A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

warm

The spring… is it really here? Time to geocache then.

Sun?

Warm weather?

What in the name of … am I still in the Northeast?

It was Easter when we were still getting snow. Now all of a sudden Mother Nature seems to have released her hold on winter.

Spring seems to have arrived. (Don’t worry… there’s talk of rain coming in, and maybe a morning with snow showers).

I can’t complain, that’s for sure – especially with blue skies and sun aplenty in recent days.

Now, I’m sure rain will be coming soon enough. We always get some spring showers. And it’s still cold in the overnight, which includes frosted windows on the car in the morning. But that’s fine. Seeing the excellent weather is outstanding.

That also means geocaching. It also just means getting outside a bit more and trying to do more things. Softball season is quickly approaching as the season is supposed to begin the week leading into Memorial Day.

Time to get out and geocache!

Time to get out and geocache!

I’m also in search of my 4,000th geocaching find. At this moment, I’m at 3,838. That means, I’m 162 away, so I should have no problem reaching that goal… but it’s when I do it.

I always attempt to make my 1,000 milestones something special. For 1,000, it was The Spot (GC39, the oldest active geocache to the East of the Mississippi River), for 2,000 it was Europe’s First (in Ireland), and for 3,000 it was the final for the New York Delorme Challenge.

I’m hoping 4,000 can be at Geowoodstock XIII on May 23.

This could be easy or it could be hard, all depending. First, I’m going to, obviously, have to do some caching between now and then. But it’s the two weeks leading in that scare me. The week before, I will be heading to ASP Geobash 10, a mega event in Western New York. I’m figuring on a day of about 25-40 geocache finds, all depending.

See, the thing about this is that I need Geowoodstock to be the exact 4,000th (I will log whatever is my 4,000th find as I keep things in order and won’t change things around to make it work), and I plan on going down the Thursday night before and have all day Friday to cache. So I don’t want to make it so hard where I have to go super crazy to get it, but at the same time, I don’t want to have to skip caching the day before just to make Geowoodstock my 4,000th find.

This is going to take some planning, that’s for sure.

But the good part of this is that the weather is changing and I’m getting interested in being outside to geocache again. This past winter… I couldn’t have cared less. In fact, I went January-March without one find. And heck, my only find in December was an event.

I’m truly looking forward to hitting some megas this spring and summer, too. As of now, I have plans for four – ASP Geobash, Geowoodstock, Berkshire Geobash, and the NY/NJ Mega (which is on my birthday).

I’m also looking at going out to Seattle for the Groundspeak Block Party in August, and I’m really interested in going to the Midwest Geobash in July, but the latter two are all pending on travel and finances. Honestly, it might be more of a … do one or the other. As much as Groundspeak’s Block Party would be a lot of fun, I wonder if I wouldn’t be better off going out to Seattle in a different month for cheaper flights and just visiting Groundspeak etc. Either way, that decision needs to be made soon as I don’t want to wait much longer to buy flights.

Honestly, though? Those last two are icing. The other ones are easily done and I’m looking forward to them.

Truthfully, I’m just looking forward to getting outside and being more active. And catching a few baseball games. And playing softball. Maybe I’ll even play a round or three of disc golf. And geocache. Oh yes, there will be geocaching.

Now get outside and enjoy the warmth. Winter will be here before you know it!

Side note: I figured out how to darken the type here a bit… that makes me happy. Now I have to figure out how to make that default.

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

Is it winter? Or spring?

After a nice day Saturday, I looked forward to putting in decent weather Sunday... or not!

This weather is nuts.

Mother Nature doesn’t seem to want to answer the question of if it’s spring or winter. In fact, she’s been a bit wishy-washy about it all winter. Warm days. Cold days. No snow. Some snow.

It’s like there’s a poker game going on at Weather Central between Mother Nature, the Heat Meiser and the Snow Meiser.

Saturday in this area was gorgeous.

Blue skies were abundant. The temps were quite decent. In fact, I got by with just a sweatshirt. Alas, a couple of us headed down to Binghamton to watch a couple of sectional final basketball games. Despite a two-hour delay for a power outage, I didn’t really get the chance to enjoy the weather. I should have grabbed the camera and went and checked out all of Binghamton’s St. Patty Day celebrations (despite being a couple weeks early, but they do it every year).

There was a parade and bands and a lot of drunk people, which always makes for good photos.

Saturday was a beautiful day and, of course, I had indoor activities planned!

But, with not knowing how long the power outage at the arena was, it was tough to go too far. So we went and grabbed a snack and waited it out before heading back and getting to watch one game before heading to Elmira for another event.

Like I said, not taking advantage of the weather.

Then came Sunday. Initially, the forecast had shown a sunny day. In the 30s, yes, but sunny.

To be fair, we did see some sun.

It just happened to get sandwiched between snow squalls. That made for a cold day. But I really wanted to get some putting in. I haven’t done anything with throwing a disc in a while. And I’m planning on playing in a tournament March 17, with the possibility of getting into a doubles tournament March 18.

So I needed to putt a little.

By the time I reached one local park to set up a basket, it was snowing and blustery. Alas, we continued. But when the snow stopped and it cleared a little it was much better. Still a bit nuts. See the photo at the top of this post for proof!

Today, as I write this, I look outside and see gorgeous skies again. There’s plentiful sun and it seems perfect.

Or not.

Weather.com notes that it’s a balmy 19 degrees outside right now. Don’t trust the overall temperature, however, as the website also notes that it feels like 6 degrees out.

A good day to stay indoors and continue that job hunt, I’d say!

Despite the chilling feel to today, it seems like spring might be peeking over the next week. I realize spring doesn’t “officially” start until March 20, but I’ve been told in the weatherman’s world, it starts March 1 (this coming from a weather guru friend of mine and I have no reason to doubt it. Makes sense, too, as I’ve heard weathermen mentioning “spring” since the turn of the month!)

The long-range forecast for my town:

This I can dig.

Hopefully the steady climb into the 40s and 50s will remain a positive trend and spring will be here to stay. Then it’s time to get outdoors for a few hours each day to hike, exercise, play some disc golf, geocache and do whatever else.

And daylight savings time starts on March 11, so that means more daylight. Excellent!

Though things are maddening now with the weather, there seems hope that this odd winter will soon be a memory as we move on into spring. I’m sure, however, it will be just as odd.

Snow in June, anyone?

Side note: I launched a new blog today. It’s all about disc golf. If you are a disc golfer or interested in the sport, feel free to check out Rattling Chains. 

Fundraiser: I am, again, trying to raise money for the Relay For Life. If you donate to me — even a small amount — you will be entered to win a super-sweet quilted scarf. 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!