Wooden't It Be Nice

For those in the know, this is the geocache that has brought so much merriment to others.

This is the top.



This is the bottom.



This is the mysterious hole in the side.  Cachers keep trying to get the log sheet out through the hole.  I did not put that hole there!  I think it was the one fellow who took it home thinking it was just a chunk of wood that would make a great cache container, and discovered it WAS the cache container!



This is the proper way to access the log, merely pivot the bottom piece!



What do you think of that?

Of Giant Water Bugs and Hiking In Santee

Giant white La Jolla Water Bugs are invading the bathroom at work!  Here, I have one of the students herding it for me!




And here is what happens to said bugs, when a manly-man responds to the girlish squeals of horror when they encounter any sort of multi-legged critter!



Today, I went geocaching in the hills of beautiful Santee.  Picked up ten, or maybe it was eight (it was eleven found, two not found). I forget.  I have circled my vehicle  parked below, for your convenience.



Best cache of the day was this cactus cache.  Did I get stuck? Why, yes, a little bit!



The weather was warm and sunny, with a breeze.  Having failed to put sunblock on, I believe my hands may be turning red later on.  My wonderful Tilly Hat protected my face, and I wore TWO long-sleeved shirts to ward of the sun's rays from my rather white arms.

I walked very nearly three miles, accord to Google Pedometer.  It seemed much longer!

Hot Day

How I feel about Flex Alert is...let some rich guy in La Jolla turn his air conditioning off for a couple of hours while I dry my darn clothes!

At any rate, it wasn't QUITE as hot in the library as predicted...

Hiking About

I WAS going to go geocaching on Dictionary Hill today, but I decided that might be a bit much, so I headed over to a wilderness area bordered by the 15 on the west, Serra Mesa to the North, Admiral Baker Field to the east, and some condos to the south.  The search was for four caches, and I found them all pretty easily.  Of course, I DID read the hints...

There was a fire here recently, and one of the caches was a bit melty-distorted, but the log was fine.



You can see the cache spot in the picture, if you know where to look!

It was pretty warm, but breezy, but I wish I had brought my handkerchief, my eyes got all sweaty.  Hard to see any snakes that way!

The other day I saw what looked like a nifty car under cover, so I snapped a shot on the way back (from geocaching, of course...).  Hmmmmm, I may need to wash the windows...



So what car is that?  I suspect it is a Lotus. And I suspect I've posted a picture of it before.

So today, Saturday, I headed over to a puzzle cache I solved (well, I had help!) and stopped off at Crystal Cave, a mine we used to bike to in my distant youth.  Looks like the place has been terraformed, there used to be a dirt road to the mine opening.  It's that bare spot of there, those rocks in the foreground are where the "water falls" are.



This is about all I saw of a mine opening.  We used to able to go inside, although I never went very far.  I'm not sure flashlights had been invented then, at any rate I never seemed to have one.  I was talking to a couple at the falls, he said that many years ago he and his friends would go WAY in there, till they were up to their necks in water.  Yikes!



Here's another opening.  Lots of quartz-bearing rocks around.



This piece had lots of quartz in it, but the pic doesn't really show it.  Is that gold in there?



Back at the trail head, this is the end of Lake Murray Blvd., surely the widest dead-end street in the known universe!

Hot As Heck, Just About!

While  wunderground.com says it is between ninety-eight and a hundred degrees here in the beautiful San Carlos suburb of San Diego (Our Motto: We're Almost East County!!), my trusty Taylor Temprite says it is ninety-one degrees in the shade at four feet off the ground, and ninety-five degrees at ground level.  Oh, the time is around eleven AM.  It is around 28% humidity, depending on who you ask, and there is a small breeze blowing to make things a little more pleasant.  As long as you aren't moving and are in the shade!

It is up to about eighty-five in the library proper. All the ceiling fans are going.  I hear from my former librarian that at her new school, a few miles east of here, she is wearing a sweater because of the AC.  How cruel is that?

UPDATE:

It is now noon...

Went geocaching in Eastlake this Saturday morning, tried on these glasses that were in the cache.



Saw this wheeler setting out the Valet Parking signs in a parking lot.



Quaint village atmosphere in La Mesa.



Tonight I was watching The Big Bang Theory when I heard a Big Bang outside, went out to the street to find someone had missed the turn and plowed into the curb, deploying their airbags, and just missing a parked car by two inches.  No one injured, but the guy was pretty shaken up.

Up The Hill

Today I did a little morning hike up the Kwaay Paay trail to a puzzle cache that I finally solved.



Saw some ants, too, industriously ferrying their little bits of something.



The most notable thing I saw was ten or so big plastic bottles (2 liter?) in the bushes quite a ways farther off the trail than I care to admit I was.  Why would someone leave them there? Why was someone there?  Who knows?

That was about it!

At Work

Blasting out "I'm Waiting For The Man" on the PC at work.  Well, blasting might be a little strong, there isn't much umph on these speakers. 

I might turn down the volume when it gets to "Venus In Furs"...

Friday

It only took a half-hour to find, but here is my new favorite song for the week:


Cows Around, by  Corb Lund (Youtube video, should open in new window)

That is all!

 

Geocaching In Eastlake, Again

I headed out this morning to get the rest of the Eastlake Express geocaches.  Not much to report, except I got stung by a bee. I flagged down a pickup truck and the gentleman, whose name I forget, drove me to the fire station where the fireman on duty, whose name I forget, again, took my pulse and blood pressure.  I didn't seem to be reacting to the sting, so he let me go and I continued on my way. I guess either I'm NOT allergic to bees (maybe that WAS heatstroke in the Boulevard Bee Encounter), or the poor bee didn't get a chance to actually inject his venom.  Or her venom, I guess, since I recall that worker bees are female.

When I first got here I thought it would be a good idea to shove the cover (which was slightly ajar) down so the bees would be trapped.  Later I decided this was a stupid idea. I then thought I would flip the cover off completely so the bees would go away.  So, I did, with my walking stick, of course!  This was a stupid idea, too!  Even with the cover tight there was still a little hole that the bees were going in and out of, so there were still plenty of bees around.  I knocked the cover as you see it, and fell backwards with my great effort, and a bee flew up my pants to my ankle and did what he did.  I got up and ran, with a couple of bees following me, but I soon evaded them, or they gave up.

I scraped the stinger off, and flagged down the pickup truck, as mentioned above.

Later I came back and took the pictures.

I know you want to see the bees, so here are a couple of pics!



Yes, I used the telephoto zoom!



A hairy-legged pic of the sting zone, a couple of hours later.  Not at all swollen, just a little red. 



Later, driving home, I saw this truck.  Where was he when I needed him?



Found thirteen caches today, and didn't find three.  And one of those DNFs was the bee cache.

Out And About

Had to run over to the postal place and to the library today. Also needed a geocache for the day. So, I combined the trips. Maybe I should have biked, but it's just too dang hot!! The two geocaches I went out for were on Cowles Mountain. One was a puzzle cache that I had solved, the other was a magnetic nano that was fairly easy to find, but difficult for fat fingers to sign the log!

View from the puzzle cache, looking sort of east. There's the big "rusty" water tower with the clouds on top!


View from the puzzle cache looking sort of south-east.  There is Mt. Helix! And over there, that's where I work!


The trail. We are looking up towards where the "G" used to be.  I can't believe Phillip and I hiked up that in the dark so we could camp out at the peak!



The temperature was in the very low 90s when I was there, but there was a little breeze, so it was OK.

The trail is very nice, but it is not on the official trail map. There are trail signs and a doggy doo station, and there are no closed signs.  It begins right behind and travels along and above a residential fence line, I wonder how the people in their pools feel about that?

Here's a stupid YouTube video I ran across.  Helicopter Smashes In San Diego Cowles Mountain

Yesterday I figured out what the geocaching term CLF stands for:  Chain Link Fence

The End

 

San Diego River Redux

I headed down to the river early this morning, to beat the heat.  The San Diego River Geocaching Power Trail awaited.

I parked over by the boat marinas and headed across the bridge, hanging a right towards the west, up the trail to Ocean Beach.  Finding and not-finding caches along the way.

People were walking around in the mud, maybe looking for clams and stuff, I don't know.



Lots of these white birds around, egrets, maybe?  I need Stephen Maturin to help me out here!



This bird flew over and just stood there watching this guy. I guess it was waiting for him to stir (I forgot how to spell that, took five minutes to figure it out!) up some food.



A portion of Dog Beach.  A barky little Boston Terrier  started circling me and barking quite vociferously. Its owner explained that it didn't like hats, for some reason.



One of the caches was in this "cave". I got claustrophobic and so had to scramble back out.  Didn't find it.



Is this an egret or a heron?  I think it must be a female, because of its lack of bright plumage.



Well, that was about it for today.  I found eleven caches, and didn't find six.  Mileage was 3.79 miles, with a elevation maximum of around 16 feet.

LAST time I was down here, on August the First, I came upon this nicely separated bicycle/pedestrian path.   I was back there around the corner, heading this way.  I was walking on the pedestrian part, as it is clearly marked.  And wouldn't you expect it, two bicyclists came towards me, from this direction, on the pedestrian path.  They came right past this clearly-marked entrance. Oblivious, I guess!



I misspelled "pedestrian" every time I typed it back there.  And I misspelled "misspelled" here, too!

Clearing Out

I had one more geocache to find north of the 52, plus one just south of the 52, so I headed out early this Sunday morning to make the find.  First I had to decide whether to walk or ride the bike.  I decided the bike, although MUCH faster, was too much hassle.  So I walked it.

I left the vehicle at 6:34 and arrived at the first cache at 7:30.  I saw quite a number, I thought, of runners and cyclists out this morning.  Even some bird watchers!  After finding the cache I headed back south.

I got to the "Grasslands Intersection", as I call it, at 8:07, turned right and headed west. I saw an enormous black bird, probably a crow, that sat on it's fence post and stared right back at me.

I got to the second cache at 8:40.  I decided to head on south-ish down Oak Canyon, since I was already IN Oak Canyon, and I didn't want to go back up the enormous hill I had just came down.  Oak Canyon is a fairly pretty place.  Lots of rocks and cozy little trails.  I'd love to see it with some water flowing.

I got back to the vehicle at 9:36, for a total travel time of 3 hours (and change).  The distance walked was 7.6 miles, for an average of 2.5 miles per hour.  Which seems rather slow, to me, but there you are.

Today And The Other Day

Apparently I forgetted to blog about my little hike and geocaching expedition up to Kwaay Paay Peak on the 25th.  I hiked up to the top, turned on the GPSr, and discovered I had walked 500 feet past the cache, so I had to go back down to get it.  That's like, THREE football fields worth of extra walking!

After finding the cache I started back down, making one rest stop along the way.



On the way down I petted two dogs, and saw a guy wearing the same "Bike To Work" shirt as I had on, under my usual flannel.

Now, this morning, I had to find a couple of caches on the other side of the road.  One, an easy find on Mission Gorge Road...uh, where am I going with this sentence?  I don't know. Anyway, it was, as I said, an easy find.  The next one was quite a bit farther (had to look up "farther" vs. "further") of the hill.  With plausible deniability (spellcheck does not like that word) I made my way up to that one, made the find, and took a couple of pictures at what I've assumed was a horse corral, but now I realize is a people corral, or view point.

At the "corral".  Boy, those pants look baggy!



And that reflective piping makes it hard to stay in stealth mode!

A view from another angle, towards Point Loma in the overcast distance.The hill is Del Cerro, I suppose, and that Drive is Jackson.



That's about it for today!

Huh

I was just watching a television segment about remembering the American soldiers who died in World War II and it occurred to me that I do not know anyone killed in a war, but I know three four people who were killed by other people.

North Of Mast

I headed out this morning, in the truck (Not the bike, TT!!), to pick up a cache that someone thoughtfully placed out in the middle of nowhere, where I've been before. How rude!

As you can see, it was a bit overcast to start out, but it cleared up after a couple of hours.

Looking south towards Cowles Mountain.



Looking south-east towards El Cajon.  Them rocks down thar are very popular with rock climbers.  And idiot party-people, to judge by the graffiti.



Why did I choose this route?  I gotta go UP that road, then DOWN the ridge to the left!  Came back cross-country, to the saddle down there at the bottom of the hill.  Very few stickers, thank goodness!



Humping it up the hill, about three-quarters of the way up.  Had to stop a couple of three times to let the ol' heart slow down!



What kind of ants are these, Matt?



Got a two-for-one at this cache.  One hanging, upper right, one on the ground, buried under leaves. Emailed the cache owner so he can deal with it.



To sum up, three caches found, 2.4 miles walked (Is that ALL?)

I am now at 1,499 caches found.  Not a lot, compared to many, but not bad, either!

My Cache-Found-Every-Day-Of-The-Year (non-sequentially) Goal has kinda gone bust. June I cleared, but not July.  I'll try to knock off a few days each month, and NEXT YEAR, for sure, I'll fill in the calendar.

Oh, and a confidential question to the white van on the freeway with the bashed-in side cargo door--Did you get that from not signalling when you change lanes/merge?

Out To MTRP

Got up early and drove out to Tierrasanta so as to look for geocaches that evil people had placed after I cleaned the area out the last time.  Thanks a lot, guys!

I put new batteries in the GPSr before leaving.  When I got to the trails I found I kept getting a low battery warning.  I cursed whoever put old batteries back in the box.  Fortunately, the batteries  managed to last the whole trip. Later, when I got back to the vehicle,  I found another battery box in the backpack with the word "NEW" on it.  I am chagrined.

Saw this rattle snake in the bush.



I disturbed this Cooper's Hawk that was in a bush. It flew over to the fence and gave me the evil eye.



 While examining the bush (wrong bush, as it turned out) for the cache I noticed this dead rabbit in there.  I guess the poor birdie was trying to eat its breakfast!  Sorry, birdie!



Eight caches found for the morning!

TIL

Today I Learned my high school history teacher was Dr. Death on the pro wrestling circuit. Wow!

I vaguely remembered a rumor he was a weight lifter (Bench press, 1949, 420 pounds), but I find he is ALL OVER the internet, and there are even a couple of Youtube videos.

Friday In June

"Thus is the triviality of the translation of spreadsheets. A letter has its recipient, a presentation has its audience, but a spreadsheet exists for no one." from conbinibento.com

Also, check the post right after that, Nationalism In The Workplace, it's the one that caught my eye as I was Googleing an image of a hax0r cat to send Debby. 


I've one more day (tomorrow) to find a geocache to completely fill in a month of geocache finds, non-consecutively, of course.

or, as Google Translate puts it:

もちろん、私は非連続的に、見つけた完全にgeocacheの月を記入するgeocacheを見つけるためにもう一日（明日）をしました。

And translated back again...

Of course, I am non-continuously, did you (tomorrow) another day to find the geocache to fill completely the month of the geocache found.