Chris Moss Online

One of the things I did on Saturday was place a new cache. This one is a night-time only cache that uses reflectors to lead you to the final cache. I have been wanting to place a night cache for quite some time now. The problem was finding the reflectors. I looked at Wal-Mart and similar places but finally had to send e-mails to the people who had used these small reflectors before. They answered “Academy” and then that same night, Bobby, Ian and I ended up going night-caching and found one that contained as a prize a pack of 50 of these trail reflectors! Yay!

So Saturday, Bosley and Colby helped me set this up. It was approved overnight last night and I figured the first people to hunt it would be out tonight. One of the things some cachers like to do is to try to be the “First to Find,” or FTF. So as it was getting dark I drove over to the park where the cache is and sure enough there were two cars in the parking lot and as I hit the trail I could see flashlights in the woods ahead of me. I walked slowly and came up on them as they were writing in the log. It was great to meet other cachers “on the trail” and we ended up chatting for a bit and they told me about another elaborate night cache about 70 miles north of here similar to the ones Bobby and Ian and I did recently.

One of the neat things about the place where we found the other cache is that it is teeming with wildlife. We could constantly hear critters around us. I remarked to Bobby & Ian while walking through the woods that if I were at home watching a good slasher movie, I’d be too scared to move or go to sleep, but walking through pitch black woods at 11:00 at night didn’t scare me one bit. It was great fun, and this is one of the few places near the Metroplex where you can see the stars – and it was a particularly pretty night. We saw a skunk and several armadillos. Fortunately, the skunk didn’t spray – he just kind of waddled away.

I hope that there are a lot more night caches in the area soon!

Current mood: Still bored
Current music: Nightswimming – R.E.M.

Saturday was spent doing political things like putting up big signs and planning strategery (thanks W!). About 3 I got home and printed off clues to go geocaching with the dogs. We all had a great time. I’ve gotten 83 caches now and I’m only 7 away from having all the Frisco caches done.

I took some water for the dogs in a squirt bottle like usual (they love to drink it that way – it’s refreshing, and it’s fun!) but I didn’t take something for me. I decided I would splurge and get a soda, a Coke C-2 was what I wanted – that’s the one with half the sugar/calories. I pulled into a convenience store that used to be branded Mobil, and I won’t buy from them or Exxon for a variety of reasons. Now it’s branded Shell so now I can stop there.

Despite their having a C-2 sign in the window, they didn’t carry that product. They had 10 flavors of Gatorade and 20 flavors of Snapple, but no C-2. My second choice was Arizona iced tea, but again, no joy. They had 2 kinds of green tea, though. Well, way off in the back I found 16 oz GLASS bottles of Coca-Cola. If you’ve only ever had Coke out of a plastic bottle or alumnium can or the fountain, then you don’t know what Coke is meant to taste like. I was *SO* excited to find this. I bought my Coke and a Lotto ticket to use as a prize in a cache I was placing.

Then I asked her to open the bottle for me. They don’t *have* a bottle opener. Unbelievable.

I went outside and found a sturdy edge and tried the ol’ pop-the-bottlecap-off-on-a-sturdy-edge trick but to no avail. Then I found a key ring in the car and tried prying it open with that. Well, I used too much pressure and cracked the opening in the process. No Coke to be had from a glass bottle today.

But, other than that it was a fun and productive day.

Current Mood: Bored
Current Music: “I Believe” – R.E.M.

The telephone in our house pisses me off. It almost always rings while I’m in the middle of something, like taking a nap or preparing meat (and therefore having yucky hands). Plus, it’s almost never for me. Sometimes I don’t even bother looking at Caller ID unless it rings more than twice. And I guess I’m getting old, because if the phone rings after 10 pm I think, “it had better be” one of only a handful of people.

So tonight the phone rang around 10 and it was Tim, my closest friend.
If you follow the link, Tim would be the non-baby guy. The girl is his wife, Kate and the baby is their baby, Isaac. Got it? Tim is, I believe, the only person in the world who has express written consent to call me any time of night for any reason, trivial or otherwise. He has excercised this right on several occasions in our younger days, and some of those calls are the subject of legendary stories which maybe I’ll re-tell here one day.

For the record, 10 isn’t really too late to call our house since we’re always up til at least 12. But if you call us after 12, you better be pretty sure that we like you

So Tim called and we had a really nice chat for about an hour and a half and it was really great. Neither of us picks up the phone much any more, which is stupid because I forfeit more minutes each month on my cell phone plan than I use. But, in today’s world you tend to send a quick e-mail or IM or read blogs or see pictures to keep up. And it’s great that we’re all able to communicate in this way, but sometimes it’s nice to actually converse with each other!

Tim and his family are coming to Shreveport and Longview at the end of the month for a visit, so hopefully we’ll get to see them then. And I want to go back to St. Pete to visit again soon, too, so maybe in a month or so we’ll go down to FL to visit and James can see their home and St. Pete and we can spend a little time at the beach

One of the things we talked about was how some people think blogging and all reduces the amount of quality time you spend talking with close friends. Well, I think the opposite is true. The things one blogs about tend to be the superficial things or the high points only without much detail – the things “approved for all audiences” leaving you more time to delve into deeper topics. Sure, there are some friends with whom that’s as far as you want to go, but I’m fortunate enough to have a few people in my life with whom we can share very in-depth thoughts and emotions, and that’s really what having good friends is all about. Tim has been one of those people for about 15 years now, and I hope that lasts a whole lot longer.

Current Mood: Sleepy and sappy
Current Music: Wiser Time – The Black Crowes

Finally got around to placing my first geocache. James went with me to walk the dogs and find a cache, and we stopped at Sam’s on the way home to pick up a few things. I stayed with the dogs in the car, and to pass the time I made a cache container by pulling out the innards of a Bic pen that no longer wrote. I found some paper and rolled it up tight into the pen cylinder (I’m not clever enough to have thought of this on my own – someone has a cache like this) and I put it out nearby and captured the coordinates in the GPS. It finally was posted to the site this morning, and somone found it within two hours and posted this comment:

This was funny. Looked at obvious spot, and didn’t see what I thought I was looking for. Gave up within a minute because of the really heavy muggle traffic. While driving back to work, I said to Grim, I think I looked right at it and discounted it. Went back quick. Got really close with the car to provide cover, and grabbed it. Nice camo. 1st time there I just ignored it, but that was it.

I really love the night caches and want to create one of those as soon as I can source the little dime-sized reflectors needed. If anybody knows where I can get these, let me know!

Current mood: sleepy
Current music: Tin Cup Chalice – Jimmy Buffett

A very close friend, Ian, posted a really great thought about the power and beauty of music, and how important his music is to him. Well, music has always been very critical to me, too, and I commented there about this Elton John song.

So there are a lot of songs that mean a lot to me, and that’s probably true for a lot of people, and maybe periodically we can talk about them on our blogs. I’ll mention one that is a good song, but not necessarily important to me, but really illustrates dual (or multiple) meanings of songs. Jimmy Buffett recorded “Savannah Fare You Well,” written by someone you’ve never heard of named Hugh Prestwood. The author grew up in Savannah, Georgia and wrote the song about escaping the constraints of a dying relationship and the town that represented it. Read the lyrics in the link with that in mind. The imagery is very strong, and the meaning is clear.

Now read the lyrics again with the knowledge that Jimmy Buffett’s oldest daughter, who was leaving the nest for college when he recorded this song, is named Savannah.

Current mood: mellow
Current music: Friends – Elton John