Leap Day Redux, A Geocaching Meetup

I headed out at 3 P.M. to the Annual Leap Day Flag Salute, Proposal, Pizza event in Mission Trail Regional Park.  It wasn't until 5:30, but I wanted to look for a couple of caches before the event. Plus, the event location was a mile walk from the trailhead. I found one of the caches, but not the other, which was OK because I've looked for it several times before.

I was the second person there, the first being a fellow from north county. I told him I wouldn't remember his name, and sure, enough, I forget!  Very nice guy!

The cache I found earlier had be place by MABY64, who turned out to be the bringer-of-salad!

I had JJDUO take a picture of me eating deep-dish pizza, so to prove to Kim that I really did go!




More and more people came, and more and more pizza was et! One of the bringers-of-pizza was Serrano7, who is the fellow that muggled my cache today. We had a good laugh about that!



And it got darker and darker, the way it does!  There were maybe ten kids in attendance, including one baby.  At least one of the kids had their own GPS receiver. I heard him say, when told there was a geocache in a certain spot, "Oh, that's why my GPSr kept pointing there!"



The view is very nice, and one I have not seen at night. Too bad I didn't bring a tripod! We are looking tto the south-ish, and that's probably the stadium all lit up. Or not.



This geo-truck was parked next to mine at the trailhead.  It has a trackable tag there on the window.



That is about all for now!

Leap Day (A Furlough Day)

VOTER ID

I don't understand why requiring an ID to vote is a bad thing.  At least in SoCal, nearly everyone drives, so they probably have a driver's license, and most of the rest, I'm guessing, have the state ID card, so how many people are gonna be inconvenienced by having to produce identification?  I'd be interested in an exit poll of voters asking if they have an ID card.

Some people say there isn't a lot of voter fraud, so it's not necessary.  Maybe not, but it just seems like a good idea to me.

GEOCACHING

I got an email today about one of my caches a guy was looking for.  He said he couldn't find it, but did find an interesting piece of bark he decided to take home and make into a cache, and then found out it WAS the cache! Ha ha!  He had to drive back to put it back.  He also said maybe I should raise the difficulty rating.  I hope to see him at the geocaching pizza party this afternoon.  I shall harangue him about stealing caches!

Of This And That

Foggy day at work Friday.



I really hate it when I can't find something on the internet that I JUST looked at the other day.  I was trying to remember something I read, on either reddit or fark (because really, what else is there?), about someone's room mate who always turned off their router at night (and I FOUND the thread, eventually, but not the phrase, so where was it?), and some guy said something like in the ten minutes it took for the router to fire up he felt like a Russian serf.

I went geocaching this morning in Mission Trails Regional Park, up by the rock climbing area, for a cache I've mentioned before.  Walked right straight to the darn thing, it was almost a let down!  Anyway, there were a lot of people scaling the heights, and I got what I think is a great pic.



I also took the obligatory pics looking down, and looking up. On the DOWN one, which is strangely filenamed "dpwm", you can just see the bed of the truck sticking out WAY down there.



And on the UP pic, which I had to gamma-correct, you can see the rocks WAY up there where the cache was.



And here is the cache, in case you wanted to see it. The view is over the canyon to South Fortuna Mt.



Well, that's about all I can think of. Thanks for visiting1

Must Be Friday

Overheard in the library:

"They should make a Fabreze that smells like Justin Bieber", so said A.B.

At The Hop

Today was the Sock Hop at work, so I wore my leather jacket.  Many people complimented me, but one complained it smells like cigarettes.  Here are a few pics of the two 56 Chevys they had there for to have pictures taken in.

Engine compartment, port side. That don't look stock, I said to myself. The lady said they had added four wheel disc brakes, and there they was, behind the very pretty mag wheels.



Engine compartment, starboard side. Cool battery! The lady shared that when they got the car the firewall had been cut out so a 400 plus or minus cubic incher could be installed, but they went with a smaller engine and replaced the firewall in the stock position.



Me in the other 56 Chevy, zapped by the sun flare! Finally got a chance to wear my Velocette tee to work!  I told one of the kids to ask the owner where the gas cap was. She was AMAZED when he popped the taillight open to reveal its hidden position.



On the way home I was following this scooter up the hill at a majestic 22.5 mph.  Several cars passed and cut it. At the stop light she went into the bike lane and passed seven cars, then cut back in. Words fail me...



A geocache I found the other day. Yikes, a giant bug!



That is all for today1

Today At The Mall

A lady with a clipboard approached me today and said, "Support Gay rights?"  I said, "Ok", and kept right on walking.  Two guys in front of me turned around and verbally high-fived me.

That is all.

Look To The West!

Noticed this today, after manhandling this title for four years.

What's wrong with this picture?



The California edition of Prentice Hall Mathematics Pre-Algebra has a nice dramatic image of the Golden Gate bridge, but they flipped it 180 degrees. Looking north, as we are, the San Francisco Bay should be to the right, and the Pacific Ocean should be, well, on the left.

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The other day I was driving the truck on the freeway, following a Porsche.  The Porsche took the ramp at AT LEAST ten miles under the recommended speed.  Dude, you're driving a PORSCHE! Step on the gas!

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Today was the last day of wetness, so perhaps I'll talk myself into riding the bike tomorrow.  Even though it's a holiday.

Valentines Day

Another rainy day, and that is my excuse for not riding the bicycle to work.  Cowles Mountain was especially pretty as the blue sky broke out.



Today being V. Day, the boys and girls were scarfing up the candy like, well, like it was candy.  I was presented with a blueberry lollipop,, which I tried not to eat for several hours, but eventually gave in to temptation.



I had an idea the other day of an image I could self-shoot of me in a funny-yet-graceful pose.

This would not be it...



This is take two.  Take one is of me falling over and bruising my arm. I deleted it.

Walking, Yes Indeed

In a fit of pique I walked to the cigarette store to pick up supplies. It was about a four-mile walk, I figure, or very nearly.

I saw some interesting stuff along the way.

Saw this nifty Triumph Thruxton 900 at the Chico Club bar. What makes it a Thruston, I ask myself? Well, the name comes from a famous motorcycle race in England, and so many brands have used it to convey a sense of sportiness, I guess.



I thought this conduit run was interesting. I guess one has to be into conduit...



I hadn't notice the Eruv marking line lately, but I spotted it today. Kind of a "secret" layer to the world, not unlike geocaching.



Speaking of geocaching, I made the find on this little booger, one that I hadn't spotted the last time I looked for it, probably because it was early and darkish out. Today, in the light of day, no problem!



But before that I saw this Rolls Royce sitting by a church. A wedding? I don't know.



At the County Health Clinic I noticed there were at least THREE signs warning folks not to bring weapons into the building. THREE!



And here's a nice little '66 Mustang for you!



And lastly, a link (because it's nearly two megs in size) to a panorama of a car repair shop full of old cars. How many can YOU identify?

I see, from left to right: A jeep pickup (like Kelly's), A Nova SS, a MGB, a regular old Jeep, what I think is a Covair Monza, a green Ford Ranchero, another Jeep pickup, more like Kelly's, a white possibly Buick Riveria, and the black Buick outside the fence, which I cheated on and just read the logo on the trunk.

And that's what I did on Sunday.

A Wall Of Shame

I drove over to the public library after work to pick up a copy of John Ringo's "Live Free Or Die". I tried one of Ringo's book last year, but didn't care for it.  Mr. E. recommended this one, so on his head be it.

Anyway, on the way there I observed a "homeless" person peeing on the wall, right in front of God and everyone!   Which one of these three do you think it was?

#1 -- A woman.
#2 -- Old man with beard.
#3 -- Young guy.



I took the picture upon leaving the library, so I was unable to catch "the action".

On a more humorous note, I heard Mrs. P. talking about someone who "couldn't spell 'paint' backwards if you gave him the 'p' and the 't'." I told her that was going on the blog, she said it's an old Alabama country-girl saying.

And that is about it for today!

Just Sayin'

Note to K9LMPD, or maybe it was LMPDK9... your right brake light is out.

Another Geocaching Sunday

And boy, was it a sunny Sunday!

I headed out to Eastlake, a lovely homogenized subdivision, to look for more of them caches on the power trail, plus assorted others. I found seventeen of them, plus one that was just too high to reach.



I didn't find six. Next time for sure!

I took this Hello Kitty key chain, because, well, it's HELLO KITTY!



I did not make any First To Finds today, but here's a pic I made the other day showing the joy, oh yes, the JOY, one feels when one does...



Well, that's it for geocaching today!

On another note, when my computer boots up it displays various messages, as they do.  One of them is mispeled, and it cracks me up every time I see it.



And now you know how I view the world when I don't have my glasses on!

Let's Be Discrete!

I put some batteries in the old radio at work, and took some pictures of the discrete components.  Old school!



It's a jungle in there!



Most of that can be replaced by in integrated circuit or two in modern receivers! Amazing!

From The Royalty-Free Art Book...

Last Sunday, "Lostguy" was wondering what people must think of the two old guys back there behind the bushes.

Sunday Power Caching

I intended to bicycle a part of Eastlake where a one-hundred cache power trail was set up this new year, but instead I decided to walk it.  Biking and stopping and biking and stopping is SUCH a pain.  So I made my way over to terra incognita (I've never been in this part of town), parked, and started looking for caches.  Well, caching is caching, you don't wanna hear about that!

On the way to the third cache,   I noticed my wallet was not in my back pocket!  So, I backtracked to the last two caches to see if I dropped it.  No, not there.  I noticed a bicyclist stopped up the road. He continued on his way past me, I turned around to watch him and he stopped at the cache spot!  I approached him and said I was timing him to see if it took longer for him to find it than I.  We laughed and introduced ourselves.  We walked to the second cache, as I had not found it. We both looked and he eventually spotted it.  He continued to walk his bike and we both looked for the rest of the caches on my list, as he was looking for most of them too!  Great minds and all that!

After about four hours we came to where he had started, so he took off and I finished the route I had planned out.  Then I drove over to another spot and found another cache.  Saw this sad shoe hanging in a tree.  I don't think it is "my son John", though.



Then I drove over to another spot and looked for three more caches.

The cache in this spot was strewn all over the muddy ground. I put it back together and hid it in a likely place.  I'm guessing the landscapers found and vandalized it.  What other explanation could there be?




So the cache count today is thirty-four, a new one-day record (for me)!  Total caches found in my entire geocaching career is 1,340.  But, it's not about the numbers!  One of the top cachers in San Diego is a couple with over 25,000 caches found, if you can believe it!

Crummy Photo Skills Strike Again!

This was in the bakery department at Albertsons.  It looked really cheesy and tempting, but I resisted spending the 49 cents.  I am so proud! 

But what is it?  I can't make out the second word!



Oh, and since no reads the Burnt Pizza blog this is a copy of the post there.  You don't know what you are missing!

Although since the formatting is different over there you will have to scroll around to see the whole pic!

A Caching We Will Go!

Well, just me, myself, and I...

I manned-up and headed over to Paradise valley, which I am sad to say I consider an "iffy" part of town. But I figured how bad could it be on a Sunday morning?  And it IS a nice-enough place, so I'm not sure what my problem is. Oh well!

Anyway, I found all eight of the caches, only one gave me any real problems, but I persevered and eventually made the find.  It was pretty chilly, I had to put my mittens on!  I was gonna take a pic of the frost on the grass, but it turned out I had left the memory card in the computer. So just imagine it!

I wanted to have a perfect ten for the day, so I headed over to another cache about a mile away, and made the find there. It was a good one, one of them fishing-line caches, if you know what I mean. But with a bit of a twist.

I needed one more, so I drove a couple of miles east to where I had seen one on the map last night. I had not loaded nor written down the coordinates, as I thought I wouldn't go that far.  But I DID remember the clue, so I looked around a bit in a couple of likely spots, and made the find. Guard rail hides are easy!

The other day I drove past the location of the first cache I placed, and noticed ANOTHER branch has broken on the tree. So here are a couple of pics of THAT!





You will remember that my cache was originally hanging on the branch that fell down previously.

 Here's a link to the blog post about THAT.

I started playing Portal yesterday, I'm on level 14 or 15, I can't remember which.  It's pretty fun, but I must admit I'm having to resort to a "hint" web site to figure out some of the puzzles. I wish I had ME a real portal gun. It would save me a lot of walking at work!

I just finished reading the autobiography of Theodore Roosevelt.  Quite an interesting guy. It said he was in favor of a graduated income tax, and the banning of corporate political donations.  He read voraciously, and although his reading was at a MUCH higher level than mine, I found we a few books in common: Huckleberry Finn, Moby Dick, and The Virginian,  He mentions reading Tarus Bulba.  Well, I've seen the movie!!  I am going to see if some of the lighter and humorous stuff (and there is darn little of it!) he lists are available on Project Gutenberg.


That is about all for today!  Thanks for stopping by!

Happy New Year, folks!

I had planned on going on a bike ride/geocache expedition this morning, but I got up late (7:30!!) so I drove to Mission Valley instead and found me some caches.

But first, the tail-less cat caught sitting up. I KNEW he could do it!



I found nine out of eleven caches.  Two of the caches I had looked for previously. Several times previously! The one at the brewery tank was in plain sight, cannot imagine why I did not spot it the three times I've been there before!  The one at the fish restaurant was very sneaky, and I almost gave up, then I spotted something, and that was it.  I pulled on a hook in a pipe, and reeled in a blue wooden fish, with the cache container strung underneath.  Very cute!

The neatest location was this cache on the 163 (or the 395, if you are as old as I am!).  Nice spot for a picnic!

I couldn't decide which picture was better, so I give you both of them!  Can you spot where the cache is? It's at the base of the tree, under a rock.





That's about it for today. Thanks for visiting!

Thursday In Bonita

I loaded some geocache coordinates into the GPSr today and went a-searching in the Bonita/Sweetwater Lake area. I used the baseball fields parking lot as my base of operations and went east, west, and north, picking up a total of ten caches today.

I spotted this lizard hiding in a crack in an old fencepost. Shades of Journey To The Center Of The Earth!  One of three old fence posts (how come spell check doesn't like "fencepost" with an "s" on it?) I looking at. But not the right fencepost. Of course.



The cache, of course, turned out (after MANY minutes and two sessions of searching, coming AND going.) to be in the FIRST fence post I had looked at. It was covered by a spider web!



There were LOTS of horsies about, as Bonita is a big horsie area, and all these caches were on horsie paths.  There is even a horsie bridge over the freeway!

Passing the stables I noticed several horsies had their eyes covered. I wonder why?



I also saw a rambunctious mule, which reminded me of Kelly and his mule, whose name I wish I could remember.

Afterwards I went grocery shopping.

The vehicle did not die once, even though I tempted it by driving on the freeway!

Oh, here's a map of the area I just made, JUST for you! The green circles show the caches I found today. All the other smileys are from other caching expeditions. I see I actually found ELEVEN caches today. W00T!!



OK, that is all, you can go now. Thanks for visiting!

Wednesday

Got me some Hello Kitty stuff for Christmas!

Floormats:



You can't see it from here, but now I know that one side of the truck is narrower than the other side. Who knew?

Antenna Ball:



Thought I better document it before someone steals it. Can I put a GPS locator in it?

I also got the relocation kit for the fuel pump shut-off switch.  I guess my son doesn't want me to die if the engine suddenly shuts off on the freeway.  Too bad FORD doesn't feel the same way.

Anyway, I manned up and installed it today.



I have NO idea what this clip is supposed to clip on to. So I clipped it on to a likely tab. Too bad the FORD instructions did not have wire routing instructions. Maybe with a picture!



That black clippy-thing there, I have NO idea what it clips to.  Again, FORD, maybe better instructions?



This thing holds the kick panel in. Could not get it out in one piece, so had to break it. Thanks, FORD!



Neoprene pieces supplied by FORD to seal up the old screw holes. I would have thought a couple of short bolts would do the job more securely.  I have no idea what that weirdness is over to the right, and I'm not crawling under the dash again to find out!



I fired the vehicle up and it ran ok, so I guess I'm good. Time will tell if it is really fixed!

Needlenose

Hey, I was just looking at 12 Tools Every Man Should Have in His Toolbox at The Art Of Manliness and they mentioned that a flathead screwdriver can be used for getting a broken light bulb out.  After turning off the electricity, of course!  I'll share a little tip I picked up in the war.  Needlenose pliers. Stick the tips in there, pull the handles apart, spreading the tips tightly against the inside of the brass base of the light bulb. Rotate the tool and the brass base of the light bulb will screw right out.  How about that?  Just MAKE SURE THE ELECTRICITY IS TURNED OFF!!

As it said in the article,"trust me" on this.