Of Earbugs, Treasures and Triumphs
I made a mistake about a week ago. It wasn't a big mistake. In fact, it didn't even seem like a mistake at all at the time. But this error I made had some consequences that weren't particularly pleasant. It was sometime in the middle or late last week and I was at work. It was early evening (I work 2nd shift) and things seemed just a bit too quiet around the empty office. As a rule I generally like things quiet. I read a lot in the evenings after performing some of my job duties and while I monitor a program that runs on the computer 24/7. I find music in the background, while I'm reading, distracting. But I had finished my reading for the night and had suddenly realized that I had some extra work to accomplish which I had forgotten. It was one of the mindless tasks I have to do occasionally. I thought that while I was doing it, a bit of music might make the boring task go by quicker. So I reached into my desk drawer, pulled out the CD's that were there and looked through the collection. Did I want to listen to some old Bob Dylan? No – he took some concentration and I'd have to pay attention, at least a little, on the upcoming task. How about some folk singing? Ian and Sylvia? Arlo Guthrie? Naw. Wasn't in the mood. OK, how about some Tommy, by the Who? Don't think so. Or some ol' Blue Eyes? Uh-huh. I ended up holding two CD's in my hands: Saturday Night Fever by the Bee Gee's and ABBA's Greatest Hits.
Looking back at my decision from this vantage point I suppose I should have gone with the Bee Gee's. But I didn't and went with ABBA.
Now if you're not familiar with ABBA (and what planet are you from if you're not), you know it's pretty mindless music – repetitive choruses, simple tunes, lots of repetition. Their songs are bouncy, catchy and easy to sing along with. So far, so good.
They're also very likely candidates for earbugs.
In case you've never heard the term, an earbug is a fragment or a line or a verse from a song that gets “stuck” in your head and you can't get rid of it. You find yourself humming it, whistling it, even singing it unconsciously. It can be funny if it lasts a day or two. It can be a bit annoying if it lasts three or four day.
I'm about ready to start my third week with this particular earbug. I hate to even type the name, as that'll probably sentence me to another week with this one swirling around in my brain. But I'll take a deep breath and do it anyway. It's their “Momma-mia” song.
“Momma-mia”, for Pete's sake.
Can't you just HEAR the doggone thing now! “Mamma mia, here I go again. My my, how can I resist you? Mamma mia, does it show again? My my, just how much I've missed you”. They say that ABBA, being Swedish, sang their English songs by syllable-sound, as they didn't know the language. So, not only was it semi-mindless music, it was just gobbley-gook to them even as they recorded it.
Trust me when I say it's been rattling around in my noggin for a LONG time. It's my alarm clock to get me up in the morning and my good-night anthem in the evening. I'm actually humming the damn thing as I type these words! I've even listened to lots of other music, trying to dislodge it. Hasn't happened yet. So... I'm stuck for the meantime with over-hyped Swedish voices in my brain perkily singing about their DAMN Momma mia!
Anyhow...
A few weeks back, before ABBA took over my brain, I was reading on the Internet about a new game that was being played all over the world. It sounded interesting, so I read some more about it. The game is called “geocaching”. The official description of the game goes like this:
“Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment.”
When I read about it I was intrigued and that lead me to do some more reading. I found out there are over 800,000 geocaches hidden around the world. I found out there were 382 caches hidden within 20 miles of where I lived. I learned that all you needed to start playing the game was a GPS receiver. The more I read, the more it sounded like fun. I had a few dollars available for entertainment use tucked away, so I placed a bid for a GPS unit on eBay and won it. Within a week I was the proud owner of a Garmin eTrex H GPS receiver.
I went out caching the very day I received the unit. I'd looked out on the geocaching website and found that the closest cache to my home was less than a mile away in one of the parks. I jumped into the car and drove there in a couple of minutes. I entered the coordinates of the cache I was searching for, gave the GPS unit the “goto” command and saw I was about 250 feet away from the target. I followed the arrow on the unit until the distance to the target was about 5 feet. The new units can place you quite close to the target, but quite close still might be 20-30 feet away. I looked around when it said I was close. I was standing in a mowed area of the park with several large oak and maple trees not too far away, some smaller evergreens the other direction not too far away and not many other places where one could hide a cache. I wandered around, looked at the bigger trees and didn't see anyplace where something could be hidden. I examined a park bench nearby. Nada. I poked around in the smaller pine trees. Zip. I scratched my head. This might just be harder than it first appeared. I drove back home and re-checked that cache's website. I read a clue that the hider had left there and read some of the logs of the people who had found the cache before me. They gave me some ideas of the size of the cache's container and where it might be. I went back to the park and started looking around a bit closer. I finally crawled almost into one of the small pines and looked in the litter under the tree. There laid a vitamin bottle painted brown to blend in with the dropped pine needles. I hadn't seen it before.
I had found my first cache! I pulled out the container and opened it. There was the log, a pen and a couple small “trades”. A “trade” is usually a small inexpensive toy that will fit into the container. The procedure cachers generally use is to first take a prize, then leave a prize equal to or better than what you took. You trade goodies. Or you can just sign the log and forgo trading treasures. I signed the log on that first cache, replaced the container exactly where it was when I first found it and went back home. I pulled up that cache's website on the PC and logged my visit to it.
Number One was in the bag!
Over the next couple of days I found another 3 or 4 caches and had logged them. My wife was getting a bit curious about what I was doing, so I sat her down next to me by the PC and showed her what geocaching was all about. I also said that there was a cache just out of town near a small country bridge that I had not been able to find. Maybe she'd like to come out there with me and help me find it? She agreed and rode along.
We arrived at the lonely bridge and got out of the car. I showed her the GPS unit and how it indicated that the cache was near the east end of the bridge. The hint said the cache was magnetic, so I had been looking all over the bridge's steelwork and had not been able to spot the container. She helped me look and we spent the next 10 minutes or so examining the bridge. I finally found the little bugger. I showed it to her, showed the log inside and how I signed it with my geocaching “handle”.
She was intrigued.
The next weekend she tagged along while I searched for a few more caches. She even found a couple herself.
I think she got hooked around that time.
The last few weeks we've been going caching together every weekend. We've managed to bump up our found total to 70 caches. We've located them all over the place. Parks, cemeteries, empty fields, parking lots, private home's front yards, hiking/biking trails, along rivers and in deep woods. They've ranged in size from .50 caliber ammo boxes or largish Rubbermaid tubs to small metal tubes the size of your pinky finger plus every size in-between. And they've been hidden in the most ingenious and diabolical of places. You really have to be observant to find some of the more clever hides. The rules of the game stated that they should NOT be buried and should NOT be placed near locations or structures where someone might think a cache was a bomb. Also, no railroad tracks. No National Parks. No private land unless authorized.
My wife has purchased her own collection of “trades” now and thoroughly enjoys “taking and giving” from her goodie bag when we hit a new cache. I sign the log and she looks at the toys.
And do you know what's the nicest part of it all? We're doing it together. We've been married for almost 38 years now and have begun, over the years, to go our own way a lot. She had her own pastimes and interests and I had a lot of my own. We'd be together for family stuff, vacations and what not, but a lot of the time we'd be apart, doing our own thing.
Now it's quite different. We're talking about the hobby, planning where we're going next and traveling here and there hunting the caches. We're good-naturedly arguing about where a cache should be and where it might be. And it's lots more fun and easier to find the toughies when there's four eyeballs looking instead of just two. Sometimes a clue can be interpreted several different ways and one person might not see the true answer where another would. That's happened also.
She's still not ready to go for the tougher ones, the ones down steep hillsides in dense woods or a long ways down a trail. She started a diet with Weight Watchers earlier this year and has lost around 30 pounds. She's become much more able to move around physically than she did last year, but still has a way to go before she returns to a more comfortable weight and can attempt to find the more physical caches. But she's getting there, and the results, even now, are amazing. Losing the weight has made her more able to accomplish physical tasks that were difficult or impossible for her only just last year. She's more mentally alert and her attitude has improved dramatically. She's a much happier lady! And the enthusiasm she's showing for our new hobby also affirms her return to a more active lifestyle.
All in all, the past month or two has been an interesting period in our lives.
I just wish I could look at her without humming, “Mamma mia, here we go again!”
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