George Carlin Said It Best... The Glass is Not Half Full...

Woke up extra early this morning because I really, really - REALLY wanted to get not one but two FTFs today. Greedy, sure but in GeoCaching for me finding a First To Find is better than a cup of coffee. I get pumped just anticipating those clean, untouched sheets waiting for me to start writing on them. Of course it does not always happen that way and another early bird simply found the worm before I did but it is always fun going for them.

Anyways I arrived at my destination which was about half way to work and about 35 minutes out. Read the description, verified the coords on my Etrex and boogied into the woods. What should have been a five minute bushwack quickly turned into thirty minutes of frustration and me late for work. Long story short I had to walk away from a FTF and I was not a happy camper. There could be a million reasons why this 1.5 / 1.5 find eluded me. Not enough coffee, sunspots, wrong coords, aliens playing with my head - again, basically tons of reasons. Ultimately I just couldn't get my act together. It happens so the title to today's blog entry was going to be "Missed it by that much" and it was a long 75 feet walk back to the car.

Then I remembered that there was another FTF out there and hopefully with my name on it. So I scrambled out towards Oxford with hopes of better results. When I arrived I followed the same game plan. Coords - check, Description - check, extra swig of coffee before it gets cold - check. Walked to ground zero, saw the hiding place and BINGO! a cach found. I personally thought the geo-angels harking in the background was a bit too much overkill but it was a nice effect and well appreciated. Soon after I had my prize in hand and opened the container. There in the spectral glow of the the rising sun was the virgin log sheets. Gleefully I signed the logbook and put everything back in place and hustled off to that other hobby I like to call work. Though now the title of today's blog was going to be "One out of Two Ain't Bad". I felt better and the bad aftertaste of my first hunt quickly vanished.

Just as I was pulling into the parking lot of my work place I heard a mention of George Carlin. God bless him he has always been one of my absolute favorite comedians. With that I pondered over all the footage and books I have witnessed and one tributing comment that he had made came to mind. I use it as a defining guideline that describes me on many occasions including when I go geocaching.

It simply states:

"The glass is NOT half full. The glass is NOT half empty. The glass is TOO DAMN BIG!"

Perspective in life was what George showed us so often. We can be optimists, pecimists or sometimes just step back and see things from a totally different angle. I will attempt to follow this next time I go out caching for FTFs. Thanks George for the reminder.