Hitchhikers Beware

I know a lot of folks are not going to like this, but I threw a hitchhiker away the other day.

Yup, I'm that evil person.  The hitchhiker was found in a box a few weeks ago.  It was a playdough container with a store bought Mini Mouse and a soaked, unreadable logbook.  I thought about it a little bit and decided that it was time this particular hitchhiker left the earth, never to clutter up another letterbox.

It is something I have been considering for a while actually.  There is a lot of this out there, flash in the pan letterboxers that have planted really poor letterboxes, lousy hitchhikers and the like, never to see from them again.  Sometimes the boxes are in great places, places that when you find them you really wish the box itself were better, the location deserves better.

Some of these boxes have been out there for some time, and you just wonder, when will they finally die, pass on so that something better and more thought out can take their place.

Would it be so wrong, if the planter is no longer in the game, to help these boxes along?  Was it wrong to help this hitchhiker meet its end?  I am not so sure it would be.

And Then There Were Three...

A very odd thing happened the other day.

I am in a postal ring (and, no, I know you are thinking it, that is not the very odd thing) with a mermaid theme.  It has 20 people in it, with 27 stamps moving around.  It is actually, for the size of it going very well.

The other day I got three of the postals and two of the three had the same stamp image.  These are hand carved stamps.  And further, they match one that I had gotten earlier in the ring.

It is amazing that with all of the mermaid images out there that three different people would chose the same image to carve for this ring.  I really don't mind though, as each had carved it with subtle  differences that make the stamp unique.








SPOILER BELOW!  If you are in that ring, you may not wish to read further.  But then again, maybe you would :-D

Mystical Merrow

Fish Tamer

Siren Beauty

Now, if you are wondering why I am doing postals, that is a tale for another blog posting.

Becky's Style of the Day

One of my coworkers was commenting about how she really doesn't have any dresses in her wardrobe.  She is young and cute, in her late twenties, but wears the same style to work everyday, black pants and a ribbed sweater.

I replied that Becky must have at least a dozen sundresses and that she has it pretty much figured out what works for her and what she looks cute in.  And she really does, I'm not saying that just because she is my wife and she will probably read this.

She usually dresses nice for church on Sunday, or maybe for other occasions, as she did a few weeks ago on a nice afternoon drive to Philadelphia with the top down on the convertible.  So I figure I will start to post some of these just because :-D

On the drive up to Philadelphia

Easter Sunday

Sunday, April 15

Today, Sunday, April 22

A Little Yard Work

Last weekend I finally started to do a little bit of yard work around the house.  It was the perfect weather for it, sunny but cool.

I got the grass cut and trimmed and then went to the real work, clearing out some of the brush that has taken over the back yard.  The yard is covered in English Ivy, along with a smattering of honeysuckle and who knows what else.  It has all enveloped the rusty old chain link fence in the back.  Half of the trees are dead because of it, the other half just look terrible.

I would like to change all of that. 

The first thing I did was clear the bushes out where Becky would like to plant her tomatoes this year, three ugly little pine bushes.  Everything came out, roots and all.  This coming Saturday I am going to replace this portion of the screening on the porch as well, along with the wood holding it.  While up there the roof of the porch is going to get power washed as much as I can.  I think that will actually solve some of the leaking problems.

On Sunday I started with the ivy and bushes along the side fence.  I got most of it cut down in an afternoon, but it is not gone yet, the trash men will only take so much at once.

Once I get all of the bushes out of the entire yard, the trees are next.  Many of them I can cut down myself, but I think we are going to have to call in a service to get about six of them that are just too big or too close to the house for me to handle.  I would rather get a pro to do it.

Finally, and it may not happen until next year, I would like to get a Bobcat and level the back yard, removing as much ivy as I can and the entire fence.  That should be fun.  This could be a multi-year project, doing it as time and money allows, but it will be nice to finally have a yard that is no longer a jungle.

Campin' and Stampin'

It's been a long time, several years now, since we had a Campin' and Stampin' Gathering.  They were always a great time too, hiking, singing around the camp fire, finding lots of boxes, a "little" bit of drinking, just generally a fun time.

A group of us with a reporter from Games Magazine in 2006 at Camping and Stamping

In that tradition I decided it was time to get the gathering going again.  It will remain in Maryland, but I decided to move it a bit west, to Thurmont at Cunningham Falls State Park.  I think this will be a great new location, still an easy drive from Philly, Baltimore and DC, but further west to entice our western letterboxing friends as well.

It is also close to virgin letterbox territory.  There are a few drive-by boxes, one short hike, and a long hike next door in Catoctin Mountain Park.

The gathering will be the weekend of September 7-9.  I wanted to have it in the spring or early summer, but there is just too much to do, both for the gathering and in my life itself, to be able to do that, so I pushed it to September.  I will return to the spring in 2013 to even it out with Boxtoberfest.

As for camping, I have chosen the Deer Spring Branch loop in the campground.  Camp HQ will be Site 107.  There are still plenty of sites left around, and one cabin left as well (The Red Hat Boxers have already grabbed two of them).

The site for the daytime gathering has not yet been determined, I'll keep folks posted.

I plan on having it as a great traditional gathering, with teaming up to hike for boxes being the focus.

You can sign-up for camping and stamping here, and I'll be using this blog to keep folks posted, as well as post a few special clues.

A Strange Encounter

So a week ago Schizokeet and I pull up to a small, solitary cemetery near Anneville, PA.  There were two boxes planted next to this small plot of land.  Much to our surprise we find a car already parked in front of the cemetery.

Wanda and Pete had stayed the night in the Harrisburg area as well.  Wanda was off in the woods somewhere, Pete was sitting on one of the low stone walls fiddling with his phone.  We decided to sit tight and wait for Wanda to finish her stamping and struck up a conversation with Pete, who looked very tired.

Wanda continued to bob head head up and down over a log until she finally came bounding out of the woods, rounding up Pete with nothing more then an "OK, lets go," and she bustled off with him in tow.

I am not really surprised, she and I don't really see eye to eye, and we never will.  Even in "retirement" she still seems more concerned with getting every stamp image possible.  It is all about the numbers to her, and, you know, I have come to the conclusion that, hey, that is just fine.  I think she is probably missing a lot of what really makes the hobby great, the people and the places, the clues and the mysteries, but that is one her.

I don't see it as much of an accomplishment to have found what ever it is, 30k+ boxes, I see it more as an accomplishment to have the adventure of finding just one box.