Accidents

I had to cache today. The rest of the week is forecasted to be rainy and cold. Today was bright and somewhat warm. I took 3/4 of GAIN out with me to Southwoods Park. I saw that friend akruse had found a cache that we had not. If they could find this one, so could we. And I am proud of their find.

Accident #1. A neighborhood kid was at the park when we got there. He kind of hitched on with us and helped us find Jim Dandy, GC145RB. This kid had no idea that geocaches existed in this park (there are 4), but I said that it was cool that he knew about geocaching. His reply was, "Oh yeah. My neighbor invented it." When I asked who his neighbor was, he said something that sounded like "Carl and Digger." Anyway, running in to this guy was fun. He showed the kids his fort. He also has a cliff. Southwoods would be a great place to have for a backyard. The backyard of my youth was like Southwoods, maybe that is why I like it so much.

Accident #2. We stayed to go creek stomping, pastime of "N," since he was 3 years old. While crossing to the other side of the creek, eyes on the water below her and not above, "I" of GAIN ran into a tree trunk. Hard. She scraped her scalp. The wound is hidden by her long hair. Despite the crying, she said that she was OK enough to stay and play. She really really did not want to leave. There was no blood, so I thought that would be OK.

Accident #3. We found some moss in its reproductive stage. Cool. We did not expect, plan, or predict that at all. Found very near the scraping accident. "I" took some home. (Will we ever leave a place empty-handed?)

Accident #4. "N" of GAIN found an old giant puffball floating down the creek. It was stuck against the bank by a fallen tree.

Accident #5. "N" had his boots crack and leak. He hasn't even had these for a year. Mr. GAIN remembers similar boots in his family lasting for years. Is he misremembering? Is his history being tinted with the rose colored lenses of his age? Eventually, "N" stepped in a deep spot in the creek, got water coming in from the top of his right boot (they are knee high). Because his socks were now wet, we couldn't get his boots off. He was able to dump some of the water out, but had a fairly sloshy hike back to the car. We definitely had to leave after his accident. Which is OK in the steep hills. Hills make the sunset seem to come early. That was also unplanned, but everything seemed to work out for the best. I had forgotten to set the time-bake feature on our dinner, so it was best for us to get home when we did.