New

It's time, once again, for P.J.'s monthly photo blogging challenge. This month, the theme was "New" and I struggled mightily with it, so some of these might seem farfetched, but here I go. As most of you know, I retired in the middle of the year last year and I am thoroughly enjoying myself. It has given me time to explore, see new things, and do new things. That's what this is all about. Much of what I write about in this post will be geocaching related in someway, so if you're not interested, I understand perfectly.

1. New Virtual Caches
A long time ago, geocaching used to have a cache type called the virtual. In other words, you had to visit a spot, either answer some questions or post a photo to prove that you were there. Many of the virtuals took me to places that were absolutely wonderful, but couldn't have a physical container for a variety of reasons. Then, geocaching decided that virtuals, because they didn't have a container, didn't fit the geocaching mode, and so they were stopped. Any virtual caches in existence were grandfathered in, but no new ones could be created. The big bummer was they also wouldn't allow the old ones to be adopted by another geocacher in case the original owner got tired of it, or didn't have the wherewithal to continue to maintain it. So as the number of virtuals got archived, obviously the numbers dwindled. There's still a lot of virtuals out there, but not as many, except geocaching decided last year or possibly two years ago to bring back the virtual cache on a limited basis. People were awarded virtual cache placements based upon certain criteria and then new ones started popping up. The first photo is me at one of these new virtual caches down in Huntington Beach, California. The statue is Duke Kahanamoku and virtual cache celebrates the surfing culture of the area.

2. New Experiences
I read somewhere that everyone, regardless of age or status, should experience one new place each year. I'm way overdue, although I could probably say that I've experienced over 60 new places in my lifetime. In reality, I think one new place per year is on the small side. Just since I retired at the end of May, I've experienced 6 new places that I'd never seen before:

1. Muir Woods National Monument
2. Golden Spike National Historic Park
3. Craters of the Moon National Monument
4. Petroglyph National Monument
5. Guadalupe Mountains National Park
6. El Malpais National Monument

Some of these I've already written about here, others I will write about in future posts. 

The latest new place I recently visited is the Living Memorial Sculpture Garden located off Hwy 97 north of Weed, California. I plan on writing about this visit in detail in a coming post, but needless to say, this was a very moving experience to see these sculptures in amongst the forest. It is also my first new place I've explored this year. I actually wonder how many more new places I'll explore before the end of this calendar year?

And this is one of the reasons why I have enjoyed geocaching so much.  It has taken me to places that I might not have visited were it not for geocaching. Last week, I went on a road trip to Oregon for a funeral of the mother of a very good friend of mine. There was this geocache off to the side of the road here, but I didn't stop for it on the way up. I did, however, stop on the way back down because I had extra time. If the geocache hadn't been there, I might not have stopped at all. Because of geocaching, I've discovered new trails to hike, new parks to explore, new roads to travel and have challenged myself to try new things. All because someone was talking about this silly game in a chat room that I was in 19 years ago. Some of my best friends I've met through geocaching. I think it would take something very serious for me to give up this hobby.

3. New Ways of Looking at Things

This month, geocaching took me near where my in-laws are buried. The last time I was here, was when my wife and I were checking into the arrangements for my father-in-law's internment at the cemetery and the headstone had been removed because the cemetery had to engrave his name on the headstone. So this was the first time seeing this for me since that time. It's hard to believe he's been gone almost 3 years now.

I think most of us look at our parents as the big buffer zone between us and the great unknown. But when our buffer zone physically disappears, then we become the new buffer zone for our children and we no longer have that buffer zone for ourselves anymore. Fortunately for me, I still have that buffer zone, as both of my parents are still alive. I try to visit them at least once a month to have lunch with them and to catch them up on happenings in our household. My daughter is coming down for my birthday next month, so we'll visit my parents at that time.

On a side not, my father-in-law's father also passed away on February 6th, and my mother-in-law's brother passed away on the same day as she did. It's been said by more than one person in my wife's family, that if you survive the first week in February, you're good to go for another year.

4. New Surprises
Every now and then, when I go out geocaching, I stumble upon something that's just totally different and unexpected that I just have to document. That happened at a cache called Bison Overlook. When geocachers hear certain words, they interpret them slightly differently than the average person. A bison, to a geocachers, is a small pill container that has been converted into a geocache. They are relatively watertight, so they do a good job of keeping the logsheet dry and they are relatively inexpensive as well. You can even get them in camouflaged colors so they blend in when hung in a tree. So when we came across this cache on a walk in a park, we were expecting a bison tube with a nice overlook. Yes, we did find a bison tube at the overlook, but we also got a surprise in that there were also real bison here. Interestingly, these particular bison (or their ancestors) were once owned by Walt Disney, another surprise.

5. New Driving Experiences
I'm a Southern California guy. I was born in Indiana, but have lived here since I was 3. I don't do snow. Period. Now, all of you who live in the snow, if you could just stay there, I would greatly appreciate it since California is crowded enough without all the other people moving to it every year. 

That being said, one of the things I've been able to do now that I'm retired is travel during non-peak times of the year. I went to Denver in October and got snowed on. I went to Oregon this month. While I didn't get snowed on, it was extremely cold and the snow that had fallen just before I got there was still quite thick on the ground. It was extremely cold while I was up in Oregon and although it didn't freeze overnight, the thought was in the back of my mind. It's a different kind of driving experience that I'm not used to, based upon my upbringing.

I've actually driven in these types of conditions more in the last 6 months than in probably the last 30 years. I'm good with that. It's a new experience and one that I am getting used to. Mt. Shasta is gorgeous most times of the year, but this is the first time I've been able to experience Shasta up close in the winter months. I wouldn't trade that for anything.

Well, there you have it. My "News" for the month of January. Please stop by P.J.'s site and read some of the other interpretations for the theme New. Please leave a comment here. As always, I won't bite.