The "S" Dance

11/11/2011 By Kabutroid
Peculiarly, this cache has a ‘needs maintenance’ log on it, even though it seems the original problem has since been resolved. However, upon arriving at the cache, it seems as though this tag is once again relevant, as the logbook seems to be quite damp, and had I not had a Fisher space pen as my logging pen (seriously, I have yet to find something this can’t put ink onto), I probably would have had quite a difficult time signing the paper. A pencil would be right out, since that would tear it to shreds. The ‘inside’ of it, so to speak (you’ll know what I mean when you see it) is fairly dry, but the ‘outside’ of the log is where it’s getting somewhat unmanageable. Unfortunately, I didn’t have either the time nor the means to go about drying it.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Geocaching! For being such a beautiful day out with most stores closed until 1:00pm if I’m not mistaken, there was surprisingly little problem in going after this cache. I would have thought today would have been a prime opportunity for people to go for a walk, bike ride, whatever, but when I got to the area, there were very, very few people out to make me have to dump a pile of extra experience points into my stealth rank </nerd>.

But anyway, given the beautiful day, I was out geocaching for a while with my avid non-cacher wife sitting in the car and reading while I go do my thing. She was along and I wasn’t on bike pretty much because we had somewhere to be this afternoon in the area. So I go and park about 30 meters away from the coordinates and hop out of the car. It only took me a few seconds to get to the area as a whole, and at this point it was almost painfully obvious where the cache container was hidden. It could be that I’ve found several caches of this variety in the past, but moreso that it just looked... completely... incorrect, for lack of a better description while avoiding giving too much away.

Doing a quick look around to make sure the coast was clear, I quickly palmed the container and opened it up. At that point, I found that the cache container was damp, but otherwise the container itself seemed to be in good condition. Again, not sure how one could resolve the dampening problem... perhaps some Teflon tape in the appropriate place would do wonders, or a convenient size of rubber o-ring. The base also looks like it could use something extra... a glob of GOOP-brand glue to seal it there instead of what looks to be just being taped over. Unfortunately, I had none of these things with me, and could only make the cache more natural looking once I was done with it.

However, I had a few minutes to kill, since after opening it up, I noticed that a woman was walking a baby in a stroller ever so slowly down the sidewalk. Quickly dropping the container into my jacket pocket (this jacket’s awesome... I could probably hide a 2-liter of coke or two in here if I wanted), I just stood about relaxing in general while they made their way past. At this point, I found a solid surface to sign the logbook on by way of the nearby fence.

At this point, I was left pondering how to go about making the cache container stand out less than when I had first arrived. Because honestly, I have no clue how it hadn’t gone missing before I got there. There’s the possibility that given the nature of the location, I may be able to do nothing, or I may be able to do everything... there was really no in-between on this (well technically, but now we’re getting into deeper thoughts and counter-thoughts in my mind that I can’t go into without giving things away). So... with no other plan of action, I took a quick look around and attempted what needed to be attempted.

WOOH! Mission successful! At the point I walked away, the cache container now looks about as natural as it feasibly, humanly could. Hopefully it shall see many a year to come Smile .

Took: Nothing
Left: Logbook entry and micromail ball