Caching Observations

I went caching yesterday. Nothing Special. I only found a light pole squirt lifter. What the cache itself lacked, the walk over made up for. I have noticed a couple of things about walking around. It is far more peaceful and you get to see a lot more of the area than you do by driving. People also assume you know the area if you are walking. That is generally true but not always.

The walk through the park was wonderful. The only down side was using the park's bathroom. The main door was chained open and there were no stall doors which gave it a fel of no privacy at all. Nobody could see me doing my business but it felt odd doing my business in that open of an area in that urban of an area. It is not like I have not done my business in the open but that is has been in a very rural area and very much in the woods.

Oh well, I still had a nice walk.

There is a post script to this story. While I was at the cache, I dropped my stylus/pen combo. I lost the cap and could find it. I started walking away and there it was. I am wondering if it was in my sandel and I got lucky looking down the second time when I did.

God's Speed Wade and Rose Mary

Of of our Sem Field Workers is going off to vicarage. So God's Speed to him and his family and good luck in Buffalo, Illlinois.

Ringo by Lorn Greene

This song is just too funny to ignore.

Dog's Dreaming

We took Kai our dog caching on Thursday. He got to see quit a few squirrels and chipmunks which really got him really wound up. It got him so wound up that he was dreaming about them. At least we think he was dreaming about squirrels since he was barking in his sleep. The most suggestible of our dogs was our greyhound Houdini (Dini for short). If he was sleeping and looking like he was dreaming, I would say "Get the rabbit, get the rabbit, get the rabbit" and he would woof in his sleep and his paws would start going as if he was running in his sleep. One time his dream got going so vivid and fast and that he barked himself awake. Poor dog had the expression of what the heck happened, I was in the middle of the most wonderful chase.

Potty Time Evangelism

Let me start this out with the fact that I am a Christian and this is being written from one Christian's perspective. Your views may vary.

I went to the Sam's club in Fort Wayne and I had to use the little boys room because breakfast was catching up with me. I just get settled when I noticed a chic tract and a mailer for a free bible study in the stall and left on the toilet paper dispenser. I felt a movement but I don't think it was the Holy Spirit and I am not totally sure if the stink I smelt was from me. It was a classic case of spam evangelism but more than that it was getting evangelized in the bathroom with my shorts around my ankles. Not a pretty sight.

I am sure that Jack Chic and the people who distribute his publications are well meaning people but to me, even as a Christian and someone who is behind Christian evangelism, spamming people with tracts in the bathroom is not the way to go. I don't think spamming people anywhere with tracts is appropriate. Even though they are well intentioned, I think their theology and tactics are suspect at best.

The one Chic Tract I really had to laugh at the hardest is one called Dark Dungeons. It is a tract that is specifically against Dungeons and Dragons and if used with a big enough brush can also be used against all role playing games. It portrays people who play as either getting into the occult or becoming mentally ill and committing suicide. Although I can appreciate people's concern with the magic and violent that is in Dungeons and Dragons and other role playing games, there is no correlation that I have seen between the two. People like to demonize easy targets like Harry Potter, D&D or even the Wizard of Oz for having witches and magic in it. By that definition than the Narnia series and Lord of the Rings should also be renounced and they were written by good Christian men. Maybe I am in need of help since I use the mind that God has blessed me with.

Below I am posting the links to the two tracts I have mentioned.

This Was your Life.
Dark Dungeons.

Reading Planner

Ever wanted to be able to create your own bible reading plan? Better yet, did you want to take it along with you in a convenient manner? Go here. They have a program that you can load onto your PDA to use with a bible on your PDA or a paper copy. They also have bibles that can go onto your PDA so check it out and get your bibile study wired.

A Neat Caching Story

Kim's ankle is still getting better so we decided to go caching. The plan was to do a maintenance run on one of our own and find a cache we had not yet found in the park. We got a little extra. The cache we found was a neat find even though the cache needed a bit of maintenance as well. I guess it has been a hard summer on caches since ours needed filling as well. When we got over to Second Nature: Mushrooms we found a tb. I did not think much of it at the time since I am going to the Midwest Geobash in a week or two I picked it up without looking at the logs. When we got home, we found out this poor little bug had been missing since 2005. I am still wondering where the heck he could have been. Apparently there have been some other bugs go missing from our cache but hopefully it is just people on vacation who have not logged them yet. I hate to see them go missing and I love it when they are brought back from the dead.

Munchkin

Munckin is hilarious game by Steve Jackson Games. It can be found in both card and role playing versions. The reason I find it so funny is that is a parody of the RPG player who has to have the biggest, baddest and best character in the game and who will stop at nothing to level up his or her character faster than any else. I have played with these people both in the RPG realms and other hobbies as well. I think it is being a human thing and not limited to role playing games by any means. There is a seed in us all that wants to be good at things at the minimum and maybe harbor a desire to be best at something. It is a deep human need to be respected for what we do. I don't think many people need to be good or the best at everything but it is still nice to shine and be respected for something. To a degree it is very normal and healthy to want to do well but like everything it can be over done. I have nothing against success and competing unless the other person was not in it for competing. Just because I want to go for a bike ride does not mean I want to win the Tour De France. Nothing wrong with just going for a bike ride or doing the tour de France but it can be uncomfortable or frustrating when people have different levels of commitment or just have different styles of doing the exact same hobby and they are trying to participate with each other. Different goals and expectations are there at every corner and it is really no one persons fault. Sometime sit is more one person's fault but with all things no one is usually 100% right with the other in the total wrong. Does not mean it is not a clear cut problem just that everyone needs to work on handling things well.

Churches on Waymarking.com

I have been doing some waymarks again and got thinking about churches on waymarking.com. I was not targeting churches this time but one of the places on the Registry of Historic places was was a Brethen in Christ church. I decided to do a search on waymarking .com and see what i would get buy searching for the word church. The result I got was Abbeys, churches of the Nazarene, Church Cemeteries, churchyard crosses,country churches, historic United Methodist sites, Lutheran Churches, Medieval Churches, Mormon temples, and more. I don't think they are done with creating categories yet.No where even close. The site has been picking up steam and it is interesting to see what is pouring in.

Above are some of the churches that are waymarking.com. They have been done myself Captain Spaulding or with my wife as "Paws"itraction. The links for these waymarks are below.


Saint Joseph, Garrett
Zion Lutheran Garrett
Brethren In Christ, Garrett
Trinity Lutheran in Arcadia, MI
Saint Mark's, Milford, Ohio

I am going to stop here. There are far too many list.

More Wedding Pictures From Kim and Mike's Wedding

Geocaching

This week's webness is geocaching.com. It's been my hobby for a while and I have talked about it a lot in this blog. I got interested in it for the geeky toy of a gpsr and stay in to see neat places and things I would not have seen otherwise. Check it out, but be aware it is addictive and can be a money pit but what hobby isn't.

Dog Days of Summer

The dogs days of summer are definitely. Statically, we are in the hottest part of the year and it should but not guaranteed to start cooling down towards the end of the month or beginning of August. I certainly hope so. i think it is funny that people thought the heat right now was due begin closer the Sirius, the dog star. I don't think huskies or any other northern dog would buy that one. I would complain but it will not get me anywhere and the best I can do is start counting down to fall and hope the very most intense heat of summer will not last for long. One can only hope.

Happy Birthday Blog

This blog is now a year old. i did not think I would make it this far or what this would look like. I think it has grown and matured. It still not all that serious or good but hey, I started it for a lark and to see if I would come of it, if anything. So far it has proved that I can stick with this for a year. The content has shifted and will continue to. Life changes. It will be interesting to see how the next year will treat this experiment in cyberspace.

Beer Redux

These were two more beers that I got for being best man at the wedding. Both of them were good dark ales. The Orval Ale was darker and more bitter while the Chimay was was a lighter and smoother dark ale. I shared the Chimay with a friend of mine and he liked it even though he prefers more a pilsner beer. I don't blame him for liking the lighter beers. That is the most common served around here and even though I like darker ales, I still don't care for stouts. It is not a case of right or wrong but of taste since there is such a wide taste for the different beers. Both went done fine and the only problem now is that the bottles are empty.

OH MY GOD!!!!!!

I went to Walmart with Kim the other night to do some grocery shopping. I have seen people wearing some skimpy clothing but this one gal took the cake. Not only was she wearing low rider jeans but they were a bit big for her and they were riding too low. It was low enough that I knew she was going commando with absolute certainty. If she she had bent over, I was sure that I would have seen where the sun does not shine. It is not that I don't enjoy the female body but I don't expect to see that much butt crack at Walmart unless a small kid is going pee at the urinal. I hope this does not mean I am getting old. All I am asking people is that you exercise some modesty. Just say no to crack or I am going to have to speckle that thing shut.

What type of rocker are you?

This week the weekly web is a quiz instead of a website. Enjoy!

You Are an Emo Rocker!

Expressive and deep, lyrics are really your thing. That doesn't mean you don't rock out... You just rock out with meaning. For you, rock is more about connecting than grandstanding.

What Kind of Rocker Are You?

A Kim Update

Kim went to physical therapy today and the therapist was happy with the progress. After checking to see if she could, Kim drove for the first time since she broke her leg. Another step forward. Her leg is coming along. It is very much in the realm of progressing nicely and still frustrating because it is not 100% yet or even functional enough. It is getting there.

Kim's Ankle

Kim was in the pool for the second time in as many days and it helped a lot. Here is to seeing progress and hoping for more.

Kim is Back in the pool

Kim finally got to go back in the pool. The physical therapist not only said it was ok but actually encouraged her to do so. Not only was it refreshing on a hot day but she got to walk without a walker and got to do some exercises in a less weight bearing environment. Another step in the healing (pun intended).

Cheerwine Cola

I friend of mine who originally come from North Carolina has brought me back a regional pop and it is called Cheerwine. (Cheerwine's website) It is a delicious pop that's flavor is somewhere between cherry cola and Doctor Pepper. I think it's good despite the fact that my wife thinks it tastes like carbonated cherry Nyquil. If we all liked the same thing, it would be a boring universe. I won't guarantee you will like it but it is worth the try,


Before I sign this one off, I have to say one thing.

HI WADE!

Beer!

As a gift for being the best man at a friend's wedding, I got a assortment of beers. One of them was Called menage a frog and the other was called Dark Island. The menage a frog was worth getting the beer. Fortunately it was also a very good pale best served up cold. I tried it with and without lemon and preferred it with lemon. My apologizes to those who don't believe in fruiting the beer. It was a good and light beer. Dark Island, on the other hand was a dark ale with a smoky flavor. I drank that one warm and was excellent. There are times I wish I could afford a beer fridge that I could set warmer than a standard fridge so I could keep them at the right temperature but then again, my consumption of beer is not at the level to warrant the second fridge either. In a perfect world, there would not be these minor problems. both of these beers were good and definately worth getting again. Thanks to Mike and Kim for the beer.

Free Speech

I have been thinking about free speech again. I believe you absolutely have the freedom of speech not absolutely free speech. This is a cliche but you can't yell fire in crowded movie theater. Freedom of speech does not equal the right to a venue or an audience. I have the right to write my opinion do not have the right to demand it gets published everywhere. I either have to self publish or get some business to agree to it. I may not agree with the pornography industry or some publisher points of view but they have a right to publish but I have consume their product. For things like pornography and other objectionably material, the most I would limit their first amendment right is restrict it so that children and those who have the right to object to it don't have to see it unless they wanted to. It is about choice. It is about being able to have a forum to discuss different points of view. It is also about being about being responsible. There are better and worse venues for some topics. Take the topic of sex, it can be discussed openly well but that does not mean it should be done in a way where every part of your life gets sexualized. Talking about politics and religion is talked about all the time but there ways of getting both of those topics into raging, mindless arguments. There is room for sharp disagreement and respect but it is a hard dance to do.

If push comes to shove, I would favor free speech in favor of being politically correct because I don't want to chain myself to the tyranny of possible offending someone. Does not mean I don't have to practice restraint and manners but I am not going to speak my mind.

Wedding Waymark

OK, I am pathetic. I was helping out with a friend's wedding. I was the best man. During this weekend, I still wound up caching and waymarking. I waymarked the church it was at. (Here) I also found a cache while waiting for the rehearsal. (Here) I still balance play and celebration and nobody minded. Balance in the key to be trying to work in caching.

Kim's Ankle

Kim's ankle is getting better. She is allowed to have her leg out of the cast as much as she wants. She only needs it if the leg gets achy or just want to be safer against hitting it. On Monday, she start Physical Therapy.

Lucas in Love

I have heard about this clip multiple times over a long period and finally watched it. Funny as heck.

Statcounter.com

Statcounter.com is a really cool and handy site. If you have a website or blog, this can help track the traffic to it. It tells unique visits, number of page loads and keyword analysis among other things. It is neat if it is just a hobby website and down right useful if this is for business.

July the Fourth Weekend

Tomorrow is the fourth of July and of course, I am grilling up some burgers. I am doing it tonight instead of tomorrow because we have been invited over to our pastors place for dinner tomorrow for dinner and fireworks. We can watch Garrett's fireworks from the parking lot of the church. When we first moved to Garrett, they had the fireworks in a different location so we could watch them from our pool. Especially on some of those hot July nights, that was the best place in town to watch them. We were definitely living in high cotton on those nights. July Fourth also seams right in same towns with their fireworks, flag lined streets and small town fairs. With all the crap that is going on in this world, it still seams right on July Fourth in small towns.

Let us not forget the men and women that have fought past and present so we can have our picnics and our normal lives. Let us also not forget their families who quietly wait for husbands, wives, parents and children to come home. They are our unsung heroes. Thanks to the families of our military who pay the price of freedom.