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.
