07-08-09

Yesterday was one of those number days - 7/8/9. There was a geocaching event to commemorate that - at 4:05:06 a.m.! Opted out of it, especially after Steve didn't think it was a good idea to be out driving around by myself at that hour.

Not scheduled to work yesterday, so made an appointment for my annual "mamm-o-cram" bright and early at 8 a.m. Don't anticipate any problems there, just something us wimmen gotta do. In and out rather quickly so my plans were to hit a few geocaches before going out to Lowell to tour the place where we will be opening up a satellite office this fall.

Decided to start out with a new Two Happy Hikers 10-stage multi cache that had just been published the night before, with time restrictions so nobody could find it last night. Went through the first three stages just fine, then got hung up on the 4th stage when a street cleaning truck was parked right where I needed to look. Waited for a while, then went back and got a book and read until they finally left. Found what I was looking for, but the next stage was only 15 feet away according to the GPS... looked and looked anyway, then the owner, Mr. THH, pulled up. He realized there was an error in those coords and pointed me in the right direction so I could complete the cache. I was first to find at 9:30 a.m. Received a $5 certificate to the restaurant where the cache was located.

Went on to do a few more single stage caches, then a 3-stage multi cache at the Calvin College Cross Country course. A really nice walk and a nice cache. Then on to the main Calvin campus so I could (finally) do a webcam cache - had to call Eric on my cellphone (he was home, still in bed) so that he could go online, go to the link I'd sent him the night before for the webcam, and capture my picture in front of the webcam. We got it done, though I'm so tiny in the picture you can't really tell it's me. Fun to finally get a new icon on my found list. Did one more cache after that, then stopped at Arby's for lunch on the way to Lowell.

Toured the facility, then came on home. Discovered through e-mail the sad news that Grandma Marion had passed away. Grandma Marion was a dear lady with whom I worked at Aldersgate, the day care center I was a teacher at for 3 years then director for 8. She retired a few years before I left, and was much beloved by all who came into contact with her.

Spent the evening home alone as Steve had to work late. He is now officially working for Ventra whose parent company, Flex-N-Gate, bought out Meridian. Same job & benefits. Steve and I are much relieved, Steve especially of course.

While home, I researched caches for a little caching expedition that Golfdiva (one of my caching friends) and I plan to take on Friday. We're going to go to Sparta, Kent City, Cedar Springs, and Rockford, provided the weather holds out. After that, I need to get ready for Eric's birthday next Tuesday and our trip to Tennessee coming up after that. I've promised not to ask to do too many caches, the trip is to go to a BMW rally. But we do have to make rest stops from time to time...