Street Atlas USA 2005 PLUS

The latest in my arsenal for Geocaching is Street Atlas USA 2005 PLUS. I am now able to plot all my waypoints on the map and each waypoint becomes a link to the full geocache page with the hint and the comments from the last 5 posts. This is cool stuff for a geocacher.

I turned in my Application for Employment with IBM today and attended my first preemployment meeting. Now I waiting on a letter offering me job.

1028 Geocaches Found.
7,532 Steps Today - 3.44 miles.
2,679 Aerobic Steps in 24 minutes.
324 Calories Burned - 19.0 grams of Fat Burned.

Application for Employment with IBM

Today I received my Application for Employment with IBM. There sure is a lot of pages to file out. I am grateful for the opportunity, but what a stressful time in my life. I wish life could settle down again sometime soon.

1028 Geocaches Found.
7,353 Steps Today - 2.97 miles.
2811 Aerobic Steps in 26 minutes.
326 Calories Burned - 19.0 grams of Fat Burned.

Geocaching in Bartlesville, Oklahoma

I have completed another great weekend geocaching. I've cached from Miami, OK to Coffeville, KS to Bartlesville, OK and many places in between. I located 75 new caches this weekend.

Phillips 66 Tanker in Bartlesville
I've enjoyed the last night of the Olympics tonight. The closing ceremonies have been a huge event.

1027 Geocaches Found.
8,854 Steps Today - 4.05 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps in 0 minutes.
412 Calories Burned - 22.8 grams of Fat Burned.

Biggest Day Every Geocaching

I had more successes today than any day that we've every geocached. I successfully located 38 new cache finds today. Finally went over 1000 caches found. Started the day in Miami, OK. Went over to Coffeville, KS for a few and ended up in Bartlesville, OK to spend the night. That means I have a long ways to go tomorrow.

A Flower Along the way in Bartlesville, OK
1010 Geocaches Found.
16,508 Steps Today - 7.55 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps in 0 minutes.
746 Calories Burned - 41.3 grams of Fat Burned.

IBM has Offered Me a Job

I have no idea what has changed, but this afternoon my manager, Jenny Turner, called me while I was out geocaching and informed me that IBM was extending me an offer to work for them and stay with the team that I love. I believe this to be a blessing. I'm suppose to fill out the paperwork Monday morning.

I spent the afternoon finding 20 new cache sites from Fort Scott, Kansas to Miami, Oklahoma. It was really hot this afternoon. Thanks goodness most of the caches were easy.

972 Geocaches Found.
11,760 Steps Today - 5.38 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps in 0 minutes.
505 Calories Burned - 27.8 grams of Fat Burned.

Tree Trimming

I spent an hour or so trimming the trees on the patio and hauling the limbs to the dumpster. I don't know why I wait until a hot day to do this kind of work. I want to go geocaching tomorrow and I need to get the trees trimmed.

I've got all my waypoints loaded into Street Atlas, the GPS, and the PocketPC. I guess I'm ready to go caching.

952 Geocaches Found.
7,293 Steps Today - 3.33 miles.
3,090 Aerobic Steps in 29 minutes.
323 Calories Burned - 19.1 grams of Fat Burned.

phpBB Forum Software Install

Tonight I spent an hour or so installing forum software from phpBB.com for the ptoc.org website. It was the easiest install I've ever done on a Linux machine. It is free software and very well written.

Watched the Olympics again tonight. It was quite intertaining.

Delorme came through tonight with a fix for Street Atlas 2005. Everybody on the SA2005 forums were really after them for a fix. They took away the draw and route layers that we have had for years. It's a real relief to have them back.

952 Geocaches Found.
4,640 Steps Today - 2.12 miles.
2,192 Aerobic Steps in 21 minutes.
197 Calories Burned - 11.5 grams of Fat Burned.

Coding with the Olympics

I've spent a hard evening doing some coding for the ptoc.org website while trying to keep up with the Olympics. It was another exciting evening at the Olympics. Some went down in defeat and others moved to the top to win the gold.

I still don't know what Sprint is going to do with me. It appears that I only have about 3 weeks left with the SODS team. This is killing me.

952 Geocaches Found.
7,352 Steps Today - 3.36 miles.
3,999 Aerobic Steps in 46 minutes.
223 Calories Burned - 22.3 grams of Fat Burned.

A Great Night at the Olympics

There were a lot of good events during the olympics tonight. It was hard to concentrate on anything because of the excitement on the TV. I enjoyed watching.

952 Geocaches Found.
7,458 Steps Today - 3.41 miles.
3958 Aerobic Steps in 42 minutes.
327 Calories Burned - 19.2 grams of Fat Burned.

My First Night Cache

Today with new glasses it was back to geocaching. I located 8 new cache sites around Kansas City today. The first find was in Kill Creek Park near Desota, KS. The last daylight cache was at Ft. Osage at Sibley, MO. The most interesting find was the night cache in Blue-Gray Park near Lone Jack, MO. It's kind of scary being out in the deep woods at night by yourself.

952 Geocaches Found.
15,147 Steps Today - 6.93 miles.
3,261 Aerobic Steps in 29 minutes.
658 Calories Burned - 37.4 grams of Fat Burned.

Lost My Glasses

This was suppose to be a huge geocaching day and I did not get even one. I lost my glasses and could not find them. I finally gave up and headed home just hoping I could find home without a map. I could not read the road signs until I was right on top of them. I made it safely. I spent the afternoon getting new glasses.

944 Geocaches Found.
7,161 Steps Today - 3.27 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps in 0 minutes.
279 Calories Burned - 15.5 grams of Fat Burned.

Big Day Geocaching

Today was pretty successful in terms of getting to a lot of caches. My goal was to spend the night in Miami, OK and get as many caches as I could on the way. I ended the day logging 20 new cache finds.

944 Geocaches Found.
5,140 Steps Today - 2.35 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps in 0 minutes.
216 Calories Burned - 11.9 grams of Fat Burned.

Busy Day at Sprint

I'm tried. I've been in meetings all day long at Sprint. They really wear my out. I still don't know who my new manager is going to be or what I'm going to be doing for Sprint after the 17th of September. I just hope I end up with a job I can do. This is killing me. I have to leave to the team I love and the application I've helped build for over 10 years.

Spent the evening learning more about GSAK and getting ready to go geocaching tomorrow.

924 Geocaches Found.
8,667 Steps Today - 3.96 miles.
3,201 Aerobic Steps in 30 minutes.
365 Calories Burned - 21.4 grams of Fat Burned.

Sprint Outsourcing

Today I was told that I will be retained with Sprint while all my team members jobs will be outsourced to IBM. This has been a sad day for me. I will be split from a wonderful team. I don't know what Sprint is going to do with me. The application that I have helped to build for 10 years will now be turned over to IBM. This is a scary day in my life.

I have been watching the Athens 2004 Olympic Games this week. Tonight I saw one of the greatest upsets. I saw Paul Hamm fall while doing a vault. It appeared it was all over for him winning a metal. He later did an almost perfect performance on the high bar. He won the Gold by .0012 of a point. Goes to show, don't give up until it all over.

924 Geocaches Found.
6,036 Steps Today - 2.76 miles.
3,071 Aerobic Steps in 29 minutes.
243 Calories Burned - 14.6 grams of Fat Burned.

Geocaching Swiss Army Knife

This evening I learned about Geocaching Swiss Army Knife (GSAK). I spent the evening learning how to use this new software. It appears to be a great tool for doing all kinds of things with Geocaching Waypoints. I can output to my GPS, plot the waypoints on Street Atlas, and download html pages to my Pocket PC. I think it will be my main tool for Geocaching in the future.

924 Geocaches Found.
6,462 Steps Today - 2.95 miles.
2,112 Aerobic Steps in 26 minutes.
288 Calories Burned - 16.7 grams of Fat Burned.

New 802.11g Wireless Router

I got a chance to upgrade our home network to 802.11g wireless router. With rebates and $10 coupon with buy.com I got it for about $30. I checked it with an almost 1 gig file. With our old 802.11b router it took 26 minutes to download the file. With this new 802.11g router it downloads the same file in 9 minutes. Big improvement.

D-Link DI-624 Wireless Router
924 Geocaches Found.
6,907 Steps Today - 3.16 miles.
3,687 Aerobic Steps in 36 minutes.
296 Calories Burned - 18.2 grams of Fat Burned.

Painted Rock Conservation Area

The Painted Rock Conservation Area SouthEast of Jefferson City was a real treat to visit. I located 3 geocaches in the area. One trail I walked was a mile and a half loop. Part of the trail ran along a bluff overlooking the Osage River.

I ended the great weekend of geocaching with 41 new cache finds. To find these cache sites I walked 47,785 steps which covered 21.86 miles. I am give out.

924 Geocaches Found.
16,653 Steps Today - 7.62 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps in 0 minutes.
709 Calories Burned - 39.7 grams of Fat Burned.

Caching in Jefferson City, Missouri

I started the day with some great caches in Columbia. The guys up there must have bicyles. Seems like everything I have not found is on the MKT bike trail. When you don't have a bike it's hard. I logged over 12,000 steps by noon and I was give out. I decided to leave Columbia for another day and headed for Jefferson City.

I guess I had a good day caching. I logged 14 new cache sites today. I was hoping for more, but I could not find several.

Geocaches Found 909.
17,371 Steps Today - 7.95 miles.
4,915 Aerobic Steps in 48 minutes.
751 Calories Burned - 42.8 grams of Fat Burned.

Caching in Columbia, Missouri

I started with the first cache in Booneville, Missouri this afternoon at Franklin Island. From there I went to the tunnel on the Katy Trail at Rocheport, Missouri. That was a hard climb to get to the cache above the tunnel. The rest of the afternoon was spent in and around Columbia. Found a total of twelve new caches today. I'm very tired. Spending the night in Columbia at the Super 7 motel. Forgot to get the local number for earthlink and had to call Lee to look it up for me. Having to use dialup tonight. It's working pretty good for dialup.

Geocaches Found 896.
13,761 Steps Today - 6.29 miles.
4,150 Aerobic Steps in 40 minutes.
595 Calories Burned - 33.6 grams of Fat Burned.

Job Outsourced to IBM

We received word today that makes us pretty sure our jobs are going to be outsourced to IBM next month. We believe that IBM will make us an offer in the next couple of weeks to go to work for them. I sure hope so.

Meanwhile I go geocaching to get my mind off things. This evening I found the Brookside cache that I failed to find yesterday evening. Of course I was searching yesterday in the dark so no wonder I didn't find it.

I am preparing to go to Columbia and Jefferson City Missouri this weekend and see how many caches I can find. I've got all the waypoints loaded into 2 GPS units, my laptop computer and my Pocket PC. Clothes and equipment is loaded. I'm ready to go caching. Wish someone would go with me. It's pretty lonely without Mary. She's in Arkansas with the kids for a couple weeks.

Geocaches Found 884.
7,576 Steps Today - 3.46 miles.
2,993 Aerobic Steps in 28 minutes.
323 Calories Burned - 19.1 grams of Fat Burned.

Microphyll Cache

While seaching for the Microphyll Cache this evening I met up with Amos and Toni Blodgett from Ottawa, Kansas. We teamed up to find the cache. We must have searched for way over an hour before I got lucky and found the cache. What a relief.

Also completed the Geo Jigsaw Cache this evening. Mary worked the puzzle last week to aquire the coordinates.

Geocaches Found 883.
9,162 Steps Today - 4.19 miles.
2,179 Aerobic Steps in 21 minutes.
362 Calories Burned - 20.5 grams of Fat Burned.

Trackback

I decided to spend some time reading through the Owner's Manual for the new GPSmap 76CS. It seems to help learn something new to actually take it and try some of the things you read about. So I went for a walk. I made several turns and walked .74 miles. I then told the GPS to do a trackback and lead me back the way I had come. It did an excellent job and the walk helped me get more steps in today.

Geocaches Found 881.
8,277 Steps Today - 3.78 miles.
3,018 Aerobic Steps in 29 minutes.
367 Calories Burned - 21.6 grams of Fat Burned.

New GPSmap 76CS

We decided that while the old GPSmap 76S was in like new condition from being refurbished by Garmin would be the best time to sell it on eBay and upgrade to the latest GPSmap 76CS. The new GPS has a color display and very readable in bright sun.

The screen shot at the right shows getting a lock on 7 satellites with 16 foot accuracy sitting in my recliner.

Geocaches Found 881.
6,494 Steps Today - 2.97 miles.
2,988 Aerobic Steps in 29 minutes.
281 Calories Burned - 16.6 grams of Fat Burned.

Branson

We slept in a little extra this morning. I got up first and walked about 2 miles around Branson before the others got up.

Scott and Ashley
Before we went our seperate ways we went to the Go Cart Track.

Geocaches Found 881.
6,842 Steps Today - 3.13 miles.
3,506 Aerobic Steps with 36 minutes of Aerobic walking.
272 Calories Burned - 16.7 grams of Fat Burned.

Silver Dollar City

We spent the day with Scott, Laura, Ashley, Bradley, Robby, and Alison at Silver Dollar City. We rode a lot of rides and went to several shows.

Here we are on the WildFire
I think "Extreme Air" was the best show.

Extreme Air
Well I don't know, the Saloon was also a good show. We enjoyed both. Probably the "Wildfire" was the best ride. It is a great roller coaster. After Silver Dollar City closed we went to Echo Hollow. It was a great show from the 50's era.

Geocaches Found 881.
10,441 Steps Today - 4.77 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps in 0 minutes.
462 Calories Burned - 25.6 grams of Fat Burned.

Travel to Branson, Missouri

We were fortunate to hitch a ride with Robby and Alison to Branson this afternoon. We met up with Scott, Laura, Ashley, and Bradley at the Comfort Inn in Branson. We plan to have a great day together tomorrow at Silver Dollar City.

Geocaches Found 881.
5,120 Steps Today - 2.34 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps in 0 minutes.
194 Calories Burned - 10.7 grams of Fat Burned.

Geo Jigsaw Puzzle

We finally worked the Geo Jigsaw puzzle this evening. This is a computerized puzzle just like a real jigsaw puzzle except the pieces are on the screen and you pick them up with the mouse and place them into their correct position. Mary has spent way too much time the past three or four days trying to work this puzzle. After the puzzle was completed successfully it gave us the coordinates that we needed to use the GPS and go find the geocache site. Mary was sure glad to get that done. She was about to go blind looking at the small puzzle pieces.

Geocaches Found 881.
3,908 Steps Today – 1.78 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps in 0 minutes.
156 Calories Burned – 8.6 grams of Fat Burned.

Outsourcing - Depressing News

Today was kind of a depressing day. It seems like every thing we hear about Sprint outsourcing our jobs to IBM is not good. Now I'm not sure whether I should take severeance pay and leave or take IBM's offer and move to their sweat shop with tons of additional paper work. The folks from AT&T who have gone through this say it's really bad.

Geocaches Found 881.
7,003 Steps Today - 3.20 miles.
4023 Aerobic Steps in 44 minutes.
315 Calories Burned - 20.2 grams of Fat Burned.

Starlight Theater - Camelot

We had a great lunch hour today with Robby and Alison. We picked them up at their work and then went to vote. After voting we enjoyed a low carb sandwich at Mr. Goodcents. Good Stuff.

Tonight we went to see the broadway play - "Camelot". It was a wonderful play about the days of King Arthur in England and the Knights of the Round Table. The sweat rolled for hours, but the play was great. Thank you kids for a wonderful treat for Mary's Birthday.

Our evening started at Red Lobster. We enjoyed a wonderful meal ($50) most of which was paid for by an award from Sprint. Thank you Sprint.

We didn't make it to bed until after midnight. The play started at 8:30 p.m. was nearly 3 hours long including intermission.

Geocaches Found 881.
7,365 Steps Today - 3.37 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps with 0 minutes of Aerobic walking.
336 Calories Burned - 18.5 grams of Fat Burned.

GPSMAP 76S Repair Bill

Today I learned the extent of the damage to my favorite GPS. Garmin quoted $135 for the repair. Mary shipped the unit off to Garmin. I hope I never put a GPS on top of a vehicle again.

Geocaches Found 881.
8,356 Steps Today - 3.82 miles.
1139 Aerobic Steps with 13 minutes of Aerobic walking.
370 Calories Burned - 20.9 grams of Fat Burned.

Good and Bad Day Caching

I walked a little over 4 miles to get to a cache about 10 miles west of Oskaloosa, Kansas this afternoon. It was a very hot dog day in August. It was a good hike.

It was then that the bad part started. We got to the first part of a 2 part multicache in Ottawa, Kansas. I layed my GPSMAP 76S on top of the van so I would not loose the satellite signal. We then discovered that the cache was across town so we drove off with the GPS on top of the van.

Later when we were at the general location of the cache I went looking for my GPS. After realizing it was missing we drove back to part 1 of the multicache and started retracing our tracks. We found the GPSMAP 76S a short distant from part 1 on the side of the road.

GPSMAP 76S After the Accident
Three buttons were missing and it was badly scarred, but it was still working. I used it to find this cache plus 1 more.

Geocaches Found 881.
18,554 Steps Today - 8.49 miles.
7,117 Aerobic Steps with 82 minutes of Aerobic walking.
807 Calories Burned - 48.0 grams of Fat Burned.