Geocaching while on vacation

Someone had asked me a while back if I was excited about this trip. It's hard to get excited when there is so much work to be done and so many things happening between now and then. Even now, when the departure is fast approaching, it's hard to get excited. I'll be excited when I step on the plane. 

Yesterday was a very long day, but I'm happy to report that the project I was working on is done. Or I should say complete enough that it looks done. There's a wee bit of hand sewing left to do. The rough draft is written, the pictures are taken, and all that remains is to proofread the document and send it off this morning. 

I have one email about Colour my World to send - I'm in the process of compiling the distribution list, so that should go out by noon. I have added a few names to the list that I received yesterday. If you haven't received an email from me by the end of today and are considering the class, please send an email, and I'll do my best to get the information to you. It likely won't happen until the end of the month if you send it after 12 noon today. There is no rush as the first class won't happen until September 27th. 

Needless to say, I fell into bed exhausted last night. But we are very close to getting everything completed, which is good because the flight time is fast approaching. 

Whatever doesn't get done will just have to wait. 

I'm going to be going solo now. The old Fitbit died yesterday, so it's all on the new one to keep track of what's going on. I need to figure out how to convert the steps into KM. I'm sure there's a way to make that happen. But I had to turn off all notifications on my phone because the darn thing keeps beeping and buzzing. I'm sure I'll find a happy medium, but I really don't need or want notifications from my phone to my watch. 

Out with the old and in with ONLY the new

Some of it is interesting, but I kept getting notifications of an event that I couldn't dismiss. What a waste of battery power for that. I need to preserve battery time - it has to last six full days without a charge!

Miss Muprhy was up to her old tricks. She takes unwrapping the toy in the blankets very seriously, and there was no end to the entertainment from her as she did so. 

Moom - are you enjoying this? 

She triumphed, and there was the ball. Now it was time to rest!

MOM - I need a rest. That was hard work!

And what was this all about? I was downstairs working when all I could hear was SQUEAK SQUEAK. And there she was with her OUTDOOR toy in the house. She looked a little possessive over the thing if you ask me!

MOM - I swear the fish swam here! 

It feels like The Night Before Christmas this morning. The backpacks are packed, and the hat is attached to the backpack. The last of the visas came through overnight, so all the paperwork is in order. That took over a week to get, and we had printed our application and payment forms to confirm it was complete. Good grief - it's a five-page document!

The meals for the plane are ordered, and we are checked in for the first flight, which means we leave in less than 24 hours! GULP!!! So much planning - whatever isn't done, we either throw money at it or plead ignorance! Just kidding - I think we are good! I have my "bribe" money in my waist pouch! I will charge up my fitness tracker and phone just before leaving the house. The ebooks are downloaded and hopefully actually downloaded. I couldn't find the one that I wanted, so I downloaded two: a mystery thriller and The Covenant of Water, which is a very long book. I had started to read it several times and had to stop both times. Now I have a very long flight - I might just get through it, or I'll watch movies the entire way! More on the flight stuff after they happen!

I also printed a few more geocache information sheets. I said yesterday that the "scientific" knowledge was interesting. DUH -- I meant to say geological information is interesting. Oh well, I think you knew what  I meant. I swear, if for no other reason, geocaching is an exciting hobby to do while traveling. You can learn a ton of interesting information about odd things at almost any destination in the world. If you are nerdy, the earthcaches are the best because they identify geological details on certain things, like the lava cave on Kilimanjaro. Besides, the geocache at the top is rated a difficulty of FIVE - the hardest, and I don't think I have a five yet! 

Most people would walk past the lava cave and not even know it's there. I wonder if we have phone reception on the mountain? I'm not sure, and I don't want to drain my battery, so I know where these special items are located (more or less), and hopefully we can explore them on the way up, or they are near one of the camps. I'm sure the guides know all about these places. But apparently, we will only see the guides or porters at the beginning and end of each day. They take our gear up and probably run up the mountain while the rest of us trudge up. The word of the day is SLOW and STEADY, as our bodies are not used to the high altitude. 

So, a few more things to get done today, and all will be good. It's also Monday sewing today, but I doubt I'll have too much time to spend with the group. And I'm off to spin class in a few minutes. I know -- one more for the road. OK -- I'll be honest, I haven't seen Joseph (the instructor) in a couple of weeks, and I wanted to get his good wishes for the trip. He's so supportive and loves to hear about all the crazy things people do. He's from France and is the best instructor around! 

Here's the lay of the land for the next four weeks. I will blog when I can. I have my mini-portable office with me, which is simply a small folding keyboard. That's it! No mouse - I simply connect the keyboard to my phone via Bluetooth. So it doesn't add a lot of weight at all. I'm sure I could find an even lighter one now, as this one is several years old. It works well, except there is a fold with a ridge in the main section, and it's annoying for typing certain letters, like F. So I won't be typing a lot of words with F in them. LOL. 

I know some of you will miss the daily blog, and I'll do what I can, but I'm giving you a heads up that there likely will not be a blog tomorrow. We have two long flights to get to our destination. But if we have time somewhere along the line with Wi-Fi, I'll see what I can do. I know those two flights will have interesting things to share! 

OH -- while I'm not a fan of Facebook these days, I'll be sharing photos on Facebook, so if you are my friend, you can see the images, and I'll try my best to learn how to download them to the blog. I believe the issue is the size. If I load them to the blog at home, I have resized them, but if I load them directly to the blog from the phone, they are HUGE. So I'll see what I can do to add at least one photo a day to the blog. 

Not a fan of Facebook? I LOVE Facebook, and the original idea for which it was created. The fact that they have become so powerful and are meddling in world politics? That doesn't impress me. And the fact that they can pay a brilliant young man S250 Million to help them conquer the AI world? Well, that means they have way too much money and power for one person (Mark!). 

Be sure to follow along as I do my best to blog. It's my way of letting off steam, keeping my sanity - I need to write, and blogging is a form of journaling that I share with you all. My mother and father both kept or are still keeping journals or diaries, and I need to do the same. Hmmm - now that I think about it, I wonder if my mom is still keeping a diary. I haven't heard her mention it in a long time. 

WAIT - there's another reason to write every day. I'm keeping my brain active and trying to prevent the dementia thing from happening. I think it's a very good thing to write every day. It's like anything - if you don't use it, you lose it. The situation is getting even worse when people only use texting with all the abbreviations to communicate, or they just verbalize everything. The ability to write is a brain skill, and I'm not losing my ability. The more I write, the more I need to write and the more I want to write, and the better I get at it! 

On that note - bon voyage!!!!! 

Have a super day!!

Ciao!!!