Lewies Blog

This morning I set out on an adventure to find another GeoCache. This on was GC3F58 (N 38° 37.011 W 077° 18.166), also known as Tayloe’s Iron Works. Before I left, I made sure that I picked up my gloves as well. My hands were freezing in yesterdays adventure.

I walked up Cardinal Drive towards my destination. I crossed the road and saw a dirt path doing down off of it into the direction of the cache. On the way down, I saw an old Iron spindle I shot a picture of it and continued down the path. I came up onto a rusted car near some billboards. The path seemed to bend away from my cache, but I saw another smaller path leading in the direction that I wanted to go.

I walked for a good distance, checking my GPS receiver every now and then. It looked as if the cache was directly to my right. I looked and it was a huge hill going up. “You got to be kidding me!”, I said. It was a good thing that I had brought gloves as it was easy to grab onto trees on the hills and go through bushes. I got to the top of the hill and went down the other side, crossed a stream in the valley, and then went up the next steep hill. Reaching the top of this hill, I walked a bit until I arrived into the vicinity of the cache.

I found the cache in an old coffee can under a log. The can appeared to be deteriorating a little bit. Rust was covering a few of the items inside and I also saw a pair of “AA” batteries. They didn’t look to healthy. I tried to sign my name in the log book, but none of the pens provided were working and both pencils were unsharpened. I left the floppy disk brush that I had acquired yesterday and picked up a pair of dice.

I entered the GPS coordinates of the next location into my GPS receiver and read the warning about having to get wet in the water. Let’s just say that today is a cold day, and there is ice about. Getting in cold water was on my wish list. On my way, I had crossed a very small stream and I was hoping it was the stream in the valley I had just crossed as it appears the water is low at this time of season.

I followed the path down the side of the hill as the paper suggested and came to a very large stream. My heart sank. I would catch hypothermia if I tried wading through that thing. I walked along the banks to find a good location to cross, hoping that maybe a tree may have fallen over it or finding some large rocks to step across.

I came up to the I-95 bridge and was getting so far away that I figured it was about time that I suck my gut and cross the river. I started to make my way down to the water and found a marker near by that said “VDH”. My only guess is that this is for Virginia Department of Health, or Vertical Drilled Hole. I snapped a picture and continued down.

Since this was a cold day, I figured that I would play it smart. I took off my shoes and socks and pulled my pants up. Man, a few weeks ago before I started dieting, I wouldn’t be able to pull my pants up so high. Anyway, the ground alone was cold. I gave a moment of thought to gather my courage and strength and began the trek. Oh it was so cold! My feet immediately started to go numb and my only thought was that I had to cross quick before hypothermia set in.

I got to the other side and started putting my socks on and then my shoes. As my feet came back from being numb, I could feel how warm my shoes were. I had some sediment and sand in my socks, but I wasn’t going to complain now. I was just pleased that I thought to remove my shoes first so I wouldn’t have to walk around in soggy shoes for the rest of the adventure.

I backtracked from this side of the bank and spotted a cool tree with some fungus. I snapped a picture thinking that Angel would like to see it. I also ran into a bunch of ice sickles under some overrunning dirt. There were more ice sickles close by under the roots of a tree.

Continuing along the bank, I came across the general area I was supposed to be at. However, I was on the high bank. I was overlooking a large water bed. It appeared that there was oil reflecting the light in an odd way.

My GPS receiver was pointing me further away from it and I followed it. I arrived at an area where it was pointing down a steep hill thirty feet. I couldn’t see anything. I figured it was down along the lower bank and decided to back track until I found a way to get down there.

I walked past the iron works and noticed a small cave at the back and that the large puddle was actually frozen over. The GPS receiver carried me further along the bank past this area and when I got to where I was going, the receiver pointed me up the hill.

I spent the next hour going up and down this hill directly. My GPS receiver started acting funny as well. I’m guessing it was due to the cold weather, or that satellite signals were not being picked up accurately due to the large hill to the side. I also had problems losing the signal every now and then.

I finally got to the point to go back and check out the water bed and see if I could reach the cave. I was in luck. As soon as I peered inside the cave, I saw it. It was a very tiny cave with a white and clear plastic container. I opened it up and immediately recognized a travel bug.

I left the pair of dice behind that I picked up at the first cache. I took the travel bug along with the Jeep attached to it. I then proceeded to go home. I stopped along the way and took some pictures of an interesting tree and some more fungus. Why is it that fungus gets my attention?

It took me a good deal of effort to get back home. I crossed under the 3 bridges of Interstate 95. It was hard since everything was grown up with splintered bushes on bug giant boulders the size of bowling balls.

After crossing under the bridge, I came to an area where there was a sewer drain sticking up out of the ground next to a telephone pole. I sat down on the concrete next to it and removed my shoes and socks. I turned my socks inside out and cleared all of the dirt out of them. I shook my shoes against the surface and loosened as much dirt as I could. After I recovered from my little breather, I was on my way again.

After a little while, I saw the edge of a suburb on the hill above. I was so longing for civilization that I figured that I had to brave the waters again. By this time my feet were dry. I came to one spot and tried throwing some large rocks into the river near by, hopping I could find an easier way to cross without getting wet. I was not able to get much progress from it and the river was just too wide.

I took off my socks and shoes, pulled up my pant legs and braved the waters. The water here was deeper and wider then my previous walk. I just kept thinking that this was a test of my determination or something and just kept going without stopping.

I made it across and could see now that there were fences all along the community that I wouldn’t be able to get past. The good news was that I was on a path that was wide enough for a vehicle and level. I started to make progress walking along quickly, keeping an eye out for anything that would help me get up to this suburb.

I arrived at the end of this path and came up on some big rocks leading down from the suburb and a lot of dirt covered with straw on the hill. There was an opening between the town homes and my spirits lifted. I took each step with excitement that I was coming home. As I approached the top of the hill, I could see the radio tower from the police station on my road. It was a good distance away, but now I knew where to go without using GPS.

I walked along the development and made it to Cardinal Drive. I crossed and went past the police station. I walked up Donald Curtis. Every footstep was just worn out of energy, but I was still moving. I made it through the front door and my Angel hugged me and told me that she missed me so much.

One thing I did learn today was that as soon as you leave the road, set a way point. My only way point to go by was for my house at 1 mile away from the second cache. It would have been much better to go back to cardinal drive where I had first left it.

A final note, it would be great to bring a compass with me as well. Although the GPS receiver has a compass built in, it isn’t always pointing in the rite direction if I am not moving much, or moving back and forth. A compass would have come in handy to help me line up the GPS compass in the rite direction.

I have problems. I’ll admit that. It is hard to keep in touch with my financial situation. I could cop out and blame it on Mom, but no - these are my faults. One problem that keeps coming up in the house is that people think that my most important cares are about money. Money! Money! Money!

Let’s look at the facts.

The list goes on. About the pet problem - I just don’t want another pet. Money is only an excuse to say no. It is hard to come up with reasons when none of my current reasons are not accepted. Damn, I’m so heartless.

About the spell - notice the keywords here of “financial stability”. This isn’t one of those get rich quick spells. This is to tune my mind into concentrating on getting control over my existing funds.

In these cases, I’m not really sure what I could do to change peoples opinions. It’s pretty much a lose-lose situation. It’s not like we could live off of the land today. This is how the world works. This is how America works.

There is more to my life then money folks. Just read the blog. I like to program for fun - it’s a hobby! I like to buy games/gadgets for entertainment (also known as fun). I am trying to lose weight so that I feel better about my self. I blog because it is fun.

Well, I’m probably in trouble now, but I’ve felt like I’ve been in trouble for a long time anyway. I feel like I got a few words in with actually having the chance to think about it.

Out of the movies that we rented yesterday, I had not watched Underworld yet. I was going to go and see this at the movie theater, but my sister in-law saw it and said that it wasn’t worth seeing at the time. It seams that she says that about a lot of dark movies that I would find interesting.

Tonight, I watched the movie and enjoyed the story line, the twists, and the characters. I loved the main characters tight PVC outfits. Angel summed up the movie as “Gothic Eye Candy” and I couldn’t help but to agree with her.

The main story line is about vampires who hunt Lycans (also known as Werewolves). Soon it is discovered that the Lycans are after a human for purposes other then lunch. The mystery raises more questions for the main character, who is believed to be full of unnecessary suspicions and conjecture where there is no need for her line of work (Lycan hunters) anymore since the Lycans are practically extinct.

There was one additional thing that I purchased yesterday that I didn’t mention, but I am sure that Angel will find out sooner or later. I purchased a Garmin eTrex GPS receiver. For anyone who doesn’t know what a GPS receiver is, I will sum it up as an item that tells you where you are located on the planet. It uses signals from satellites that is freely available to figure out this information.

A simple GPS receiver starts out at about $100 new. On eBay, I’ve seen them selling between sixty and one hundred, twenty dollars for the simple hand-held receivers. I think I made a killing, for I stopped at a pawn shop to see if they had anything. They had one in the display and after much waiting for the limited staff to take care of every other Christmas Eve shopper, the woman said that it would be forty five dollars.

She showed me that it worked and I was still scratching my head trying to figure out if anything was wrong with it. I couldn’t find any scratches and from what I could figure out - everything appeared to work. The woman didn’t know if there was anything wrong with it and I didn’t want to agitate her any further by taking her time and asking questions that she wouldn’t know the answer to.

You may be asking yourself if I had anything in mind for this GPS receiver. My friends - I did. I’m not really getting lost often. I’m trying to find something. Actually, I’m trying to find many things and have a reason to exercise and get out. I need more content for my blog, but I don’t want to sit on my butt all day trying to come up with ideas. I present to you, a game called GeoCaching.

GeoCaching is a game where someone finds an area to hide a container. It is usually a Rubbermaid container the size of a tissue box, but there are some as small as 35mm film canisters that are challenging to find. This person leaves a log book, instructions for anyone who may unintentionally find the container, and something small and personal. They record the GPS coordinates and then post these coordinates on the GeoCaching website.

People like me look for GeoCaches in the area that we will be in by searching the GeoCaching website and use our GPS receivers to find the treasure. We then swap an item in the cache with something that we bring along. We also report the date/time and who we are in the log book. Then we report our adventures on the GeoCaching website along with any photos that we may take along the way. What fun!

Today I woke up early at ten in the morning - Christmas Day. It was chilly out, but I set my sights at finding a way point called GC4F8C. (N 38° 36.653 W 077° 18.553) A friendly name for this way point was “Round Top Beaver Pond”. This is the closest cache to my house and it is a multi-cache. This means that after you find the first cache, you are given coordinates to a second cache.

I walked towards the dead end of my road and walked up the hill onto Cardinal Drive. I walked along for a while looking at my GPS receiver that would count down the number of miles and feet remaining as well as showing a digital compass, my walking direction, and the direction of the way point. It appeared that I started to get it to be directly to my left and then started walking past it, but I didn’t see any ATV roads going up a hill or a guard rail with a dirt path near it as the website talked about. I continued for a few minutes and then found a small one.

I finally found an ATV path and gave a good run going up the hill. I was out of breath but recovered quickly. I walked along the path for a while and observed all the trash laying about the woods. I saw a sofa, an old rusted refrigerator, a wash basin, old tires and all kinds of junk. My GPS receiver came down to about three hundred feet and the item was off of the path, so I started to head down what looked to be an overgrown path.

I came along a stream and saw large ice sickles where the water would fall about five feet. I stopped and took a picture and then continued across the stream. I walked along the bank for a while and realized that the cache would be on the other side. I had to backtrack and walk on the other side. I found the cache in the bottom of an old stump where the top of the tree had fallen over.

I was excited with my find and pulled the cache out and opened it. There were three zip lock bags and an old rubber ball. I opened the bag with the note pad, pencils, and document in it. I read over the document congratulating anyone who would come across the treasure and asking others not to remove the box, but to join in the game.

I had some giggles as I looked through a few of the toys and trinkets that others left behind. I picked up a floppy disk cleaner and left my toy puzzle snake in the box. The brush is funny as it looks like a floppy disk, but a brush comes out to help you clean your monitor and stuff. I signed the log book and wished everyone a merry Christmas. I looked through a few of the logs and still had my moment of bliss at being able to join in with everyone else in this game.

The top flap of the log book had the coordinates for the second and final cache. I entered the way point into my GPS receiver as a closed treasure box. I also set the icon for the original way point to an opened treasure box. I put everything back where I found it and covered it with a few leaves, but made sure that some of the cache could still be seen to anyone looking for it.

I headed back to the path that I came from and kept a steady eye on the way point. The numbers started to go down slower and slower and then started jumping back up. I turned to my left and went off the path towards the treasure. I was walking through a lot of branches coming into my face and was happy that I didn’t attempt this first adventure during the summer or spring with all the leaves and bugs that would have surely been in the way.

As I approached the valley, I faced a very large hill and just thought to myself, “This had better be worth it”. I was up three quarters of the hill and had to stop. My heart was rushing and I was a little dizzy. I didn’t want to run into any problems. I gathered my strength and continued on. I found another ATV path and started walking on it. I then saw a beaten and unused ATV path springing off to the side and took it since it was going further towards my goal.

I went on and started noticing that I was approaching a cliff. The cache was only a hundred feet away and my eyes darted everywhere looking for it. I came closer and noticed some grave stones. I walked closer towards them and then spotted the cache off to the side. It was behind some wood and within a Yellow coffee can.

I did not leave nor take anything except logging my entry in the log book. Someone had left a dollar and another person left a small pack of crayons. I had thought about bringing crayons before I left, but I figured they might melt or something. These seemed to be ok. I also saw lots more little things including a Scooby Doo toy and a cat toy. I closed up the can, put everything back as I found it, and headed over to the graves.

There were two large grave stones and about six smaller stones. I think that they were from the early eighteen hundreds, but I can not remember off hand. I then headed towards the cliff and saw a suburb down there. I went on the path along the cliff to see if I could find a better view. I found one near a tree house and got my camera out.

After the pictures, I went along the trail towards the traffic that I could hear on Cardinal Drive. I came out on a large steep hill that an ATV would quickly run up. Due to the ground being frozen, I went down along the overgrown grass on the side. Once I reached the bottom, I walked back home along the road.

I was so happy that I was able to do a little adventure in my neighborhood. I had also picked up a pine cone for my wife and gave it to her when I got back home. Angel began telling me stories of pine cones up in New York where she grew up and that some trees would only have pine cones every seven years.

One thing I noticed was that the log books were almost full and I figure that I may go back to add an additional log book to both caches later on.

Christmas Cartoon,
originally uploaded by lewismoten.

Have you ever known that someone liked you very much and would love to have you for there Christmas gift? What would happen if Santa took that literally? He would come with a bag on Christmas night and ask you to get in! I wouldn’t have liked to be in that situation. I guess that is why I didn’t meet my wife until much later in life. Sorry Angel, but it didn’t look safe.

Merry Christmas everyone!

I hope that the season is merry for you and your loved ones.

Merry Christmas!,
originally uploaded by lewismoten.

Merry Christmas everyone, and have a happy new year! I forgot it was Christmas allready. I guess California still has an hour to wait, but hey - I’m not going to wait. I’m tired, so I’ll see you tomarrow. Good night.

Hamster Cage,
originally uploaded by lewismoten.

I purchased a three level cage for my wife’s Russian dwarf hamster along with many accessories for him to play with. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a picture of him in the room at the very top.

Today was a really busy day. Today … Was Christmas Shopping day. And just like everyone else and his brother, I also got paid today (Christmas Eve), and I have the day off of work. I do not think there has ever been a day where retail had made such a killing in one day.

To start off, I headed over to Toys R Us. This store is usually empty. Hardly anyone shops here and it is hard to get to. Everyone was here today. The road leading into it was jammed, so I sat at the edge of the intersection for a while before I was able to get a clear shot to the other side without blocking traffic.

I went over to the Dora the Explorer area. All the shelves were empty except for the Dora talking doll house display and a group of people looking aimlessly at the small pickings of unwanted or damaged Dora goods. I figured the house would be sold out as it is the hottest item on the market for young girls and both Wal-mart and Amazon are sold out of it.

A call to Mom and she said that she was also looking for the Leapster Multimedia Learning System. Again, I located the display but everything was sold out. She finally said to find a doll that you can change her clothes and we can worry about getting her the cool toys later after the holidays.

I found a take along baby doll that came in one of those luggage bags that you see people at the airport using. The ones that have wheels on the bottom and a handle that slides out. Man, the thing was just … cheap. I couldn’t live with myself of getting a ten dollar item when I was originally going to spend over a hundred dollars on her.

Around that area, I saw some cute interactive aquapets that caught my eye. These things are so cute (and really simple). They are little pets that live in water and you have two buttons to press. It lets you feed them and play games. When you get two of them together, they play with each other. They can also respond when you talk to them. This reminds me of my neopets that I used to play with, except that the aquapets don’t have anything that moves or can break off easily.

After Toys R Us, I went over to Petco. I looked at the hamster area for a long time trying to find some really cool things that Angel would like for her new hamster. Oh yea - that problem with the dog? She got a hamster to spite me … but I’m ok. Better then a dog. Better then a mouse too.

After looking at many cages, I found a three level cage that looked like it would be lots of fun for a hamster. I also got a mini run-about ball, but the girls tell me that they already have one and he is afraid of it. I picked up a hamster nest and this turned out perfect - he loves this thing. Other thing that I got were Bark Bites, bedding, wood pine litter, a puzzle playground, and a hallowed out piece of wood that had holes drilled through it. That hamster is spoiled. I’m thinking about getting a Russian dwarf hamster for myself so that they can play together.

I also picked up some Nutro cat food for my nine cats. I picked up some Whiskas Tender Bites for October, Gizzy, Raven, and Skyler. Ashe sometimes joins in on the fun, but it is rare.

With that, I braved the traffic and went on over to Shoppers. This place was packed. Ok, it is usually packed every day, but this was just massive! Angel had written up a list of what to get for tomorrow’s special dinner and for the rest of the week. I was able to find a decent twelve pound turkey that was refrigerated (not frozen). That was the most important. Her and Mom were not sure if I would be able to get one, but I think most people buy Ham for Christmas. Mmmm… I can just smell that honey baked ham.

I got everything on the list. Stuffing, Cranberry sauce, corn bread, corn, green beans, potatoes … Wait a minute! Doesn’t this sound like a list for a Thanks Giving dinner?

I skipped the chicken and ground turkey and went over to SAM’s club for that. They always have really cheap meat in there. There was only one pack of ground turkey left and I swiped that along with the chicken next to it. Looking over at the red meat section, everything was gone. I mean gone as in, everyone is out for blood lately. I also noticed that most of the bread racks were empty.

I stood in line and I was next when a woman told me to go over to the tobacco counter as there is no waiting and I have less then ten items. Man, it took me a long time to get to where I was in the first place and didn’t want to go. I went and the gentlemen in front of me was being taken care of. It appears that the cashier was new to this particular type of register. He normally works with the ones on the front lines I think. After fifteen minutes if figuring out how to get someone’s card working and matching the numbers between the customers display and his own, it was finally my turn.

He had problems getting the machine to read my card. Swish, beep! Swish, beep! Finally it worked and then I swiped my debit card and paid the bill of sale. I got to the car and was ready to head on home. My back was killing me (and still is).

I got home and Angel helped me put away the groceries. She was upset at me and every little thing that would happen. I found out that James had been calling repeatedly again. God, this kid keeps harassing us every five minutes and will not stop. Every time he pulls this stunt, Angel and Miranda seem to make my life hell. I’ve filed a few papers already with the police and the phone company. I just hope there system hurries up and traces this guy. From what I understand, they are not able to tell me what they find out. I just record the times that he calls and turn it into them every week and they apparently match it up with some system the telephone company is recording.

After groceries were put away, Angel and I put the hamster cage together and this little fellow was as happy as can be. He really loves the wheel. It is bigger then is old one and quieter. Oh yes, quiet as a mouse! This is a really good thing.

The cats keep trying to look up on the little table setting on our big table in the corner. Ever time they go over there, they step on the radio and it comes on really loud. Marinada’s foot was asleep and it was funny watching her try to rush over to turn off the radio with a limp foot.

After the commotion died down, Angel wanted to get out of the house to release some stress from James. I can’t blame her and I was welcoming anything that could help her out. We went to Wawa and picked up her money that I owed her from the past two paychecks and she also got a sub. I went over and got my gas tank filled up.

We then headed over to Blockbuster to pick out some movies. I headed over to the area where I last saw The Chronicles of Riddick but it was gone. I found where they moved it and was glad to see twelve copies were available. I had been wanting to see this movie forever. We also picked up Underworld, Scary Movie 3, and iRobot.

I got home and started up breakfast (this is eight at night now). Angel put in the Chronicles of Riddick and we sat back and watched it. This movie was well worth the wait. Lots of action, lots of sci-fi, cool story, great costumes, wild effects, and a rocking Dirty Harry called Riddick to top it off.

And then … I blogged. Wow, took me one hour and fifteen minutes to write this one. Is that a new record?

Ok, since my post on the popularity contest, it seems that I forgot a few people, and there are other people that I didn’t know about. So for anyone who comes here every day to read, please post a comment to this post and I’ll see what I can do to acknowledge your presence.

Thanks goes to Anti and Nathan for speaking up. I’ll have to add your feeds to my news reader now.

Unless there is a lot of functionality that the Blogger.com folks are not telling me, then there Atom API is extremely limited. I still can not get a list of posts other then the most recent fifteen (or is it ten?). However, I was able to start picking out individual blogs from the Atom feed and found that content doesn’t come across - only the summaries come through. This is lacking much in my book.

Beside from that, I can not find a way to edit settings or templates through the Atom API either. Blogger doesn’t support it. However, the older Blogger API that is being phased out has all of this functionality through XML-RPC. I may just go along with an XML-RPC client if I can’t get at the information that I want. I’m primarily looking for a way to back up my blogs data rather then scraping the site. Currently, the site is about eighteen megabytes for the HTML alone - partly due to the large size of my template.

There is documentation all over the web showing examples of how you would do this, but none of them have worked with blogger. The Atom API is also supposed to support a way of sniffing its functionality (Create, Read, Update, Delete, Search). I haven’t seen this on the Atom feed results.

Well, it has been a long night and there is much to do this weekend.