Morton Fox's journal

Saturday morning, I joined Delaware (and some Pennsylvania and New Jersey) geocachers in the "Red Lion Road Adopt a Highway CITO XII". It's a geocaching event to clean up Route 71 near Lums Pond. We met up at the start of the road by our "Adopt A Highway" sign. Then we split up into groups of 4 or so and each group took a 1/2-mile section of the road. It didn't look like there would be that much litter at first but I saw that whenever I went down the embankment from the road a bit, there were a lot of bottles and cans all over. So that's what I mostly did - I went up and down the embankment, filling up my trash bag multiple times. Then we trucked all those bags of trash back to the meeting spot and piled those up for DelDOT to pick up later. We put in about two hours of work but 30 people can pick up a lot of litter!

The rest of the day, I found a few local geocaches. Hiked a few miles in Middle Run, visited a scenic railroad bridge fishing area in Conowingo, and waded in a storm drain. (a geocache where slippers / flip-flops were useful) Then in the evening, I went to Delaware Furbowl 57. It's pretty amazing that a regular bowling meet has turned into a mini-convention with attendees from hundreds of miles away making a weekend trip of it. Had the opportunity to meet up with some folks I hadn't seen in years and also some new acquaintances I'd only contacted over Twitter before that. So that was fun.

On Sunday, I tried going to York via Maryland instead of via Lancaster, but actually spent most of the day in the Maryland countryside, around Jarrettsville, Monkton, White Hall, and Parkton, to the north of Hunt Valley where Fur 'the More used to be. Prettyboy Dam was the most scenic spot of the day and the red brain was the weirdest geocache of the day. Generally, I like the countryside better than the urban areas near Baltimore. People seem nicer too. Near the end of the day, I talked to someone living on a rural road, whose property was across the road from the cache. He seemed genuinely impressed by the assortment of caches in the countryside and the nearby town of New Freedom.

( The incident of the deer in the middle of the night )

( The caches... )

I frequently have event conflicts. For example, this weekend, I could either have gone to a geocaching event on Long Beach Island and stayed the weekend or to Delaware Furbowl 50. In the end, there were more reasons to go to Furbowl. Firstly, the 50th Furbowl is quite a big milestone, drawing some visitors from far away. (Fibre Kitty from Massachusetts, Nbowa from Iowa) Also, I was told that Furbowls will be held less frequently in 2014, so it'll be two months until the next one. What tipped the scale though was the weather forecast. Snow was forecasted for Sunday (which turned out to be correct), so if I stayed overnight by the Jersey Shore, driving home on Sunday would be difficult.

Anyway, since I was going to Furbowl, I didn't go geocaching too far from home. I got two geocaches in Delaware and then 11 more in Havertown, Upper Darby, and West Philadelphia. West Philly wasn't that great for geocaching because of the scarcity of parking spaces. Nevertheless, I parallel-parked as expertly as I could and got a few caches there anyway. I stopped geocaching a bit early to come home for a change of clothing. (pants were muddy) Then I went to dinner and then to the bowling alley for Furbowl.

I've been to a bunch of Furbowls over the years but #50 was the best one I've been to in quite a while. It actually didn't feel too crowded despite the number of people attending, and I got to meet up with my friends again. Also, the fursuit lounge seemed more well-constructed than before, probably a result of incremental improvements over many months. It's amazing how much piping, curtains, and racks go up and then get taken down again at the end of the night. It's like a traveling stage show. This Furbowl, I took the opportunity to debut Rakket Raccoon, another new old fursuit (old, but new to me and perhaps new to folks around here) I recently acquired. Because of the season, I put the springy Santa hat, which Wildwolf had included in the shipment, on Rakket's head and that turned out to be a hit! Endless zany fun. It was also fun to mess with people who didn't know yet who was in the fursuit. Really kept them guessing since I often don't speak in fursuit.

Sunday was the day of the forecasted snow. It was only cloudy in the morning, so I thought I would dash out after breakfast for a few geocaches and head home once the snow started. There was already some snow when I got to Upper Providence, so I stopped after the third cache and headed home. Well, the snowstorm had taken Delaware County by surprise so they hadn't salted the roads. I was still able to drive home on the snowy roads at around 15mph with minimal traction problems. The funny thing was I noticed the salt truck was following me for a few miles, so I got no benefit from that. Also, it would be funny if my car was on Channel 6 news since the news van was following me too. Anyway, I got home safely even though the highway was a snow field littered with spun-out cars.

( The caches... )

Cloudy, 48°F. I planned on attending Delaware Furbowl 35 in the evening, which meant I wouldn't be geocaching all the way up to dusk. But I figured that was still plenty of time to shoot down to Kent County to do some of the recently-placed geocaches. Then I found that I actually had time to do some older geocaches as well in the Blairs Pond area near Milford. After a quick dinner of chicken enchiladas and taco at Hardee's in Middletown, I returned home to prepare for the evening's event.

This time, I skipped the dinner portion of DE Furbowl and went directly to the bowling alley. This month's theme is "The 80s". I visited a thrift store a few days ago to look for vintage 80s clothing for the theme. The only thing I found was a Hawaiian shirt that happened to be large enough to wear over my fursuit, so that's what I used. My bowling was rusty from not having gone to Furbowl in a few months, not that it was ever really unrusty. :) I used my right hand in the first game and my left hand in the second. My left hand did a bit better, which is strange because I'm right-handed. Anyway, I had a good time and got to talk to a few folks I haven't seen in a while. (because I hadn't been going to Furbowls, partly :) )

I noticed a few improvements since the last time I was at Furbowl. The fursuit changing area is quite a bit bigger and the curtains have been rearranged so entrance no longer faces the general area, for better privacy. Also, there is now blue tape on the floor so we know where to stand to be within camera view for the group photo. That's what I like about this event. They keep making improvements and solving problems, even problems that I'd never think of mentioning.

( The caches... )

What an action-packed Saturday! I went to two events. The first was a Where's George event, the DE Annual Gathering 2011, in the afternoon. It was at Stewart's Brewing Company in Bear. I ordered the chicken cheesesteak and then proceeded to chat about Where's George with the group. There were Georgers from Delaware and neighboring states, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. However, there was also someone from Ohio! She had a reason to be in this area and decided to stop by.

In the evening, I went to Delaware Furbowl 25. I skipped the dinner portion of the meet and went straight to the bowling alley. I'm impressed at the improvements they've made to this monthly event. We've taken over the rec room (the room with the air hockey table) of the bowling alley for event functions. Part of that room was curtained off into a fursuit changing area / lounge. (which is far better than the way we used to change into fursuit in the restroom) We also used the rec room for the photoshoot, which ought to be tons better than the old location by the bowling lanes simply because of better lighting. Also new to me were event badges and the event registration tables. It's becoming a mini-con!

This time, I wore the newly-refurbished Chestnut Husky fursuit. I sought the services of jackalopejess last year and took delivery recently. I think she did a wonderful job doing various repairs and making some replacement parts, especially the tail and feet, which used to have recurring issues. Anyway, stepping into this fursuit was like getting into a comfortable old character, which nevertheless still has a lot of life in it. As for bowling, I played my usual 70/80-point games but I got two strikes, no doubt by chance.

Other things I did today: Found two geocaches, Penn Wood Park and Hamburg P&R, both on the way to the Where's George event. Also, I tried the new string trimmer. I got it at a discount during the winter, knowing that I could use it later on the Spring growth. I used it on the longer bunches of grass in the front yard and it was faster than getting the lawnmower out for this.

I had a dream about geocaching last night, which was interesting and annoying at the same time because when I woke up, I realized that I couldn't log it online because it wasn't a real cache. However, I remembered the details and wrote it all down, just in case I actually do see a cache hide like that one day.

While running errands this afternoon, I took a short side trip to Two Away!. This is a two-stage cache and both stages are only a few miles from home. The first stage is on a fishing pier at East 7th Street Park in Wilmington. It's a very tiny container so I'm not sure how I found it in only a minute. I wasn't really thinking about the search when suddenly I saw that I had it. Then I went to the second stage. It's at an interesting rooftop location that I'd been meaning to check out but never got around to it. I've literally gone shopping below the cache site. (Not directly below though because underneath is a truck delivery bay.) Since not thinking worked so well at the first stage, I tried not thinking again and I only needed to put my hand out a few times before I found the second tiny container. Amazing. I can see why people stop thinking. :)

In the evening, I went to Delaware Furbowl 22. The dinner portion was once again at East King Buffet in Wilmington. This time, I didn't get the sushi first because I figured that the sushi was making me bloated too soon on previous visits here. So I did Mongolian BBQ first. I wanted to see what would happen if I piled the ingredients up really high before handing it to the chef. Well, guess what? He got a bigger plate from the back room! I did still get sushi but only on my 3rd plate. Dessert was where the soft-serve ice cream machine apparently went wild. Then I added cherries.

The next stop in DE Furbowl was AMF Price Lanes, down the road from the buffet. I brought Oddbrand Otter. This is a repeat of last month but I think the otter is fun. It was a good round of bowling. We didn't get to finish the second game because of time but the people in my lane were a fun bunch to play with.

First stop of the day was to Denny's to get my free birthday Grand Slam. In the "Build Your Own Grand Slam" menu item, you get to pick four items from their list of breakfast foods. I got pancakes, eggs, bacon, and whole wheat toast. It was a leisurely affair. I didn't get there really early to begin with, so "breakfast" ended at 1pm.

After that, I went for some geocaches that were not too far away. "Child's Play" is an old cache in the Claymont area that I'd been meaning to do for a while but never bothered to take the exit off of I-495 until this afternoon. The other 3 geocaches are recently-placed ones. "Dude Man Yo's #1" is in a weird location at the door of a converted warehouse building. I suspect the cache owner either works at or has some connection with the design studio whose door that is.

In the afternoon, I discovered that the grass seed patch closer to my back door had germinated into tiny blades of grass that stood straight up. Really cute. No idea what's happening to the other patch though. I guess it's easier to grow grass in the shaded area because that part of the yard doesn't get quite as dry. Also did some weeding since I was out there looking. Yes, I know. Doing work on my birthday...

In the evening, I went to Delaware Furbowl XX. It was the same itinerary as the previous DE Furbowl: dinner at East King Buffet followed by bowling at AMF Price Lanes. This time, I wasted no time getting what I wanted, hence sushi and ice cream on the same plate! (I added peanuts and an egg custard for nutrition. :) ) At the bowling portion of the event, I wore the Kinzer coyote fursuit. Still not so good at bowling but I did get two strikes, one spare, and a bunch of 7s and 8s.

( The caches... )

Auto service this morning. Mileage was 133,300. The service tech told me that some of the techs were out today so it would be a long wait but the wait turned out to not be that long. Besides, I had my netbook with me and I took the opportunity to do a little work in their "business center" and catch up on a few things.

In the evening, I went to Delaware Furbowl 17. I considered skipping this meet since it was so close to Anthrocon but I decided to go anyway because I wanted to field-test the as yet unnamed coyote fursuit. Trying it on at home is one thing but you really don't know how it wears until you've worn it for at least an hour. (and done some bowling in it :) ) Anyway, it was another good meet. There were fewer attendees this time than at last month's meet, probably because it's too close to Anthrocon. However, I actually do get to talk to friends more at smaller meets and I had a good time.