Geocache Find #2

Hail To The Chief - 5!

We went out on our second geocache expedition today and the first since our inaugural find in North Carolina back in June. What a blast this new hobby is. Even Jamie, our 3 1/2 year old daughter got into it. We plotted two geocache possibilites and printed them out and took off with gps and camera in hand. Of course as we turned onto the freeway it started to rain. We looked over our first target and decided we knew the area it would be in but not the exact location. Part of the fun is guessing the clue(s) and going from there.

As we arrived the rain abated some and Martha jumped out to take a look around. We knew it was in a magnetic box from the clue so we surmised it would be attached to some kind of metal. She stumbled around for about 5 minutes and nothing. Then we decided it was actually ok to park where we were and all three of us got out after looking at our printouts and reading some of the comments from previews finders and found another clue...we were looking on the wrong side of the street. I saw a structure I was sure it would be attached to and got down on my hands and knees to look around. Having no success I started to get up when I heard my wife shout out "I found it!" What a little rush that was!

She held up her prize grinning and waited for me to produce the camera to mark the occasion:

Of course we made sure it was not near the actual location in the photo. No spoilers here. We found the token inside a couple of finders ago had left and decided to leave a memento of our own. We left a small military pin with the needle broken off commorating the U.S. Army. As this particular President was a former general we felt compelled to honor him.

All in all that was really fun. Also just found out through the geocaching web site how to sort by distance from my house the geocaches in my area. I think its a safe bet we will hit all of them and who knows,....we make make a couple ourselves and start paying back the fun.

Geocaching

Whenever I was a kid I never got into scavenger hunts or related recreational activities that involved hunting for items based on clues. Funny what age does to a person. So, this past Fathers' Day I got a GPS Magellan 1412 Roadmate. After one day of trying it out we were hooked. Then my wife told me about the geocaching phenomenon she ran across on the Internet while we were on vacation. As we made our way back home to Florida we decided to try our hand where my folks live in NC. After doing a little reading up on the geocache experience via its web site we printed out our first target and along with my brother, my wife, daughter and myself, we took off.

My brother had just purchased a top line Tom Tom being the first time we used his because of the reading it gave in degrees as we had not yet figured out you can convert your gps reading on the site to fit your readout. It was geocache called Person County Line in a location that stradles Person and Durham counties adjacent to a river bank. We had no idea what the dynamic was and was not even sure what we were looking for save a 35mm film cannister. With GPS in hand my brother found it almost immediately while my wife and I were stumbling around! My wife produced a pencil and we logged our first find. It was awesome. My brother thought nothing of it and did not find it interesting in the least. But my wife and I were hooked.

My wife and I are trying to find outdoor activities for our little girl since she adores the outside. This is a great way to enjoy it with her. I'm looking forward to doing other things with her as she gets older such as birdwatching, surfing, biking and well, you get the idea. I've just set up our cache targets for tomorrow in an area called Hanna Park in a small bedroom beach community called Atlantic Beach, FL. We are pretty excited to try our hand and see just how good we are. I'll post about our progress or lack of progress at it permits. Stay tuned...

The Golden Age of Gator Football?

Why is the man smiling?

You would be too with his record. A record btw that's unprecedented. Also, Sporting News has just annointed him the best coach in college football. I keep wondering if I'm dreaming.

In my senior year at the University of Florida the Gators went 0 - 10 - 1 (the tie was with Georgia Tech if you are wondering with Steve Spurrier as one of its assitant coaches). Up to that time the thing about the UF football's "golden age" is there wasn't one...not really. I guess the 1960's under Doug Dickey was about he best they could do and Spurrier's Heisman trophy year. Usually when you hear alumni from other schools talk about a "golden age" for their alma mater it seems it is always some x number of years ago that requires a taxing of their memory to get all the details just right.

I'm just lucky. There is no doubt we are in the golden age of Gator football. Spurrier stated it all and put us on the map. But Meyer has taken us to heights I never imagined. Two national championships in three years? Wow. I still can't believe it. If the football gods keep smiling it just might be three in four years. The only bad thing about that is where do you go from there? I don't want to turn into the model Alabama alumnus that always seems to favor digging up Bear Bryant and have a cadavor, or what left of it, as a preference over anyone of the replacements that have graced the sidelines since his departure.

But the thing of it is, I don't have to tax my memory. Its all on my DVD collection. And I can relieve it anytime when I feel like it. Damn. Someone pinch me. Let's see how long Urban can make this last. No matter what happens now, I'm satisfied with the memories I've got in HD.

My Friday Garage Project

BEFORE

AFTER

In 90 deg. heat padded with a little rain this was what I was able to accomplish today. Garages can be either a bane to your existence as a repository for junk you can't bear to part with or a wonder area for activities if you decide to use it for something other than parked cars. My wife was parking the van in the garage (the Mercury was past that some time ago) and now we are using for an exercise area. As you can see in the photos it was not fun and it took a lot of time because of the small stuff of which some have still to be resolved by my wife as to its fate. Any way, I'm glad that's over and now I can pick up my little girl from day care and enjoy some pool time!

The Diet Begins - Again

That skinny kid starting out above was even bigger than I was at that age. The diet starts again today. I've got to get down to fighting weight for the coming school year or it will be more physically taxing than normal. Last nights weight in was 260 lbs. At my height that overweight. My goal is to get down to 210 to 200 and according to the AMA I'm still overweight at that point.

I don't know why this is so hard but my struggle is along with most of America now it seems. So here I am trying again to do this. Think I'll go with the low carb route with lots of active exercise. Walking and swimming and a rowing machine to boot. No excuses. I've got six weeks to get a good start before school starts and now is the time. If I don't start doing something soon I'm going to start to look like Orson Wells at the end. Thank God I'm not there yet. But I want to live a long time to watch my 3 1/2 year old grow and be the person she wants to be. I think I'll put up a little tracking module in the side bar to help motivate me. Anyway, today starts...now where is that orange to start off the morning....

THE Evian Rollar Baby Ad

No commentary needed here. This is just plain uproariously funny and inspiring. My guess is they are complete CGI fabrications. If not, wow, somebody's been doing some interesting eugenics work somewhere...

Jamie's Rapture

This is absolutely my favorite image of my daughter to date. My wife took this shot this past Sunday when we decided to spend the morning at the beach. It is from our new SLR digital Canon Rebel XS with a 58mm lens. She doesn't remember the settings she used and it was almost a throw-away shot. But when I reviewed her series I was caught by the stunning beauty of not only my daughter in a througtful repose, she's 3 1/2 years old, but the detail captured with this camera. The resolution of the water droplets on her face are stunning. I will be looking to make a 5X7 framable print of this for our home.

I'm going to call it "Jamie's Rapture" simply for the fact on that morning she had a blast with an age equivlent friend and his parents and their niece. So did my wife and I...

Btw, if you click on the image you will see the actual size and get a better look at the stunning detail of her face. This camera is just awesome...

The Darling of Lawn Mowers via Consumer Reports

Well, here it is - the one and only Cub Cadet CC550SP self propelled push mower. The trouble I had getting it is a story in itself. After going through three mowers in 5 years my wife and I decided we'd had enough of the Wal-Mart cheapie Murray/Brigs & Stratton push mower at $165.00 a pop. When the last one threw a bearing after just 18 months that was the final straw.

We decided to head for the library and take a look at Consumer Reports and what they had to day. In their Nov. '07 issue they rated and had a nice review of the current riding and push mowers on the market. Thier darling of the push mowers was the Cub Cadet CC500. After reading their review and deciding the price seemed right, from $259.00 SMRP (sale price) we decided to take the plunge with its 3 yr. warranty. The problem was one could not be found in Jacksonville, FL. The closet one we could locate was in Yulee, FL nearly 30 miles away. I gave them a call and they indicated they had two at $289. I said Cub Cadets website said otherwise with a sales promotion. They agreed and said I could have it for that price. I would be by next morning.

Upon arrival they were a little taken aback when I came in. A gentleman had been in an hour before and bought both of them. They thought that was me who called. Since they were out they offered the CC550SP (self propelled) to me for $10.00 more - $20.00 off Cub Cadet's web site promotional offer. I took it. They were awesome. Since they didn't have one on site they had to get one from there other store twenty miles away. After waiting for an hour and a half they arrived with the new mower out of the box and ready to go in hand. It started to rain right then, really hard, and then it would not fit in the Mercury. So I picked it up the next day in Martha's (my wife) Ford Freestar van. I took a photo once I got it out because it looks so damn kewl, well, for a lawn mower anyway. I will give my citical reivew once I take her out for a spin and see what all the fuss was about at Consumer Reports.

New Blog Design Blues

As you can see I'm in the process of redesigning my blog. I'll tweet the world when I'm satisfied with the new look. Its really harder and more time consuming than I anticipated. I wanted the header to really reflect the dynamic and feel of the site and I'm still wrestling with it.

I've been over at BTemplates where they have hundreds of new blogger 3 column blogs and I'm still sorting out what looks best and has the right fit for the Static Existentialists needs.

I'm almost overwhelmed with the variations available and the possibilites they all offer. One can only marvel at the capabilities of human creativity and the potentials it offers for all of us. While I'm still slogging through the redesign I'll be posting on a regular basis. Btw, hat tip to KU's Medical Sciences university web site for there little under construction image which I borrowed for the post. It's funny they mispelled "Siences" in the header. Guess they need to check that.Here's to the existential lifestyle and the future ahead...

Tick, tock...

For the existentialist, the passing of time can be one of the deep anxieties of human existence. Whenever I'm in a contemplative mood reflecting on my mortality this deep anxiety can be quite troublesome. Most of the time I can look into the eyes of my beautiful little daughter of three, whose entire life is spread before her with an infinity of possibilities, and this troublesome anxiety gets put back in its box until my next reflective mood.

Recently my wife and I were able to see the last eight minutes of the final episode of our favorite HBO series about a family owned funeral home "Six Feet Under" where the young Claire strikes out for New York to make a life of her own. As the epilogue begins you see Claire (Lauren Ambrose) on a lonely stretch of desert highway somewhere in the west. Set to Sia's beautiful harmony "Breathe Life" the viewer is shown a close up of Claire as the song begins. Her image then melts into a video montage of her entire life from the show's end to her death in a span of six minutes and ends with the show's standard opening of an epitatph of a person whose funeral will be handled by the family business. The beauty is striking and emotionally cathartic for the show's followers and for me it was the most beautiful ending to a series I have ever encounted and likely will ever again. That last eight minutes so defines what a life represents you are all at once struck by how short life is and how truly fulfilling it can be for many of us. It is also a beautiful metaphor on mortality. My wife and daughter demonstrate to me on a daily basis that beauty and fulfillment though every once and awhile that old deep anxiety of how life is slipping away intrudes and gives me pause.

For the existentialist it is a burden that is a price of that fulfillment.