Geocaching and A Day in the Life

Good morning everyone.  Who has found the most mystery/unknown cache types in a single month?  In Canada, that goes to Casper & Areo from Quebec with 2,708 finds.  Not far behind is Troqueurs32, also from Quebec with 2,658.  Locally, It's Awol with 449 mystery finds and JB coming in second with 442.  Across the border, it's AZ4X4s from Arizona with 1,903 and very close behind is Subman, also from Arizona with 1901.  In North Dakota, it's N0SND with 276, edging out pete_moss with 275 mystery finds.

There are many aspects of geocaching that I like.  One of them is that anyone can get involved with the hobby.  It doesn't matter what you do for a living.  I know of a couple of doctors that geocache.  Computer techs, plenty of teachers, retired couples, military personnel, healthcare workers, factory workers, the list goes on and on.  I've done previous blogs about a typical Saturday with me.  Today, I want to take you on a little trip to see what it is that I do on a daily basis away from geocaching.  Most know me as a blogger, that stats guy for the North Dakota Geocaching Association (even though I live in Canada, I'm sure they'd adopt me in a heartbeat), Co administrator for the geocaching guild FB page along with GeoJangie, and soon (June 3rd, 8pm central) I'll be guest host of the USGeocachingHour on Twitter.  Take away the geocaching cape and mask, and I become just everyday Ken who works at a hospital.  This is what my typical day looks like.

My day starts with my alarm going off at 5:30am.  I'm not the type that jumps out of bed when the alarm goes off.  Maybe when I was younger, but not now.  It's actually music that wakes me up, not an actual alarm as that's the most annoying way to be woken up in the morning.  It takes me about twenty minutes before I force myself out of bed and into the shower.  Now I feel a bit more energized.  Breakfast and lunch is packed up along with a clean uniform and I'm off to work.  For me, work starts at 7:15am.  There are exceptions, which I'll get into in a bit.  Once I've changed, it's off to the fourth floor, my floor.  The fourth floor use to be the surgery floor, for patients waiting or recovering from surgery.  The surgery program is no longer at my hospital.  Currently, at least half of the floor sits empty, but the plan going forward is to turn most of the floor in to Geriatric Rehab.  Elderly people recovering from hip and knee injuries.  The very first thing I do each and every morning is replenish the linen carts at each nursing section on the entire floor.  There are three different carts that I walk around with to get the job done.  One of the things I like, depending on the time of year, is that a conference room that I would pass has windows facing East.  I have taken so many pictures of the sunrise from that window.

(one of the carts I go around with in the morning.  This one has hand towels, bath towels, pillow cases and clothing protectors)

(one of many sunrises I have caught from the conference room window.  This was during the Winter when the sundogs were very bright)

Once that is complete, I grab an empty cart and pick up the soiled linen and send that down along with the garbage.  I have gotten to know some of the staff on the floor, nurses, healthcare aides, and housekeeping staff.  I say good morning to most, joke around with some, and start talking to others about the latest in what is going on.  A couple of years ago, I had my oldest boy, d-2002 with me for bring your kid to work day.  He noted that I was always joking around with staff.  To which I answered, you have to enjoy your job.  If you don't, time to get another job.  On this particular day, a Health Care Aide that I know had recently posted on social media that she survived after finding a wood tick crawling on her.  Clearly she's not a geocacher.  I was sneaking up behind her, walking my finger tips on her shoulder, giving her that creepy, crawly feeling of a wood tick.  Yes, I can be a wee bit of a brat at work.  LOL.

(one of the silly things I've been known to do.  A pyramid of wet floor signs)

With all that done, it's time to come down to the department and start picking the supplies needed for the fourth floor.  I work in tandem with another co-worker.  He arrives earlier than I do and scans the supply bins at each nursing station, medicine room, and supply room for the fourth floor and emergency department.  When he's away, I fill in for him and someone else does my job.  It is then that my day would start earlier than my usual 7:15am.  It starts at 6:45am.  The only upside to starting earlier is that I get to go home earlier.  With the picklists printed, I sort them out and plan how or what will fit on my cart.  It's normal to take only a portion of the supplies, deliver that and return for a second load.

(when my partner is away, I walk around with my old school Star Trek phaser, scanning bar codes and ordering supplies)

(my delivery cart, 1st load.  Once all that is delivered, I go back to the department and repeat the process for the areas that still need to be picked and delivered.  There are 3 supply rooms, 6 nursing stations and 2 medicine rooms on that cart)

Geocaching does seep in to my work day.  It's usually while I'm on a break that I'm searching the world wide web for new blogs to be shared on the geocaching guild.  If I find something, I'll read it, and message GeoJangie, letting her know what I found and seeing what the schedule looks like for the next few days for sharing blogs.  We both share the duties of posting on the page so we do our best to be on the same page so to speak when it comes to that.  I try to follow some of the bloggers and others I just happen to stumble on.  GeoJangie does the same by following a few bloggers that I don't follow.  I enjoy reading what other geocachers have experienced and their tales of adventure or misadventure.  It also gives me ideas of what to write about but with my own personal twist.

(The Geocaching Guild logo)

Speaking of writing, I'm also proof reading what I've written so far.  Most of what I do is done at home on my laptop.  I do have the blogger app on my phone so I can read and edit if need be.  It's not uncommon for me to have read my own blog six or more times before I publish it.  Each time, I usually find some sort of typo or something that wasn't worded quite right.

Getting back to my work day, picking and delivering supplies takes up a good chunk of my day.  I'm usually done by early afternoon or just after my lunch break.  I'll make another round picking up soiled linen and sending down the garbage.  One thing I do have to say is that I work with an awesome group of guys, my boss included.  There's usually music playing in the department.  Whatever we cue up on YouTube and let it play.  It can be anything from newer music to classic guitar rock (that's usually me or my boss cuing up the older stuff.  LOL).  We even chip in for a pizza lunch every now and then.  As much fun as we have, we also work hard.  We know our job and we don't need to be told what to do.  Only time would be if there's changes or something that's coming up.  An example of that would be three nursing units are being moved from one end of the fourth floor to the other end for renovations.  That'll be happening in a couple of weeks.  All supplies and beds need to be moved along with the patients.

My day is normally done by 3:30pm or 1530 as we're suppose to be using the twenty four hour clock.  Just in time to pick d-2002 up from school.  I drive him home where I meet up with my younger boy, MewTwo and until recently, their geo-pup Dexter.  A visit with the boys before I head off to Kildonan Park for a walk and maybe an errand or two before going back to my place for the remainder of the evening.  In the past, there was always a geocache to be found as I was doing a daily streak.  Today, not so much.  Unless there is a specific reason, such as finding one on a particular day as I work on my daily find calendar for the fifth time, most of my geocaching has been relegated to the weekends.  Geocaching has become what it should be to me, a hobby instead of an obsession.

That is a typical Monday to Friday for me.  On this particular day, I did go out in search of a few geocaches.  I needed three finds to bring my culminative total for that day to eleven.  I also noted that I'm only five finds away from a total of 500 for the month of May.  An impromptu challenge.  This is one of the geocaches I would find on Monday.  I did find two more on Thursday to give me 500 culminative for May.

(sneaky and creative)

That's it for this week.  Until next time, be happy, have fun, enjoy life, and be safe.  Sending love up to Dexter in heaven.  Peace out.