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.

This Week

  Managed to drive myself out to Alpine for the end-of-year staff party. Several people commented on THAT! Just missed this MASSIVE traffic jam-up on the 8. There was a horrendous traffic accident around there on Monday, but I don't know what was going on, on Wednesday. Maybe they were still investigating.



Had a good time at the party. Steve the M., like stud, BIKED to the party from San Diego! Observed quite a few hummingbirds. It's Hummingbird Madness!



  We had a bunch of computer guys repairing the LOGO computers that have been used and abused the last year. They had pizza for lunch, but left one piece, which I found in the trash this morning. Hey, I would have eaten that!




  Today, Saturday, I went on a little geocaching expedition around La Mesa, taking a little tour of historic spots noted in a multi-cache. Unfortunately, the physical cache, with the all-important logbook, at the final waypoint, was missing. While I was searching for it a woman came up and told me it was missing, and where it was. I thanked her, but forgot to introduce myself. Fortunately I had provided myself with a back-up cache to find, you know, for my fill-in-the-calendar-with-finds quest. So I headed a few blocks over and made the find. When I got home I discovered that the woman I spoke to was the cache owner for my back-up cache!

  While waiting for the VERY long light at Spring and University I saw a truck with a Yagi antenna mounted on the top, through the roof. It was twisting back and forth. T-hunters! I gave them a thumb's up, which amused them greatly. Here's a link to a nice little video explaining T-hunting.

That is about it for today. Happy caching!
 

Relief At Last

After MANY hours of work I think I got my checkbook register to balance, or at least to agree with Quicken.

Maybe the vein on my forehead will subside now...

Out And About

I had a very decent geocaching day yesterday.  I parked at the end of Lake Murray Blvd. I looked around for the cache there, didn't find, as I have not found it the previous two times I've been there. No problem, I didn't expect too.  The plan was to look for a puzzle cache, with another cache as a back-up in case I couldn't find it.  I'm still trying to get a cache found for every date of the year. I'm finding it's gonna take another year to do it.  Some guys are doing a cache a day for a whole year.  That is way beyond me! Anyway, I hiked north on the dirt road, all the way to the pavement in Santee.  Found my back-up cache easily, so I could rest easy on THAT.

I checked on my favorite cache, the one that Matt helped me find. Or rather, HE found, and I took credit for it. It's missing!  I made a not to let the cache owner know about it.

I made a turn at the trail up the hill, crossed the little bridge, and headed up.  Near the top I found the cache, so I guess I solved the puzzle correctly! Yay!

Took a picture looking down to valley, towards Santee.  Sorry for the big pic, it's 300k, but you can zoom in to see the black bird on that bush down there. Barely...



Now, when I was a boy, there was a mine we called "Crystal Cave" on this hill that one could go into. Not that I ever went in very far!  But, I've been wondering where the heck the entrance was. "They" blocked the entrance, and everything is so overgrown in the 45 years since then.  Well, when I got home I tried doing a little research, and actually found a PICTURE of the entrance on some guys flickr (link opens in new window) page.  And I spotted, on Google maps, just where it is and how to get there. So I shall have to visit the spot.

I hiked back to the vehicle, checked for that reluctant geocache again. Still no find. Ha! 

So there was another puzzle cache. Which I totally have not figured out.  But, I deduced from the logs where it might be.  And I've looked there once before, with no luck.  I drove over there again. There was a fellow with a motorized bicycle resting there. Right next to where I was gonna look. I explained what I was doing. He didn't sound too impressed with the whole thing, especially since I still didn't find anything.  I looked in a couple more likely places, and he finally left.  As he motored off I suddenly thought he must be the guy I've observed running stop signs I've seen, near where I work.  I shoulda said something!

I drove across the parking lot to another, less-likely, spot, and spotted the cache before I even got out of the vehicle.  So I signed the log. Which was very damp and moldy. Then I went home and emailed the cache owner for a hint so I could solve the puzzle.  Gotta make it right!

Foggy Saturday

It was foggy this morning, and it's foggier, as am I, this afternoon. Is the June Gloom coming early?

After three weeks of part-time effort I tripped upon the combination to a, uh, combination, lock I found some months, or maybe years, ago.  Now I gotta lock something up!

Much difficulty with the computers at work yesterday afternoon. Trying to help a student I spend probably TWO hours trying to email her file so she could work on it at home.  I finally gave up an HOUR after I was off the clock, went home, and emailed it to her mom. In five minutes.

That is all for now!

Finally...

I finally mailed in the tax forms.

I finally balanced the check book (one math error, two erroneous entries).

I finally found out the library book I thought had disappeared in transitus is not on my record.

And I finally tried on my fabulous hiking pants with the zip-off legs (convertible to shorts).

I feel great!

That vein in my head has finally stopped pulsing!

Rainy Friday

Oh yes, it was sunny this morning, but it turned cloudy and it's raining pretty hard right now!

My dear mother sent me fifty bucks for my birthday and I bought me some Swiss Gear shoes at Target.  I learned I have size 13 feet.  Did I grow?



Student A. brought some brownies to celebrate the birthday of Thomas Jefferson today, as near as I can figure. They were enjoyed by all.



Any ideas on what that device is on the left?  Looks like a giant RF sniffer!



Well, that is about it for today!

My Spring Vacation

I was driving up to the mall and saw a chick on a scooter that I know.



It's nice to see her out and about!

Another day I escaped and went geocaching in a new place. Took the STEEP route up this hill, instead of the easier way. But the view looking down at the truck was awesome.



Today, Saturday, I FINALLY made my way to Fortuna Moutain to get the last waypoint of the Giant Star multi geocache.  I also found two other multis, and one regular cache. I forgot the coordinates for one other regular, so I STILL have to come out here again to get that one.  But, at least I don't have to make the laborious climb up Fortuna again.  Unless some evil person hides another one up there!

I was passed by, and met again at the top, a group of young people having a jolly time.  They asked me to take a picture of them posing against the view, which I graciously did. One of the guys had a prosthetic foot, I noticed. It sure didn't slow him down any!

I took my own pic of the view.  The arrow points to where I parked the vehicle.



Total walking was almost exactly five miles.  Seemed a lot longer!

Well, I drove to work again today, with a very good reason, that is, I just HAD to find a geocache today, because I am on the journey to have found a cache for every day of the year. Starting last week...

Anyway, I looked for two caches today, and found one.

Took this picture yesterday. It's not the Bat-Signal, it the Hello Kitty Signal!



Today I was trying to trouble-shoot an eMac that had the CD tray refusing to stay closed.  I did a little search on the web and found a number of non-helpful suggestions. Plus one that said to look for something stuck in there.  Well, I didn't see anything.

So  I hauled the whole mess out to the circulation desk where I could fool with it while I did Library work, like checking out books, you know.  I popped the fascia off the drive, hoping I could pull the drive out. Nope, can't get there from there.  I notice that odd wire with the brass thingie (green arrow). What the heck is that? 



I then stuck a magnetized screwdriver in the drive  and pulled out a paper clip!  Those wacky kids.  And in reviewing the pic above, I noticed said paper clip (pink arrow). Now the tray stays SHUT!



THINGS I HAVE LEARNED IN THE LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS

Matt showed me how to bash a Window into the side of the desktop to make it go half-screen size. Very handy!

I discovered that the View Desktop switcher is now on the far right of the, what do you call it, the Program Tray?

I learned that you can grab a Window and shake it to make the other Windows minimize, shake it again to make them come back. Also handy!

I'm starting to lose my peevishness with Windows 7!

Weekend

Cashed in the cans yesterday. Saw this, is that a hitch? Drag chute loop?



That line of liquid (water) drained from my bags of cans.

Just heard a speaker on Hour Of Power talking about his cancer. He said after the sixth prostate biopsy core, he was thinking cancer wasn't so bad...  Been there, done that!

Bagged two out of three geocaches this sunny morning.  You say it's gonna storm tonight?

Found this on the book shelves the other day.  Guess that's why I kept finding ants in the area...

You may not want to click on this pic...



Actually, you can't click on it, I am told. So here is a link to it. And it should open in a new window!

Earworm today is Somebody That I Used To Know,  performed either by Walk Off The Earth, or the composer, Goyte.

I was going to put something fascinating here, but I forget what it was...

Another Sunday In MTRP

I got the news, oh boy, that Waypoint #3 of the accursed Star geocache had been fixed, so I headed out there this Sunday morning.

I first found one cache that had popped up in the last few months, then heading down to the river crossing.  I had HOPED that the river was down enough to cross, and I saw MANY people heading up the road across the canyon, but I found that the river was flowing over the walkway, so I had to take my shoes and socks off to make the crossing, as I do not like squelching footsies.  A couple of ducks were taking advantage the pools to paddle around a bit, but of course they stopped as soon as I got my camera out.



No, those big rocks on the left are not close enough together to rock-hop. One gets to tread on the slightly submerged ones straight ahead!  It's like real hiking!

I dried my feet with a couple of socks that someone left on a rock, and made my way up the long, and rather steep, dirt road to a make the find at that cache the appeared on Leap Day.  Then I went down into the valley to find Waypoint #3.  Which I did, rather handily.

Well, now it was time to go back to the vehicle and head over to Waypoint #4.  Which I did, but I didn't find it.  Maybe next time!

Ahoy There!

Saw this pirate ship the other day while geocaching, and drove by again this morning to take a pic, just for YOU!



Saw this scooter guy,  on the way home from work. I wonder if driving one of those is as much fun as it looks!



I was singing Gilbert and Sullivan to the kids at work.  In particular, "I'm Called Little Buttercup", which was not a hit.  I also tried "I Am The Model Of A Modern Major-General", which also failed to impress them.  Kids these days!

Speed Test

I ran several computers through the ATT Speed Test that I read about in Digital Dave's column in the Computer Edge for this week. This I what I got:

PC -- Home Computer (DSL)
 Download 1.38 Mbps
 Upload .32 Mbps

Macintosh -- iMac

  Download 2.36 Mbps

  Upload 1.29 Mbps

PC -- Thinkcentre

  Download 89.26 Mbps (What the heck?)

  Upload .47 Mbps

PC -- Netvista

  Download 1.42 Mbps

  Upload .12 Mbps

 

 What do you think of that?