Category Archives: family

A Tribute to Jesse

Posted on July 18, 2011 | 1 Comment

I’ve always said that everyone has a story to tell. Whether it’s a rags to riches story, heartache and disappointment, or truly inspiring. This story is a combination of inspiration, love, sadness and faith. Who would have thought that an afternoon of geocaching would have brought on such feelings and emotions.

Let me first say that I am not from this area – I live more than 100 miles away. It was a chance trip to this area that had my wife and I geocaching in this cemetery. This particular cemetery has two caches residing in it. One of the caches provided information about a particular gravestone that I’ll talk about in another posting at a later date. I don’t want to lessen the feelings and emotions of the other find in this same cemetery, in the story that follows…

The cache itself was a very interesting and well thought out placement. I won’t ruin the hunt for others with the details, but what I felt was the important thing about this cache, is it’s proximity to another feature in this cemetery. You can’t help but notice this headstone – somewhat unique in it’s shape, but more importantly, the images that have been etched on the surface. I was immediately drawn to it. This monument was a testament to a young man and the obvious love of his parents.

I first thought the shape was that of a tear … sadness at losing a child. As a parent, it is my ultimate worst fear. I can’t imagine the pain and devastation of losing a child – regardless of their age. Something you hold so dear and precious is taken away from you. And while losing a huge part of your heart, we are reminded to hold fast to our faith – that God will see us through. As strong as my faith is in God, I know my faith would surely be tested … but in the end, I would leave it all in His hands. I guess that all comes from being raised Catholic and knowing the importance of faith.

The images on this headstone are that of a young man, taken at different ages of his life. The first images begin as a young boy at the beginning of his life – full of promise and innocence. They continue in a clockwise progression as he ages, but the images end all too soon at age 15. No longer with us, his gravestone is a tribute of his life and those he has touched.

As I have said since I started geocaching… in my opinion, it’s not about the number of finds, but rather, about the experiences and time spent with others that matter. This is one find that I doubt I’ll ever forget. After finding the cache and reading the cache description, I was so moved by this memorial to this young man, that I had to follow up on the story.

The next day, I took time out to follow the link that was provided in the cache description (GC2D18Z). Probably one of the most inspiring and heart wrenching stories I have read, is this young man’s incredible battle with cancer as told by his mother. A very emotional and moving story that left me having to stop at various times to deal with the tears. I get emotional at times – I’m never embarrassed by it. When something touches me, I can’t help but express it.

The owner of the cache is the step-father of this brave young man. In the cache description, he includes an image of this incredible headstone along with the following message, “Those of you that wonder why his headstone says “Dude, I’m alright”. His favorite saying was DUDE!!!! and when he had procedures in the hospital, he would always say he was alright. A lot of times he would put the phrases together. So we decided to have a couple of his sayings on his headstone. If you would like to learn more on his story, you can visit www.caringbridge.org/visit/jessedoseck or click here to be taken to that page. Read the blog there for the majority of his fight with acute lymphblastic leukemia.”

After reading Jesse’s story, I now see that the shape of the headstone is not like a tear, but more like a flame… burning bright and strong. A testament to the strength of a family’s love … an inspirational young man, and family.

I have fought the good fight,
I have completed the race,
I have kept my faith…

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Posted in cemetery, family, inspirational

It’s been awhile…

Posted on May 16, 2011 | 2 Comments

I have been neglecting my blog. I have been preoccupied with work, family issues (in a good way), this ridiculous wet weather and general depression. I get real bummed this time of the year. All the rain seems to dampen my spirits in various ways. It’s during this time that I think of my mother – she passed away in April of 2003 and this time of the year always brings me down. I miss her terribly – I was close to her. And even though I visit her in my mind frequently, I long to hear her voice just one more time.

The rainy weather has really been effecting me as well. I’ve always heard that it’s rainy in Seattle or in Great Britain – I don’t know if that’s true or not, but what I do know is I would be a stark raving lunatic if I had to put up with this shit on a regular basis. Without fail, whenever we actually do have a promise of sunshine, it inevitably rains when I am getting off work, or every weekend. I have tried to just deal with it while I’m out caching, but ultimately, I get pissed off and my day is ruined.

This past weekend was the first time I have been out to geocache in weeks. Saturday was spent completing two tasks – seeking ancestors and a little caching along the way. My wife and I headed out to a cemetery that she determined was the final resting place of several members of my family. Through ancestory.com and findagrave.com, she zeroed in on my 5th generation grandfather who passed away in 1850. Amazingly, I found out by reading his gravestone that he was a Baptist Deacon. I am born and raised Catholic, so at some time in our past, we made the conversion to Catholicism.

Find A Grave
So this website, findagrave.com is an interesting service. I think it’s a good marriage of two similar activities, that of geocaching and helping others on findagrave.com find their family. This website is a great resource for those into genealogy. One of the things that my wife and I have been volunteering with, is to photograph gravestones in the various cemeteries we are caching in. Through findagrave.com, people seeking their ancestors will request a photo to be taken of related grave markers. As a contributor, you complete their request and upload the photo to the website. This service has been a great help to us as we trace our heritage. Since we’re already in the cemetery, it only takes a few extra minutes to take a photo of a gravestone – and those receiving the photos are very grateful.

Twitter
I am constantly reading twitter posts of various geocaching individuals and related businesses. I enjoy reading them – there’s a lot of great information out there whether it’s a business selling geocoins or GPS units, or just an individual sharing their caching experiences. I am envious of my twitter friends … having the opportunity to be out there day after day, seeking and find those caches. I don’t know what it’s gonna take to bring me out of this depression. We all have the same amount of time – yet I feel as though I am so tied down with obligations, that it holds me back from doing what I want to do. If you have any suggestions, I’m all ears.

I guess it will eventually fall into place – I just need some motivation, time and some sunshine!

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Posted in cemetery, family, geocache, geocoin, history, weather

Nice weekends for caching…

Posted on March 27, 2011 | 2 Comments

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything here lately, so I think it’s time for an update. These past two weekends have been great in terms of geocaching. Two weekends ago, I spent a day caching with my brother. We had a good time and it was nice to enjoy some warm weather for a change.

This past weekend, we visited the Cumberland Gap area for some geocaching and researching family history. I had a personal record of three finds in three different states on the same day. It was nice to visit Tennessee, Virginia, and Kentucky. Such beautiful parts of the county and met some really nice people during our travels.

Technology Issues
I’ve pretty much given up on using a GPS for caching at this time. I have become so reliant of the c:geo app on my Droid X phone. It has been extremely reliable. However, while in the dense areas of Kentucky way back in the mountains and valleys, I wasn’t able to use the app or even get a decent signal to use the phone. I was shut out for several hours which was a real pain. I understand the reasoning behind the problems, and thankfully I’m not a resident of such geographic problems, but it really made me wonder how the locals deal with that problem. Granted, the GPS on my Droid X is no match for a real GPS unit, so its like comparing apples to oranges. But it did make me wonder how much of an effort it is for those living there.

Twitter
When using c:geo on the Droid, I noticed an option to post your finds on Twitter when you log it in on geocaching.com. Now normally, my caching partner is my wife, but on the day that I went out with my brother, my wife was someplace else. I wanted to keep her up to date on my progress without constantly sending her text messages. So I hit the button on the app to automatically log each find on Twitter. For those of you who follow me on Twitter, I apologize for the constant updates that day. I’m sure it was a nuisance. I have since unchecked that option so it won’t be an issue again. I have seen others do the same thing and it was frustrating to read all that crap.

Media
I have some photos to upload this week and hopefully a video or two. I enjoy shooting the video and photos, but it sometimes gets in the way of the fun of the experience. Yet it seems the day I leave my camera at home, is the day something amazing happens – never fails.

The work week begins and I am not looking forward to it. My weekends are so valuable to me. I know so many are unemployed around here, and I am thankful for a job, but I would love to work four 10 hour days so I could have a three day weekend. Maybe that’s something I can discuss with my boss.

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Posted in c:geo app, Droid, family, geocache

I feel a rant coming on…

Posted on February 21, 2011 | 3 Comments

Had a great time geocaching last weekend. We got a late start (as usual), but still managed to find 10 caches, 1 DNF, 1 muggled cache, picked up 2 TB’s and dropped off 2 TB’s of our own. My biggest gripe with myself is poor planning. I had a general idea where I wanted to go, but I didn’t stick to any kind of plan or specific geographic location. We drove from one side of this county to the other, back and forth. Totally stupid and a waste of time – and I only have myself to blame. Overall, we drove about 115 miles from the time we left until we pulled back in our driveway. While it is a very rural area, sadly, that averages out to 1 cache per every 10 miles of driving – terrible time management. This will change drastically next time out.

Feeling the need to rant about a few things, so here goes…

Cemetery Vandals
One thing that bothers me when I am geocaching, and that is seeing gravestones that have been pushed over by some ignorant coward who must feel a sense of power by ruining a grave site. I was furious at one of the cemeteries we stopped at … seeing stone after stone knocked over. I would love to wait in a cemetery some night and be there when these pathetic losers decide to topple the stones. I know the right thing to do would be to call the police. But in my heart, I know they would receive a slap on the wrist from the law and it would not convince them never to do it again. I would rather take care of them myself with a baseball bat across their knees. Pretty extreme measures I know, but still a great deterrent. How someone can desecrate the grave and take away the final remembrance of a loved one is beyond me. I think rearranging a few kneecaps would do wonders.

I’m wondering if geocachers might band together in their respective areas to donate the cost of having the markers corrected? As many of us have taken the time to visit their final resting place, I think it’s the least we could do for allowing us to utilize their grounds to hide a cache.

Geocaching Hints
I’ve talked with others about this topic, and I still have no clear understanding why some who hide a cache will use the “hint” portion of their description to literally provide the exact location of the cache. This past weekend was no exception, as 3 of the 10 we found provided the location of the cache. I believe the word “hint” is not interchangeable with “exact location.”

You may think, “don’t look at the hint if it bothers you that much.” And to you, I say “thuuuuppp” (insert raspberry sound here). Sometimes when I am pressed for time or might be stumped by a difficult find, I will look at the hint. But I don’t expect to be given the actual answer.

SWAG
One of the fun parts of finding a cache is seeing what’s inside. Normally, I never take anything from the cache. I enjoy placing items in the cache, especially if the cache indicates that it’s kid friendly in the attributes. Last October, we found Junk in the Trunk (GC14JHF) and was blown away at the sheer size of the cache container (approx. a 30 gallon container) and the amount of swag enclosed. I can only imagine how many children have literally been swayed by seeing the lid pulled off that plastic tub … you’d think that Santa had arrived.

We have been stocking up on nice swag to put in caches – new items that are affordable and fun. My wife found little electronic games at the local Dollar General that were … wait for it … only a dollar! For $5.00, you’ve made 5 kids happy! This past weekend while caching, I found items like a bottle cap, a dirty used comb, rocks, string, and a hair scrunchie with hair all through it. Seriously, who are these people? If you don’t have anything to put inside, that’s quite ok – but don’t put gross (read ‘hairy’) objects in the cache!

Photo Section
I have yet to complete my photo section on this blog. I don’t know if I am all that happy with the theme that I have chosen for the blog and may end up changing the entire look with a new theme. I thought about just providing a link on the photos section to a Flickr account, but it’s not what I envisioned for the blog. I’ll have to work on this section this week and ultimately find a solution. I hate having dead menu tabs that say “coming soon” all the time.

Well, I feel a little better getting this off my chest. Maybe I can sleep better tonight, who knows. I’m really looking forward to warmer weather and getting some serious caching done this season. Longer daylight and warmer temperatures are always a blessing. I hope you’re getting out to cache and enjoying the activity as much as I do. My finds may not be numerous, but the time I spend with my family in this activity is truly priceless. Happy Caching!

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Posted in cemetery, family, geocache, muggles, travel bug

Change is Good!

Posted on February 5, 2011 | 2 Comments

Despite the cold weather today, complete with freezing rain and fluffy snow, it was a great day for caching with my brother. We don’t get to spend a lot of time together as he lives nearly a couple hours away. I have introduced him to geocaching, and while he enjoys this activity, he’s not as obsessed with it as I am.

We only had four finds today… but today wasn’t about the numbers. Any time I have the opportunity to spend with my brother, I take advantage of it. So, for the few hours we had today, it was filled with lots of laughs, good food, and of course – braving the cold for buried caches.

FTF Notice
This morning, I received notice that my geocache had been found at 11:30am. This geocache is the first one I have put out. My main goal behind this one was to see how the whole process works. Now that I know, I can begin putting more out there, and much larger containers. I used a bison tube for this first one. And while it was easy enough to hide, getting to GZ was a bit of a challenge. A very steep walk to the cache will definitely put some color in the cheeks of those who want a work out. I hope it is enjoyed by all who find it.

New Blog, New Location.
This WordPress blog is a new direction for me. At the time of this posting, I am not finished with it, nor do I feel as though I ever will be. My previous blog was at Blogger, which I found was simple enough to update and such, but had clear limitations. This WordPress blog has more possibilities and I was also able to purchase the domain at only $17 per year. Can’t beat that! I still have lots to do here including adding photos and additional links – it will all come in time.

Each time I visit a cache, I leave a signature tag behind that points others to this blog. I hope others will visit or subscribe and share their caching experiences with everyone who reads this blog. I’ve also changed my geocache name from KayakJim, to T4TH which coincides with this blog. Soon to follow here will be links, photos, and perhaps a weekly (or bi-weekly) video. While this blog is primarily about geocaching, I may write about other items that interest me from time to time.