If you donate to me — a minimum of $5– you will be entered to win a super-sweet quilted lap quilt or pillow. Click here for all the information!

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

Brrrrr… bring on the spring

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for the spring.

We were treated to some nice weather recently, but it took an evil turn yesterday and into today. It went from mostly sweatshirt weather to downright frigid again! As in temperatures in the teens!

Ugh!

We even got some snow last night. The National Weather Service claimed 2-4 inches was coming. We got maybe an inch, which lines up to what Weather.com was saying. I’m glad they were right.

I’m ready to start seeing this instead of the white stuff!

It seems there could be some more squalls, but things might pick up this weekend.

I hope it’s at least decent where I am heading for a disc golf tournament. If not, it will stink to have to go through a couple pair of shoes, socks and whatever else I need to do to stay warm.

I did get out in this cold weather to go find a geocache, though. I was first to find, which was the first time I have had an FTF in nearly six months. I don’t usually chase them anymore as there are a few people who get to them much quicker. But this one was out of the way and it was published near noon yesterday, so after lunch I headed over.

After about an hour of searching, I gave up.

Turns out the coordinates were slightly off. The thing that stinks is I looked where it actually is yesterday. I had my hand in it’s hiding spot. So mad.

Armed with a hint, I went back today. Yes, in the cold weather. And the light dusting of snow. And after 15 minutes or so, I found it and signed the blank log for the FTF. I also took coordinates (I needed to do it twice as the first set I took were much like the posted ones –and about 50-70 feet off). The second set let me to the spot, so I sent them along to the owner.

Still despite the cold, it was nice to get out and find a cache.

The spring is hopefully going to get people back in the geocaching spirit. Maybe a bunch of new caches will start popping up. I can soon go after the ones in the area I don’t have (which are hikes and not in a nice spot to do in the winter) and maybe exploring elsewhere.

A job would be nice, too. Maybe the spring will change my luck there? If I get one out of the area, I really will have a new place to explore!

But I’m ready for the spring.

The longer days are a good start. But it’s time for Mother Nature to let us see more sun and blue skies and let the temperatures start rising a little. This winter was definitely harder than the last one, so I’m ready to see spring start taking form.

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

Notes from my Noodle: Sept. 20 edition

It’s been a while since I went out for a first-to-find run.

So when three new ones popped up in the area — all within 7 or 8 miles — in the early evening, I was tempted. Still, going out on a FTF run by myself isn’t always the most fun thing in the world. So, I put it aside and figured maybe I’d hit them later in the week.

Then I got a message from Craig of Team-Ducky, who noted that he might be willing to head over and join me for the hunts. A self-professed FTF hound, it didn’t shock me that he was willing to travel the 20-25 minutes over as he’s gone distances a lot longer.

It was a nice evening, so I figured what the heck.

Thirty-five minutes later or so, we were off and searching.

The first one didn’t take too long. It was a micro and a park-and-grab. A good hide. Same with the second one. The third one was a little tougher, especially with the mosquitoes humming away. Soon, the smaller lock-n-lock container was in hand and we signed away.

I haven’t done a lot of caching recently. Heck, outside of July, I haven’t done a lot of caching at all. There are a bunch of local caches I haven’t found yet, so it’s probably time to try and grab them and scratch them off the list.

It only took about an hour total to get them, so it was a nice getaway for a little while.

***

Processing photos is a long, well, process.

I shot a wedding a couple weeks ago and I am about halfway through the images. I usually just give the couple a CD with all the processed images, so it’s easy in that regard that I don’t have to do proofs and prints. Still, it’s a long, drawn-out process as you want to make the photos look as good as you can for the couple.

It’s probably why I don’t do weddings often.

Still, I love looking through these images. I’m really happy with the photos I got and I hope the couple is as well. There’s some really cool moments captured.

***

It would appear that I didn’t get the gig I had hoped I would have a shot at. A recent interview, which I thought went so-so, didn’t end up going anywhere. I figured because I hadn’t heard back at all in a while that I wasn’t moving on in the process.

I’ve received word that the position has been filled, but I haven’t heard officially. Hopefully I’ll get some word to make it official as I always hold out hope that I have a chance until I get that official note.

***

I’ve been peeking at my baseball cards recently. Part of the reason is I plan on giving some of those that I have doubles of (autographs, game-used) away in upcoming contests.

I was also looking to see about landing some reprints of any cards for players I am writing about for the HooHaa 9.

That also gave me a chance to check out some of the players I collect and made me realize that I am still missing a handful of cards for each person. Of course, at this moment, I won’t be purchasing cards. But it’s nice to know I can work on getting the list so once I’m gainfully employed again, I can hit up a show, eBay or Beckett and try and get the final cards.

***

Speaking of contests, the next one will be announced this Sunday. Make sure you check it out and enter!

***

Front of the shirt.

Our softball team party is this weekend.

Back of shirt

Being we won our second straight championship this year, we opted to get championship shirts. They are supposed to be in by Friday, which is good. I can then collect the money from the guys and send the payment. But it will be nice to get everyone the shirt. It’s kind of like our “ring ceremony.”

The front of the shirt won’t be fully covered by the above graphic. Instead, it will be a little smaller, centered in the middle of the chest.

The back of the shirt will have the info. I went through different things with this. Originally, I had the back-to-back part up top. I also had records, which looked out of place (for the record, we were 16-2 in 2010 and 19-2 in 2011).

The roster is the 2011 roster. I probably could have (and maybe should have) added the few people who played for the 2010 team and didn’t play this year (especially being it’s not like they played elsewhere. Two moved away and two just didn’t play). Alas, that would have made for some confusing spacing. I could have probably done something, but it’s too late now as it’s printing. I didn’t actually think about that until writing this post, however.

That being said, there were some changes this year with a second sponsor and everything else. So it’s all good how it came out. I’m happy with the shirts. If we three-peat next year, I’ll make sure everyone from the past three years are on the shirts. Nothing will be guaranteed, however, as we had some stiff competition in the finals and expect we’ll be seeing that team next year along the lines, too. Also, there were some good, young teams, so hopefully the league will keep getting stronger and stronger.

Either way, I’ll look forward to having these shirts at the team party this weekend in our final celebration of 2011.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!

First o’ the find!

Ahhh, a wee bit o’ good weather we’re getting here on St. Patrick’s Day! Indeed, a wonderful day.

I even donned a green sweatshirt in celebration of this fine holiday.

Anyhoo…

I had to  go to Oneonta this morning for a mock interview workshop. There were only two of us in the workshop, so we worked on interviewing one another, got some feedback and I was out a lot quicker than I thought I would. So I was a little lost in what to do as I had things to do in the afternoon.

So I took some trophies from the past softball season to our sponsor (finally!) and also gave him a pamphlet on the disc golf course being put in at Fortin Park. I’m trying to sell as many hole sponsorships as possible so we can at least get nine holes in the ground as soon as possible.

After that, I delivered an invoice to someone else who is sponsoring a hole and had a little time before I had to talk to someone else about a hole (they, too, will be sponsoring a hole… I think we’ve sold eight or nine holes, so we’re looking good. Crossing fingers that we can get nine in the ground by the end of April!)

I then remembered that a new geocache had been published in the morning. Even though it was a puzzle cache, I didn’t think at this point I had a chance at the first to find. After all, others have become hawks and they are so quick anymore getting the FTFs. No matter, the temps were approaching the 50s and I wanted to get out and find something.

With the smart phone, I had everything I needed to solve the puzzle. The first one I did through the checker was wrong. I looked things over, realized my mistake and tried again… success!

Off I went.

I got to the parking area and I was a short walk to the cache location. I saw someone with some dogs near the spot. I didn’t recognize the person, but was hoping I didn’t get beat that close!

I then got to the area, looked around a little and had the cache in hand quickly. I opened, looked and … yes sir! There was a blank log.

I signed in with the FTF!

After that, I headed home and worked on some job things — which included sending another application out! I’m starting to feel it with my cover letters, which is good.

I also went down to one of the big open fields in my area tonight and threw some discs a little. I have an idea of what discs I want to carry with me from now on. That being said, I need to get a basket as I need to have something to work on for my putting and having a target.

Until then, I’m happy I got to be out walking around a little bit with today’s weather. It’s nice to get out and get a cache or two. There are a few newer ones in the area I haven’t found yet, so I’ll be looking for those soon enough!

More later!