Author: shawnlucas

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First Two Weeks 2022

Prologue

I originally intended to update this page almost daily. Since work still prevents that from happening, I tempered my expectations to weekly. Something further prevented an update last week. Therefore, as a result, I present to you the first two weeks 2022 for One Guy Outdoors.

You may remember that I set two geocaching goals for myself this year. I want to find a geocache every day for 365 consecutive days for a calendar year and then find another on the 366th for a leap year. I doubt I can keep the streak alive for another 2 years to complete the feat in an actual leap year, especially with the rigor of my second goal.

My second goal came to me in a flash of inspiration (insanity?) as I hiked in the dark along one of my favorite new rail trails, the North Central Pathway. What if, I wondered, I found 1000 caches in the calendar year 2022. That requires finding 3 caches a day. No problem, right? Actually, so far, so good.

I know I should build suspense, but we’ve been over this before.

First Week 2022 (26 found, +5 on pace for 1000, 386 total)

I started the year by visiting a place that will become a new standard visit in the coming year, the white blazed trail that runs through several local towns. This time, I took the dog to the part of the trail on the border between Erving and Northfield. I found the trail while finding another geocache in the area and promised myself I’d come back. I’m glad I did. We spent a good hour and a half in those woods and found 5 geocaches. Good start

Celebrating the New Year by hiking the WBT in Erving with Bups.

./~On the second day of New Year ./~, I finished the Harvard Forest series of mystery caches. I started the tradition a few weeks ago with Quinn. He since bailed on me, probably just for the winter, so I finished the last couple by myself. While in the area, I noticed a series of caches on Tom Swamp road. One of the local breweries names their beers after local haunts, so I recognized it from that. I went over to find the caches to keep pace.

Last Harvard Forest and some Tom Swamp Road.

On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I found two series of caches in Winchendon and finished offmost of what remains of a local trail in Jaffrey/Rindge. Then, I took off from work to Covid test, so I took advantage of that to search around Birch Hill Dam before getting the test. As it turned out, I missed the testing window. Oops. Friday brought a snow day, the test, and a quick park and grab to keep the daily streak going.

Finishing out the week at Birch Hill Dam and a Winter Wonderland

Week 2 (17 found, +1 on pace for 1000, 403 total)

This week started off less promising and it shows in the numbers. I went to finish off another part of the WBT trail on the Northfield side, but ended up DNF on two of the five for the day. Then, icy conditions limited me to only a couple PNG on Sunday. Also, I tried to hide a geocache I planned for over a decade and got denied. It makes sense that they want to keep the hobby away from schools, but it still stung a little bit. I moved the cache. Did that make a difference? Ah, but now, I keep you in suspense.

A slow start to the week.

While hiking Monday, I received a text message from my friend Craig about watching the CFP. I talked a lot of crap about Alabama being plus money all day, so I figured what the heck. Why not? I finished another section of the North Central Pathway, but DNF’d a couple of them. I got back to my car about 6pm and over to Craig’s just about 7 after stopping for an unhealthy dinner. That meant I got home late on Monday. I texted Christine that I wanted to have only a quick find on Tuesday because I wanted to be home early.

Hike before watching the boring first half of the CFP Championship

The quick find on Tuesday took longer than anticiated because it froze in place. Wednesday went quickly and I got to exchange some trackables. Then, I drove into the hills of Warwick to find a state line marker cache after Dungeons and Dragons club and a conversation that went on for far too long on Thursday. A friendly local caught me on Thursday and I told her that I heard about the marker (truth) and was very interested in local history (half truth).

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

I finished the second week strong. Apparently, I have a reputation around school because a fellow math teacher and a couple of students asked me what hike I planned for the afternoon. Not one to usually plan, I actually found a loop trail in Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire with a series of 6 caches. I only found 4 of them, but I need to go back to drop off a souvenir because the first of the 4 is my 400th find!

Fitzwilliam Forest Loop

Epilogue

I consider the first two weeks 2022 an absolute success. In spite of some DNF, I found enough caches to stay slightly ahead of my pace to find 1000 in the calendar year. Also kept my streak of days going in spite of some challenges. I hiked familiar trails. I found some new places. If the rest of the year goes as well as the first two weeks 2022, I will have no problem meeting both of my geocaching goals. I don’t have any goals for hides, even if the main geocaching webpage made 2022 the year of the hide, but I do have several hides planned. Stay tuned to hear of the progress.

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Geocaching New Year’s Eve: Day Number 118

Prologue

I last updated the page about a week ago for my Caching Christmas post. Truth be told, you haven’t missed much. My recent adventures paled in comparison to the ones before Christmas. No getting caught at the top of an unfamiliar peak and having to hike back down in the dark. Not a single night cache. Heck, I even failed on the one big geocache I tried to find a couple of days ago. All in all, I took this rest week seriously, even in the context of Geocaching. However, I wanted to update everyone on my mini milestone of 360 while geocaching New Year’s Eve and talk about my (possibly) insane goal for 2022.

The Geocaches (Finds Numbered 351-360, Days Numbered 113-118)

Although I called them all adventures on my Instagram, I hesitate to repeat that mistake here. Almost all of them are of the park and grab vintage. Even the one hike only brought me about a quarter of a mile along the trail to find two caches. But, I kept the streak going. Plus, I got some good pictures. And, they’re worth 1000 words a piece.

Just some pictures from the last week.

The Lost Towns Adventure (An Epic DNF)

I actually planned to have a big adventure cache this week. Searching the map brought me to the Lost Towns Adventure. It involves visiting local landmarks from towns lost due to the flooding to create the Quabbin Reservoir. I found the first two (Prescott and Nichewaug) quikly enough. I then went to find Dana, only to remember that it exists at the end of an almost two mile bike/hike and no amount of driving would get me there. Also, they don’t allow dogs on the Quabbin trails and I brought Bups along. So, the adventure ends there. I want to try again in the spring when I get a new bike.

A Geocaching Goal for 2022

As I mentioned, Geocaching New Year’s Eve only represented an excuse to write this post. Now that I have, I can write about the idea I came up with while finding one of the night caches. The Christmas music played softly on my phone in the darkness as I hiked quickly to the destination.

“What if,” my brain interjected in the middle of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, “you tried to find 1,000 caches in a calendar year.”

“Hmm,” I replied. “I’d only hae to find 3 caches a day. 20 or so a week. That doesn’t sound so difficult.”

So, starting tomorrow, I plan to find 3 caches a day. Barring that, I will try to make up for it on the weekends and keep the 20 per week pace alive. Above all, I remain committed to finding at least one cache per day until I get the streak to 366, so that I can order both the calendar and leap year Geocoins. If I plan it right, though, 1,000 isn’t out of the question.

Epilogue

I wrote today mainly to show that the page hasn’t gone dormant again. At least for the next few days, I have the time to write. After that, at least in the short term, I’m back to teaching. Long term, your guess is as good as mine as far as employment goes. But, I make a promise (and those who know me know how seriously I take my promises) that as long as I am able, I will continue to write here.

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Caching Christmas – Find Number 350

Prologue

I said in my last entry that I would try to find 350 caches before Christmas. I planned on finding two of them near the Birch Hill Dam. This plan met with some resistance. First, the caches were on either side of the river and we couldn’t cross the damn to get there. Second, well you will just have to wait for the second because it is basically the story of the day for Christmas Eve. Plus, it sets up for my caching Christmas story.

That, folks, is called foreshadowing. And yes, it and this ghost of an apple tree and that statement are meant to be foreboding, too.

I received a souvenir from going out on Christmas Eve. Quinn only received cold toes. Lilo, too, because she stepped on some thin ice and her front paw fell into the water. As Meatloaf said, 2 outta 3 ain’t bad. In this case, though, it most certainly was bad. Hopefully caching Christmas Eve doesn’t bring a pox on our family.

A cool new concept on Geocaching that doesn’t necessarily add anything to the hobby other than giving virtual things to collect, too.

December 24, 2021 (Day Number 111, A DNF)

Quinn chose to come with me today. We also brought the dog. A ten minute drive got us to the parking area of Birch Hill Dam about 3/4 of a mile away. I know what you’re thinking. Trust me, I thought it at first, too. However, this walk took us along a paved service road, so no chance of it increasing 3 or 4 fold like the one in Shutesbury. It took a little longer than expected because we stopped a couple of times, once for a cool ice sheet and another for a waterfall.

Cool Ice Wall with Water Behind at Birch Hill Damn
Quinn noticed the icicles in the back first.

We made it to ground zero of the geocache near the dam. If I didn’t wander across the rock wall to the actual dam, I’d have thought the name of the cache, “Water, water everwhere” was sarcastic or a joke. As evidenced by the videos, we found plenty of water on the walk, but none at the actual cache area. Unfortunately, as you probably deduced, no cache either. We tried twice with no success. I admit. Terribly unexciting and anticlimactic.

Driven by the streak, I found another cache across the river. Actually, I found it earlier as a backup and realized it was across the river when I wandered earlier in an attempt to grab it quickly after the other one fizzled. Driven by the streak, I loaded us back in the car and drove across the river. Technically, we drove over a bridge, but you get the idea. After parking, I geared up and leashed the dog. Cue the slow motion preparation montage.

December 24, 2021 (Day Number 111, Find Number 349)

We started walking. As soon as we passed the gate, I promptly slipped on a patch of snow covered ice. Aren’t you glad I cued the slow motion? Wasn’t that so much funnier in slow motion? I benefited from the slip though, when I realized that I left the bag in the car. Handing the leash off to Quinn, I slowly and painfully walked back to the car, retrieved the bag, and went carefully back to the gate. This slow motion brought to you by actual old age, not perceived coolness. Again, the hike went mostly smoothly. I need to spice these things up with more action or maybe intrigue.

You want action? Check out this tiny bridge.

Imagine if you will, Quinn, Bups, and I standing on the shore of this mighty body of water with only that single beam to cross. We give each other a knowing look. One of us may not make it to the other side alive. We have a duty to ourselves, our country, and all of you to find and extract that cache. Quinn performed his duty, crossing the bridge without hesitation. Lilo sized up the thundering river, coiled her back legs like springs and lept across the chasm with ease. I took a deep breath and then one step onto the beam. Another deep breath. Another step. Two more and then…my foot slipped! I lost my balance. Quinn reached out for me. Lilo barked and looked around for a stick in case I fell in. I saw my life flash before my eyes.

Just kidding. We all made it across without incident and continued down the path to the hiding spot. Quinn started to complain that his toes were getting cold. I doubled my efforts and checked some of the logs to see if the coordinates were solid. Turns out they weren’t, so I expanded my search. Finally found it, grabbed it, and dropped off a couple of trackables since it was a “hotel” and there weren’t any in there. When we returned to the car, I advised Quinn to take off his shoes and socks to help warm them.

If you’ve ever wondered what a cache looks like and what the heck is a “trackable”.

December 25 (Caching Christmas – NMAIN NSAL, Day Number 112, Find Number 350)

You may remember from my previous post that I wanted to find #350 before Christmas. That’s part of the reason I had two caches in the queue yesterday. Since I didn’t, that made the find on Christmas extra special. First, as usual, some background.

I bought a Jackbox bundle through Humble Bundle a few months ago. Aiden said he enjoyed playing the games. Anything to get time with your teenagers. Well, my laptop charging port went haywire and I have yet to get it fixed. So, I bought the most recent game on our XBox and we played it Christmas Eve. We enjoyed it so much, we wanted to play with the extended family. But, we forgot the XBox. Oh no!

Dad, as usual, to the rescue. I offered to get the XBox. And, caching Christmas?! I thought I found all of the caches near my in laws. Turned out I messed up a setting somehow and more appeared when I did my search. NMAIN NSAL was less than 5 miles away and a park and grab. Perfect. Cache found. XBox retrieved. Night saved?

Not so fast. The controller I picked didn’t work and we weren’t able to play Jackbox with the whole group. Bummer. But, the rest of the holiday has gone well in spite of the fact that I’ve spent the last two days searching and applying for new jobs. Oh well, can’t win em all.

Epilogue

As with many of our adventures, the first adventure has been the more adventurous. However, I’m personally excited about Christmas Day. Geocaching doesn’t recognize the 50s as official milestones, but after not being in the hobby for so long, I’m taking all the wins I can. Caching Christmas got me to 350 and that’s good enough for me. Yesterday I found another puzzle cache in the Harvard Forest among gunshots and threatening clouds. Today, I want to check out a place in Athol after dropping Liam off for work. Not sure when I’ll get around to documenting them, but stay tuned.

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Rocking Stones: Day Number 110

Prologue

Today’s visit to Rocking Stones served once again as therapy. Even though I wrote less than two weeks ago this time, much happened in that short of a time. First, I’m seriously considering a new job. I got my observation report from that observation mentioned in that article. It was not great. In fact, it is looking more and more like it is the beginning of the end. It mentioned reminding me of my “role and responsibilities as a teacher”. I don’t think I need to tell you that is both demoralizing and dehumanizing. But, I just did.

And, so caused quite the stir by posting this on social media. Several colleagues reached out and I thank them for that. As I said to several of them, they are one of the only reasons that I continue to fight for the stupid job. I thought this might be my actual chance at redemption. That failed and now I’m done. Past time to move on..

How did I go from “guess I’m in this for the long haul” to “past time to move on” so quickly? Well, as Ferris Bueller said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop to look around every once in a while, you could miss it.” Let me slow things down and tell you about my adventures in Shutesbury and then Rocking Stones.

Wednesday’s Cache: MA NET 14.2 (Day Number 109, Cache Number 346)

I planned this one the night before. As I scrolled through the map on the Geocaching web page, I saw this one hadn’t been found for over a year. While this should put me off, geocachers take pride in “resurrection” caches. Plus, I planned a back up in case it went missing in the year plus. Eventually I ended up on another of our patented undermaintained dirt roads that is evntually going to destroy the undercarriage of my tiny Honda Fit.

Not this time, though. So, I parked in a muddy area and hoped that I would be able to pull back out when done. Okay, it’s a 3/4 mile hike. Doing a quick calculation in my head, “At an average pace, it takes a human about 15 minutes to walk a mile. So, this should take about that.” A few things. (a) It is 3/4 mile as the crow flies. (b) While hiking, I thought, “Oh boy, the return trip is going to be a bear. It’s all uphill on the way back.” So, the terrain isn’t at all flat.

I tried uploading a video to show some peaceful rain drops, but it didn’t work so it’s a lame sign.

As a result, my 15 minutes tops hike turned into more like a half an hour to 45 minutes. That’s still not bad, but the scenery at this time of year was very brown. To add insulto to injury, I found almost no running water other than a small stream. As many of you know, I seek running water. I never knew why that was until a few weeks ago hiking with my wife. We found a large waterfall while hiking a place called Bear’s Den in New Salem. Funny enough, it is different from the place called Bear’s Den in Athol.

Small stream found at the beginning of the hike.

Why, though, running water? What I discovered at New Salem Bear’s Den is that running water calms my thoughts. It slows down my brain and lets me live in the moment. Life according to Ferris Bueller and all. “Wait, what’s this? Is that running water I hear in the distance? Double time it, soldier!”

Bridge ahead. Oh, talk about a troubled bridge over running water. Well, here goes nothing.

Finding this cache was one of my most daring (?) adventures in a while. It made me think of when I was a kid and me and my friend Rusty played “Pluto Explorers” near the frozen creek behind my house. We both ended up soaked, but clearly that’s now a core memory for me. I wonder what ever happened to Rusty.

In any case, these caches are usually hanging from a tree. Looks like it is that tree near the shore. Wait, is it? No. Hmm, they wouldn’t hide it over *pause for effect, realization hits* there. Crap. Yep, there it is. Watch the video for the rest of the story.

The rest of the story. Oh, and I did get my boot wet on the return trip, so I sort of lied.

Yesterday’s Cache: Rocking Stones x2 (Day Number 110, Cache Number 347 and 348)

Geocaching introduces me to new places nearly every single day. Granted, I live in rural New England, an area steeped in history and hidden gems in nature. I found this hidden gem, again, while scrolling the Geocaching map on my phone. Bonus! It’s an Earthcache in the Rocking Stones Area in Barre. I think I explained Earthcaches before, but here’s a quick reminder. An Earthcache leads the geocacher to a, for lack of a better term, hidden gem in nature and asks them to perform a sequence of tasks related to the geology of the area. Bonus! There’s a traditional cache up here, too. Two found in a day for the first time in a while. This one actually required me to do some measurement and math. How could I say no?

The obligatory selfie to get credit. The rock formation in question. The hiding spot for the other cache.

Admittedly, today’s adventure was less adventurous than yesterday. However, I measured that bottom rock with a 6 inch ruler and my finger as a spacer to get the area. I arrived at 28.875, because of course I did, and an estimate of height of the overall formation at 10-12 feet. The person who listed the cache came back to say the “actual” answers were 27 and 11 feet. Not bad for a half foot ruler.

Epilogue

I meant to post this yesterday, but got distracted by the new Spider-Man movie and then finishing up the Hawkeye series. So, it goes up on Christmas Eve. I have my adventure for today planned. I want to find two more today to get up to 350 before Christmas as a goal I just made up for myself. They are part of series of dam caches, so running water guaranteed. No idea how to celebrate Christmas yet as a geocacher, but stay tuned for that.

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Harvard Forest #1: Day Number 99

Prologue

Before I talk about the Harvard Forest #1 cache, allow me some brief therapy.

How long has it been this time? Last post was November 7, so just over a month. Why so long? Put simply, work is ridiculous this year. I just had my first observation on Friday. He came into my worst class. I’m trying hard to take the approach that it is a blessing in disguise because maybe he will be able to help me with the class. Past trauma tells me that this is the beginning of the end. I guess we will see which of these is true over the next 6 months.

Why did I start with that? Why do I do anything that I do? Clearly, this is weighing on me and will be until there is some resolution to the situation. Also, I suppose it serves the purpose of showing how crazy the year can be. Plus, that’s one of the least crazy thing to happen the last few weeks. Okay, two paragraphs of therapy out of the way. On to the actual introduction.

Over the last month, I found a cache every single day. I branched out into finding them at night. So far, only two can be classified as actual night caches, but they both offered new and exciting ways to treasure hunt. As I wrote to a friend, “I just stomped through the pitch black woods last night for about an hour to find a piece of Tupperware in and keep my streak alive.”

Granted, the search was fun and the entire time I worried that El Chupacabra might eat me. But, I found it!

Plus, the moon during this hike was absolutely gorgeous. Totally made up for the fact that I had to pass through a spoopy tunnel while walking along the trail and I’d have died a satisfied man.

Yesterday’s Cache: Elwin’s Cache (Day Number 98)

I went searching for another geocache called “Bird’s Eye View“. Unfortunately, that one looked to be in a residential area and that scared me off. While out, I checked the Geocaching app and found that there was still a cache in the Bearsden Conservatory that I hadn’t found. Being that’s one of my favorite places to hike in the area, I quickly adjusted my plan. The directions brought me to the cabin on the premises (that I had actually forgotten existed and is able to be reserved) and I parked there. The reservation season is over for the cabin until March. That’s a bummer because March hasn’t been very winter like over the last couple of years. Oh well, there are two lean-tos in the area as well that maybe I can take my 4-season tent over for a weekend if it snows.

A pretty pond near where I parked, the cabin in question, and a couple of pictures from the actual parking area.

That’s neither here nor there other than the fact that it may become a post later in the winter. The important part is that I parked and then hiked for a bit, completely unaware (having forgotten) that there was a parking area a bit further up the road. Oh well, I got to hike a little bit, which is nice because the cache was hidden in the parking area. I quickly found the cache and then scooted off to the dump.

While at the dump, I got a call from Liam. I completely forgot that he offered to work a birthday party to pick up an extra hour. Once I saw the missed call, I came home, picked him up, dropped him off and then scooted back up to Bear’s Den to drop a trackable into the cache. I also put together a replacement cache for one I found on Friday (more on that in a couple of weeks), and tried to come up with some ideas for some hides of my own. All in all, it was a successful day for Geocaching.

Today’s Cache: Harvard Forest #1 (Day Number 99)

I planned to find this one yesterday. These Harvard Forest caches, including Harvard Forest #1, are “puzzle” caches. In their case, that simply means that you have to answer a question about something related to the forest. The question for this cache asked how many acorns are in the Harvard Forest logo. To Google! I would later learn that the cache owner kindly included a picture of the shield, so it wasn’t necessary to go to Google. Oh well, I was fact checking.

Spoiler Alert: There are two acorns.

I started to get ready to head over and Christine asked where I was going. She then suggested that I bring Quinn because she’s convinced (and I agree) that he would have fun with geocaching. We also brought the dog. The last one of these I found was a bit of a hike, so I figured why not. This one ended up not being any of a hike, but originally I thought we might get at least a half mile total.

That’s because I put in the wrong coordinates and drove us through a few of these massive puddles and then started hiking before realizing my mistake.

After figuring out that we were going in the wrong direction, I turned us around and parked in the Fisher Museum parking lot. The find was easy enough, but I gave Quinn a chance to try before showing him where to find it. Admittedly not the most interesting or exciting first trip. As Quinn said, “It wasn’t a hike and it wasn’t really a treasure.” Oh well, he did get a pretty goo indication of what it’s like to go caching with me. Driving 20 plus minutes for a quick park and grab, wrong coordinates, turning around, taking a good 15 minutes to figure out how to open the container, and remarking how helpful a pair of tweezers in my hiking go bag would be. Next week I will have to find a better treasure to find.

Epilogue

Overall, the last three days of caching have been great. I got the idea to help maintain the one I found on Friday and I have been low key obsessed with doing that ever since. Saturday ultimately took me to a favorite place and I got another trackable out into the wild. Then, today, I took Quinn along with me to find Harvard Forest #1. Again, even though this one wasn’t the most fun, there have to be some good hides around here for him to find. Plus, I found my bag of trackables. He will have fun with those as well. Tune in tomorrow for the big 100.

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Google and Rescue Operation

Prologue

Scroll to the end for the TLDR. I wrote in my last post about how I tried in the past to make this page a daily endeavor. I failed again. However, this is my second post this week, so the trend is in the right direction. The major complication is school. Granted, this year has been easier since we don’t have the threat of remote and keeping up as much with Google classroom. Nevertheless, this year, I made school a priority. When colleagues say some of the things I used to say like, “I’m so behind on grading”, I sheepishly shrug and admit that I’ve been pretty good about grading.

“You should be focusing on your job”, you say. I agree. But, I’d be lying if I said that I put school first in the past. So, again, showing growth. It only took 45 years for some things. Most things? Better late than never, I suppose. Next time around, I hope to learn the lessons earlier, though. Then again, some of the lessons are a bit contradictory. Even I can admit that sounds like an excuse.

Some other things have fallen by the wayside, but teachers literally can not do everything that we are expected to do in this current education environment. I share that not for sympathy, but simply as information. One of the things I need to overcome is that I write over 1000 words in all of these posts. (a) It takes forever to write and (b) who actually reads that many works in a sitting anymore?

The Prompt

All writing prompts are taken from here: What was the last thing you searched for online? Why were you looking for it?

Hopefully it now makes sense why Google is in the title. I have to admit that I don’t understand the second part of the title one bit. Who or what are we rescuing? Our search history in order to find what we last searched? That makes no sense. Oh Jesus, never mind. I just got it. I just searched via Google for some possible hints and clues. Sure enough, it came up in the first few results.

Terrible dad joke status accidentally achieved.

Okay, now that embarrassing admission is over, I can answer the prompt. Before I searched for clues regarding the title of this post, I searched for the genus of elm trees. “Why?” You ask. Well, it’s related to the geocache I found today. Today’s cache was a milestone. Number 300. Being the dork that I am, I try to make the milestone caches slightly more important or interesting. I will explain more, but the cache I chose was a mystery cache. It also gave me credit for finding one of the natural world wonders, the Grand Canyon. The catch? I needed to know the genus of oak trees. So, I Googled and rescued my streak. Ha!

The Geocaches (#297)

High and Low (#297, 60 days in a row): I drive through Winchendon every day. A couple of times, I’ve either missed my turn or Google maps sent me an alternate way, so I knew about the trail system here down by the river. What I didn’t know was that if I followed that and then turned right, I would be back on the way home. When I learned that, I started driving this way more often to find geocaches along the trail because it’s a pretty walk that allows me to center myself after what have been long days at work. I followed this one along an unpaved section of the trail. Not as pretty because no river, but the search was fun and I liked the hide. The hider tied it up into a tree, hence the name. Lately, I’ve found a lot more hides in trees, which is fun.

The Geocaches (#298)

Yankee Ingenuity Webcam (#298, 61 days in a row): Earlier in the day, students talked about moving into Dublin. Not knowing much about New Hampshire geography, I had no idea where that was. So, imagine my pleased surprise when I searched for the Yankee Publishing webcam and found it in Dublin. Left school after Dungeons and Dragons club, so it was about 4:25 or so. I walked into the frame to test. Using the sundial as a cover in case anyone asked why I was loitering around, I took a screenshot of the live feed. The rules stated that I needed a shot from the main HD webcam in order to get credit.

Since I needed to wait another half an hour still for the top of the hour, I decided to put together an answer key for the review sheet I gave my Geometry class. With still about 15 minutes to the top of the hour, I wandered around the center and took some pictures of scenery. That left roughly 5 minutes until the webcam updated. I walked back into frame. 3 minutes left. Another trip to my car. 2 minutes. My social anxiety started to trigger. Surely, someone noticed this strange man in a hoodie walking back and forth along this patch of grass in front of Yankee Publishing. How do I respond?

Walking along that patch of grass in front of Yankee Publishing one more time, I took a picture of the town history sign. Less than 1 minute. Okay, here’s my big break, right? Wrong. The top of the hour hits and the last picture uploads and…I’m nowhere to be found. I’m around the corner behind the building. Oh well, hopefully they take my story and other pictures to allow me to take credit.

  • The sundial used as cover
  • Proof that I was there
  • Look at these pumpkins
  • These ones too!
  • Oh it’s a sign. I’m a simple tourist taking tourist pictures
  • Do I wait another hour? Hell no.

The Geocaches (#299 and 300)

Old Center 1792 (#299, 62 days in a row): Another quick find on a Friday afternoon. A few of the logs talked about the uniqueness of the container, so it made me curious. Texted Christine while on my way home to ask if I should order the pizza since it was a bit early because I raced out of school. Found the cache pretty quickly, but the container was unique.

Harvard Forest #3 (#300, 63 days in a row): 300 is a milestone number. Geocaching even says so. As a result, I wanted to find a more interesting cache. It just so happened that a mystery cache was hidden about 15 miles from the house. I quickly solved the puzzle (thanks to my aforementioned Googling skills) and set off on the hunt. Unfortunately, the search was quick, too, I get to finally add a mystery to my milestone list, admittedly not a memorable one. However, it helped me to finish my natural wonders of the world list, too.

Epilogue

What did you Google? Why did you Google that? Under certain circumstances, these are actually very interesting questions. I’m not so sure that the circumstances of this post qualify. From a geocaching standpoint, I got my 300, kept my streak going, and finished the natural wonders of the world list. But, if you don’t like geocaching, then I’m afraid this post doesn’t hold much of interest for you. TLDR: I’m sorry and I think the next post will have more for everyone. Stay tuned.

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Conflicted (Mediate an Argument)

Prologue

As usual, conflicted has multiple meanings in this post. I tried, a few times before, to reboot this blog. Every single time, as you can no doubt guess, I failed. I won’t say this time will be any different. In fact, it probably won’t. However, I promise to try my hardest to keep it going through the end of the year at least. Around this time, I usually make that promise to myself about the main page. More often than not, I keep the promise for a few months before falling off again.

Well, the main page currently lies dormant for the better part of two months now. I admit to ignoring it completely in that time, too. Two Magic the Gathering sets will have released, along with new content for Hearthstone. I wrote not a single word about any of it. To be honest, I thought about shutting the page down completely. I considered starting a solo podcast centered around football. Ultimately, it simply festered in a mire of neglect.

And, so, I remain conflicted. Do I keep writing for two web pages that reach my mother, possibly a couple of friends, and maybe a few of my current and former students? Or, do I save 12 dollars a month. We all know the answer to that.

The Prompt

From here: You’re in the middle of a terrible argument, and everyone turns to you to help resolve it. How do you respond? How do you react to conflict?

During one of my attempts to resurrect this particular page, I got the idea to react to a prompt of the day. I did some searching and found the page at the link above. I actually kept things going for a couple of weeks at the end of last school year and into the summer. Things fell off quickly during our trip to Key West and after. Truth be told, I fell off from regular posting much earlier than that. As a result I never told our adventures in Florida. That’s too bad because we had some great adventures. Perhaps I will weave them in over the next couple of months.

For now, here’s my favorite picture from the trip

For now, I need to respond to the prompt. I actually perform well under potentially stressful situations, conflict included. I used to say that my brain didn’t respond the same way to stress as others, as far as I could see. When faced with stress, I often shut out any external stimulus and focused on the task at hand. For example, when Liam fell down a cliff near Doane’s Falls and cut his leg badly enough to require stitches, I didn’t even flinch. I ripped off my undershirt and tore it into strips as a makeshift bandage and tourniquet. We made it easily to the hospital.

So, that’s how I react to conflict. How do I respond to during an argument or if they are conflicted? Well, in addition to the aforementioned calm in the storm, I take the middle ground as much as possible. I try to get the two sides to hear one another. In fact, as usual, I find myself in the middle of a misunderstanding at least. One could make the point that it is a disagreement and maybe even an argument. I worked to be neutral and try to get the two parties to see eye to eye. Alas, my efforts were met with mixed results. Nevertheless, I continue to try.

The Geocache

HP Lovecraft 6: Dunwich (#297, 59 Days in a Row): Another idea I considered to keep myself honest and posting daily was to get back into Geocaching. Once upon a time, I was very into the hobby and found over 200 caches in my first few years. Then, I completely fell off and forgot about for about four and a half years. I figured, if I am updating this page anyway, I might as well update it with my Geocaching adventures, too. Well, I kept to one part of that. I’ve found a geocache every day for 59 days as of this post.

This cache is a “mystery cache”, which requires you to solve a mystery or riddle in order to find the final coordinates and the geocache. I was supposed to visit several of those history signs around town and use various years to fill in the missing numbers. Upon visiting the first location, I saw that the sign was not there. And, so I went on a Google search that led me to a PDF courtesy of the local library that gave me all of the answers. The cache was hidden in a pretty spot near a small waterfall as you will see in the pictures.

Epilogue

I think I answered the question of how I handle when people are conflicted. Sometimes, the universe has a way of aligning the subject of my post with the adventure I choose. This time was not one of those cases. I wanted to do this cache for a few weeks now, so I took the time off from work (working from home actually) to run some errands and I took a detour to find the cache. Far from conflicted, I enjoyed the trip very much. Plus, I found a house with some great Halloween decorations.

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No, Thank You (Banned Words)

Prologue

Today (Yesterday) was the first day of summer. It rained. So, first day of summer in the pool? No, thank you. Instead, I took a trip to Wal*Mart (yipee!) for some last minute essentials for the trip. Then, we discovered that our “fridge decided not to fridge” anymore, as I explained to a friend. I thought it might be something simple like the coils, but I tried everything I could do and a few YouTube suggestions, but none of them worked. So, now I have to call a repairman tomorrow (today).

So, not the most stellar of first days of summer. However, I more or less finished my PD work developing the new class for next year. Granted, a colleague helped, but I won’t have to worry about that during the trip. I can just “have my existential crisis on a Florida beach” as I’ve been telling people.

The Prompt

No, Thank You: If you could permanently ban a word from general usage, which one would it be? Why?

Like yesterday’s joke prompt, this is a tough one. I suppose that they are supposed to be difficult and make you think. However, having just completed one of the longest and most emotionally taxing school years ever, I have little capacity to think right now. And, so, for these last few entries, you get minimal effort.

Sorry, Buddy.

One of the reasons this is difficult is that I’m not one of those people who gets angry over language. Okay, that’s not entirely true. I realize that words have meaning and that we need to say what we mean to say. But, it only bothered me for a bit that literally became a contranym. Honestly, once I learned the word contranym, it no longer angered me.

So, I can’t think of one specific word that bothers me enough to ban it. As I’ve told my students and own kids more than once, it’s the intent of words that bother me. They can swear all they want around me (it bothers Christine, so different rules, which also teaches a time and place, hopefully) as long as their intent is not to hurt someone’s feelings. That’s where I draw the line.

The Adventure

I think I already regaled you of my lack of adventure today (yesterday). So, I won’t reiterate any of that here. Today (tomorrow) is already looking like a day to finish up some last minute things before we travel tomorrow (Thursday). As I write this, in about 24 hours, we will touch down at our destination in Florida. I got confirmation texts from both the airport and the hotel this morning. It’s real.

Epilogue

So, no, I can’t think of one specific word that makes me say no, thank you. I want to ban that word. Maybe at certain times in my life. I know it really bothered Christine when Aiden started saying “Yeet” all the time. I mostly just laughed and tried to kill it by using it in my lame Dad manner. Eventually, it either worked, or he got sick of the word himself. Either way, the problem solved itself. Usually, that’s what happens. If you give the word power, it abuses that power. If not, well, eventually it solves itself.

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Ha Ha Ha (Tell Us a Joke)

Prologue

That title looks like something vomited out by the reject Joker from The Suicide Squad movie. You want me to “tell us a joke”, do you? I, uh, I am not great at telling jokes. Granted I tell them better than my mother. I guess you will just have to take my word for it since many of you have probably never heard my mother tell a joke. We’ve arrived at a similar place as my classes. How much do you trust me? I mean, seriously. I just admitted that I can’t tell a joke very well. So, I suppose that gives me some credibility. Right?

The Adventure

Today (Yesterday), I went into school for the last teacher day. I worried that I might not be able to finish all of my tasks in a timely fashion. A few times I discussed with people that I didn’t know if it was an ADHD thing or a guy thing, but I felt very overwhelmed by the to do list given to us by administration Instead of being able to chunk the tasks, my brain kept telling me that I needed to finish all of them simultaneously.

Well, armed with this minor bout of anxiety, I faced the list with a tenacity not normally associated with me. I checked off the things that I knew I finished on Friday even if they didn’t feel finished. They were finished, but for whatever reason, I convinced myself there was more to do than there actually was. At approximately 1:15 pm, I went into my neighbor teacher’s classroom to celebrate my completion of all of the tasks. I visited a couple of other times to update her on progress.

After school, some teachers went to a local golf club. My kayaking partner in crime (well, we actually only had one trip last year, but I want to get out more this year) convinced me to go out because she promised to treat. And, she bought me a soft pretzel with cheese that was so good! So, the outdoor adventure wasn’t so much outdoor, but it was still fun.

Tell Us A Joke

No, I don’t think I will. I legitimately don’t have any jokes other than the stupid ones that I wore on my math shirts every Friday. Now, I feel like that needs to be explained. One of the science teachers came up with the idea for them to wear science T-shirts and for us to wear math themed shirts. I didn’t have any, so I had to purchase them.

The names on mine were different, but this was my favorite one to wear. Get it here.

Epilogue

Talking with a trusted associate, we asked one another how our days went. I answered with, “Relieved. Excited about the trip on Thursday. Happy I got to hang out with other teachers. So, I’d say mostly good. Actually all good. No need to qualify it otherwise.” Today (Yesterday) was a good start to summer. As with most things, today (tomorrow) represented a bit of a crash back to earth. But, they can’t all be winners.

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Moment of Kindness

Prologue

Today’s Prompt: Describe a moment of kindness, between you and someone
else — loved one or complete stranger.

But first, I have to play the hits for the fans. When I said this metaphor to someone, they responded, “Are you sure anyone likes you enough to use that metaphor?” I surround myself with such love and compassion. Frankly, finding a moment of kindness will be breeze. To be fair, I thought to say that before them, but wanted to give them the chance at the punchline.

With friends like these, amirite, Groucho? I don’t actually know if it was Groucho, but I’m giving him credit because he is such a comic genius.

Today is Father’s Day. Yesterday, Christine and Aiden discussed getting me a gift. It started when Aiden said that he wanted to go to Wal*Mart to get more YuGiOh cards. Like me, he goes through phases where he is interested in the game. Like her, he periodically goes on cleaning sprees. Sometimes those sprees end with him throwing out his YuGiOh cards. And, so, every few months or so, he ends up rebuilding his collection.

Christine asks him, “Are you going to get your father something for Father’s Day?” He replies, “I don’t know what to get him. What do you want for Father’s Day?” “Nothing.” My standard response when asked. I promise you it isn’t simply for the sake of argument. I genuinely don’t want for anything. Plus, our commercialized society needs to chill. But, as you know, none of that has anything to do with a moment of kindness.

The Adventure

Yesterday (I’m writing this as if it was still Sunday), I went kayaking for over four hours. Today’s plans were to go see The Green Sisters at Stone Cow and then head over to the in laws for a cookout and hopefully more kayaking. I first thought that they started playing at noon and that we might miss them because I chose them to work out as she floated in the pool. Luckily, the show started at 2pm. Unluckily, none of the boys wanted to join us there. Just have to remind myself that their grandfather is a father, too.

As always, The Green Sisters were amazing. We sat in the grass off to the side since they set up outside instead of in the barn. Good choice. The breeze in the shade was perfect and it would have been way too hot in the barn. We stayed for about two hours, long enough for us to have a beverage each and to share one. They also played my favorite song.

This isn’t from that show, but it is a great rendition of the song.

We left because Aiden texted to tell us that everyone was waiting for us to get there for dinner. So, we never made it out on the lake. It took some time to get dinner ready, so we probably could have gone out for an hour or an hour and a half. However, we visited and listened to The Green Sisters again because both her sister and parents were supposed to go with us. Plus, we really just love their music. The rest of the night involved eating dinner and playing games in the yard.

The Prompt (For Real This Time)

Today’s Prompt: Describe a moment of kindness, between you and someone
else — loved one or complete stranger.

I may have told this story before. Maybe even on this page. I was in counseling and the therapist asked me to talk about just this scenario. Tell me about something kind someone did for you in the last week. I thought for a good 5 minutes before I said, “Uhhhh,” and stammering something about how my department head bought me a coffee and I guess that’s pretty cool. Wow, that’s sad, the therapist said, that it took you that long to think of that. I shrugged.

Aside from being unnecessarily judgmental, the comment made me realize. I posted a few sappy Father’s Day posts to Instagram and Facebook. In one of them, I said that humans are designed to forget the negative and accentuate the positive. That’s definitely true in the long run. Otherwise, how do you explain nostalgia for Woodstock ’99? That concert was a dumpster fire (literally) and yet people talk about it as if it changed minds and hearts and ushered in a new era of peace an prosperity.

In the short term, I often struggle to see the good in things. It hasn’t always been this way. I used to be a more optimistic person. I guess that life accomplished its goal of beating me into submission. But, I’m back and better than ever and without a single fuck to give. (Sorry for the PG-13 language.) Even though I can’t specifically name one, I have witnessed many acts of kindness this year. Let’s see if I can narrow it to just one.

Moment of Kindness

Never mind. As I walk around the kitchen (it is now Tuesday instead of imaginary Sunday) and think of the year, I want to talk about the last few weeks. Our English department gives the students an assignment to write a letter of appreciation to a teacher. A few students wrote their letters to me. Some were expected. Several were a surprise. One or two even reminded me the impact that you can have without even knowing how.

I promise that this isn’t a flex in any form or fashion because I truly am not sure that I deserve all of the praise that I received. However, I am thankful for it and the students themselves. I wrote another sappy post about being a teacher and feeling like Dad to many of my students. It feels good to have that feeling validated, even if only momentarily. Even as “school Dad”, you still understand that you only get 4 years with the kids. I mean, social media has allowed us to stay more in touch, which is nice.

So, my moment of kindness is actually about a dozen moments when my kids at school handed me their letters and gifts. I keep saying that this is simultaneously the longest and shortest year ever. Also, in a year that could have been one of my worst, it was actually one of my best. I owe that all to the students teaching me what I loved about teaching.

Epilogue

I thought summer might bring more time to journal and more regular updates to this and the main page. Chris and I planned to record about the new Masters set in MTG for the main page, but first I flaked on it and then the second time was supposed to be today (Sunday, yeah Father’s Day) and we promised if it didn’t happen, we’d never discuss the podcast again. So, I’m not sure what’s happening there. We talked about shifting the focus to retro gaming, which would mean we wouldn’t have to be timely with our topics. Who cares if you talk about Mortal Kombat (the original) now or two months from now? It’s a 25 year old game.

None of that is relevant, of course. Well, some of it is. I’m finishing this entry two days late. However, I plan to catch up today and tomorrow to get “current” with my daily prompts. Who knows what will happen after Thursday as we are traveling to Florida. Maybe I will write the prompts in a notebook to post to the page when we get back in a week. That actually sounds like a good idea. For a week, you will get Florida Man perspective on the page.

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