Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Evelev is not retired

Just tired, I suppose.  It started with a pretty grueling, if productive and successful, period at work that basically took over my life.  I stopped running, cooking, vacuuming, and geocaching.  Add to that some personal / family drama, and a once active Evelev (remember when I used to post every week?) turned into a carboloading, couch potatoing, workaholicking Ev.  Pour one out for your homie.

My life as a geocacher has moved into a new phase. 

I'm over PnG's.  They're fun sometimes, but I don't get the thrill anymore.  If I have to spend more than 5 minutes looking for a 1/1 (especially if it's in a shrub or palm), I walk away.  I just don't care enough to waste my time.

FTFs are a load of bullshit.  I was never a hound, but I experienced my share of excitement.  The burbly feeling in my stomach when I approached GZ.  The bitter defeat when someone beat me to it.  On more than one occasion I ran out of the house without make-up or proper undergarments.  I shuffled through weeds and dirt in heels and a skirt.  So that I could be the first one to sign my name on a blank sheet of paper?  I just turned off my new cache notifications.  It occured to me last night, when I received one such notification 0.6 miles from my house, that I just don't care.  I shall happy-dance no more.

Challenging and otherwise-creative caches are the only things keeping me in it.  They are the soul of geocaching. Why waste my time lifting up spidery light skirts when I could be crossing log bridges like a stocky (but pretty) Indiana Jones?  Why?

I've recently turned my attention to puzzle caches.  I've always enjoyed puzzles (pre-geocaching), but having a little prize to go seek afterward?  Yes, please.  In fact, just recently I spent a few days with my Dad.  We only get to see each other once every few years, but we spent hours (HOURS!) almost every day working on a 4.5 difficulty puzzle.  Never did solve it.   In the interest of full disclosure, the cache still hasn't been found.  There was a little FTF-glory driving my efforts, but I was more motivated by being the first one to solve the puzzle, as opposed to being the first one to find the cache.

I still have plenty to write about, just haven't gotten to it yet.  Stories and photos are forthcoming.

In sum, meh.