Saturday, October 1, 2011 Lethbridge
5:00 am
The temperature is +10 C, with a high predicted of +17 C. From the Environment Canada website: Today A mix of sun and cloud. Wind becoming north 20 km/h this morning. High 17. UV index 4 or moderate. Tonight A few clouds. Low plus 3. Normals Max: 17°C Min: 2°C
7:00 am Morning Musings
The first day of the month is a good time to reflect on my activities. Here is a summary of each activity in alphabetical order.
- Birding
- Almost no activity since May! Our trip to Kingston was fantastic, but we have done very little since returning home.
- Cooking
- My goal of a new recipe each week is not working out. I have made a few new dishes, but not as many as I originally hoped.
- Geocaching
- July and August were very weak, but I have picked up my efforts in September. I should be able to make 200 finds for the year but this is only half as many as each of the last two years. I have added one new state (Wyoming) and one new province (Quebec) this year. I have finally searched for all the Lethbridge caches (with the exception of 10 in Cottonwood park - which I will try for later this fall when the rattlesnakes are less active). I have not added any new finds to my (short) list of provincial parks. The one noteworthy accomplishment was reaching 1000 finds on August 1. I would like to add a new goal of one search/month where I identify a single cache that looks interesting and then go and find it. This may involve a two or three day trip.
- History
- I have read 4 non-fiction books: a general book on aboriginal peoples, one on a history of Canadian landscape art, a biography of Samuel de Champlain, and a description of the Battle of the Little Bighorn in the USA. I would like to average at least one such book every 2 months.
- Life
- Much of this was a description of my efforts to build a set of raised garden beds in our backyard.
- Literature
- I have read 20 novels/poetry books so far this year. This is about right. A rough goal would be a minimum of 2 each month.
- Mathematics
- Almost no activity since April! This is discouraging as I hoped to make this a regular activity.
- Philosophy
- This is another category that has had almost no activity. I began reading Bhagavad-gita but even this has slipped into the background.
- Photography
- I have taken a few photos but I must rejoin the Lethbridge photography club and attend their meetings.
- Puzzles
- My NYT crosswords have been enjoyable, but I have failed to maintain a learning goal with Go.
- Science
- I have read a little on cosmology and geology but not enough!
- Technology
- I bought an iPad2 but have not continued to use it. Shocking!
- Trains
- I made good progress with my use of Ship It software and have upgraded my Prodigy DCC system. But I have done almost nothing in the last 4 months.
Mathematics, philosophy and photography are the items most in need of improvement.
9:00 am Geocaching
I decided to make a quick early morning drive to Coalhurst to look for a recent cache that was placed in a local park.
- GC346HH - Ye Olde BMX Track
This was a quick find, which was fortunate as there was a sprinkling of rain drops as I finished signing the logbook.
This was the first time that I have made a "find" on October 1. That fills in cell on the statistics matrix that keeps track of such matters.
Here is another table that geocaching.com maintains for each registered user:
This table is more interesting, at least for me. There is some motivation to try to fill in all of these cells. For example, I have yet to find even one cache that is rated as a "5" for difficulty.
Another search that I have begun, but have not yet pursued very actively is described in the first of the following three sites:
GC222BN - Alberta Provincial Parks Part One of Triple Crown
GC23E9E - The MD`s Of AB Part Two of Triple Crown Challenge
GC23J8M - Mapsheets AB, final Triple Crown Jewel Challenge
The Provincial Parks quest requires a find in at least 60 different provincial parks. My total at the moment is 11. Only 49 more to go.
4:00 PM Geocaching
I am back from a trip south of Lethbridge to the Stirling/Raymond area. I found a total of 5 new caches.
9:30 PM Literature
I am continuing to read "Alone in the Classroom". Maybe it is because of my education background or maybe it is because of the many rural school sites (both active and geocaches) that I have visited, but I am truly marvelling at Hay's description of a beginning teacher in a small rural Saskatchewan school.