insignificant numbers?

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Okay, we all know that it is not all about the numbers, right?? Yeah, Right! While the adventure and locations we arrive at tend to be the big draw for us to go there, the number of those little smileys we tally up can attest to the number of adventures we have had.

But what about numbers in general? lets look at the number 1.... one, not much. More than Zero but less than two. A single penny does not get you much, in fact, nearly every store has a penny tray that people drop these insignificant little pieces of copper (okay, copper plated zinc) in case someone need it to pay tax or the cashier wants to round off the transaction to make things easier when they count the tray. How about one second, seems even more insignificant as you can barely take a breath in second. A single heartbeat is about a second. A fleeting moment in time. Even in geocaching, a second is only about 6 feet. How about one minute? 60 of those single seconds. Not a lot of time but enough to get something done. When you are waiting for something, a minute can seem like a long, long time. When out hunting, an entire day of seeing nothing can change in a minute. I guess that is why I sit out there all day, waiting for that minute.
Now, on the other hand, looking at 1 minute, in coordinate terms, can, and did, make a lot of difference for me November 6, 2009 as I chased my 1500th cache! A nifty little multi that I have looked to do for a year now. It Wäre Me, I Shét Em! took me quickly to the first two waypoints where I collected the coordinates for the final. Off I go, As I am walking through the prarie grass I finally get close to GroundZero. Start looking around for something that might hide the final, not much around, just a few small bushes and a lot of marsh grass here. Knowing the owner has used the vast isolation in these marshes before, I figured that it was a plausible location. Looked around for a little longer and then opted to use my Phone-a-Friend to query if I was where I should be. NOT! Immediate response was, no, you should be at ABC. Then it sank in quickly. Bets are that I missed the Minutes on the second waypoint. Okay, so now I trek back .35 miles through the marsh/prairie grass back to the car. Quick stop back at WP2 to confirm that I did make the mistake, and off to the correct coords for the final.

So, yeah, there are times when a single something is insignificant but other times, it can mean the difference between success and failure. Moral of the story, Always check ALL the numbers.