Difference between revisions of "Talk:Finding a cache"

Latest revision as of 01:17, 29 June 2005

It takes one to know one but I guess I can try to explain it.

My name is Bronze and I am a geocacher. I can't help it. I have tried to give up. Honestly. This one time I went cold turkey for two whole weeks. Well actually it was an afternoon but two weeks sounds better dosent it. I had it all planned. I waited till the dead of winter when it was darkest and cache activity nearby would be at it lowest. I thought it would have been my best chance.

I planned it like it was to be a five/five like no other. A "Buckleys" effort indeed. In cache talk that means that this task was going to be physically, mentally and financially difficult to no end. I would be pushed to my absolute limits of endurance and I know I would need special help and planning to beat this, this, thing I do with my gaget. I can't help but fool with it and it make me happy when I feel it's smooth rounded shape, cool, rippled outer rubber and glowing screen. It points me to where I need to be. Anyhow, I digress.

As I was saying. I planned it like the planets of fate aligned themselves so I could beat this thing that had control of ever aspect of my life. The batteries in supermarkets were at their lowest level in months, the supply in the house were all used toy rejects, at the time petrol had hit a dollar, rego was due in a week, the house needed constant attention whe the sun was available, the kids were getting into trouble at school and needed more attention from a Dad and the wife was making stews and soups so container access was to be severly limited until the thaw. My plan was falling into place. I loaned my GPS to a mate so all temptation would be gone and I could sit and relax. I thought. I could read a book, mabey the junk mail perhaps. So I opened the junk mail. "Plastic containers reduced by fourty percent" and there was a good deal of six varied sizes for nine dollars and ninety-five cents. I quickly burnt it before I could read it was Clints Warehouse, no it wasn't, I don't know where it was! The wife was not impressed about the smoldering mess filling the lounge room with smoke. I though I'll go and lie on the trampoline, perhaps enjoy some time with my two sons, both were sick of any mention of Geocaching so I was safe to not strike up any form of conversation that included a cache. I was a lovely afternoon with salmoning clouds slowly going orange and pink soon to reviel the night sky behind. We enjoyed the setting sun and counted the stars coming out. Soon dinner would be called and that was a signal of only a couple of more hours and I would have survived my first day cold turkey. It was a lovely time until a slowly glowing streak of light caught my sons eye and he called "Look Dad" and I shut my eyes knowing full well it was a satelite passing over the Australian winter sky. It looked so sad and it's stare of disdain and disgust lives with me even to this day. I felt the weakness like a smoker feels the tug of a craving calling for that slow, lone drag behind the shed.

I recall being very proud of myself making it to bedtime without reaching for a mouse, discovering a stashed cache page, picking up a kids toy and sizing it up whether its suitable for a small, regular or large cache. In my boxers and under the electric blanket about to enjoy a hot cup of Milo when the phone rings. "Bronze, I'm at Momentary Fear of Fault. Can you give me a hint mate?" Well, I couldn't leave him out there in the cold, searching for my cache all alone. What if something happened, perhaps a rogue Road Train left the road and shot the 800 meters through the bush and injured, could have even killed him. What sort of a mate would I be. So I had to help him. There was no choice.

I've been clean for about 14 months now. Not once in that time have I though about giving up caching. There is always a GPS at hand and a chorus of sliding batteries can be heard skidding from left to right and vice versa as I turn the corners heading out to another cache site. My friends understand. My family lives with it and my children, well lets just say were having a third and it will inherit all that I have hidden for it.

My name is Bronze and I am a Geocacher.