While I was out hiking with my dog somewhere in the eastern U.S., he started digging furiously. I thought he was after a critter, but he uncovered a mysterious scroll. It turned out to be the lost quatrain! Yup, The Mapsurfer Quatrains has an additional verse: XXIV. An old Amish myth and these lines do agree If you go wayback, my meaning you’ll see For it lay in the question of a certain verse And it lies in its answer,…
I recently tackled a mystery letterbox that gave longitude and latitude coordinates. Not being a geocacher, I first had to find out just a little bit about how they work. So here’s a real quick lesson. Latitude are imaginary lines that run horizontally along the sphere of the earth (parallel to the equator). Longitude are lines that run vertically from north to south poles. The coordinates are given as a latitude number first, then a longitude number. Format Each number…
There are a lot of letterbox clues that have cryptograms you need to solve. A cryptogram is a substitution cipher, which means that a different letter or symbol is substituted for the regular alphabet letter. Like this: 3ls83# dl1i th3s (Don’t try to solve that, I just made it up). I don’t like to cheat in solving clues, but I have no problem using tools that take the busy work out of it. I found a neat online cryptogram helper….
When I first started boxing, I thought all boxes were listed in either Atlas Quest or Letterboxing.org. But I’ve found that some people have their own websites of clues which can’t be found on either of those sites. This post is just as much for me to keep track of them as to share. Mapsurfer (Randy Hall) Website: mapsurfer.com This is the first rouge letterboxer that I read about. His clues are absolutely fantastic. I read on a blog that…
I’m one of those hold-outs who refused to get a smart phone. I have been using an old ‘standard’ phone with a pull-out keyboard for years now. But since the 2G and 3G networks were scheduled to be pulled at the end of 2019 (they’ve since extended the 3G until next year), I bit the bullet and got a Smart Phone. So here are some tips that seasoned users probably take for granted, but I had to learn. Cost The…
I’m totally new to the game of hockey. By totally new, I mean I just went to my second learn-to-play class for adult beginners. I’ve never played before and can barely skate. There are a couple of tips that you really can only learn by experience, so thought I’d share. Practice Getting Suited up at Home There are a lot of videos out there on how to suit up. BUT I found out the hard way that I still should…
After listening to an interview with Forrest Fenn and Douglas Preston, I wanted to read The Codex (Preston’s novel loosely based on Forrest’s treasure hunt). I borrowed a set of cds from my local library to listen to in the car. I soon discovered my car’s cd player is horrible; the cds kept stuttering and skipping. So instead I downloaded the same title from Hoopla. This is my first experience with Hoopla Digital. I was surprised to hear a different…
After seeing a really cool YouTube video of a mouse cage complete with climbing walls (see the end of this post), I wanted to do something similar for my mice. I read that a lot of hamster owners buy an Ikea Detolf glass display cabinet. Since hamsters don’t jump, they assemble it without the door and use it as an enormous five-foot long aquarium for only $60. But I don’t have that kind of space, so I decided to do…
I’d never used AT&T before but needed a mobile hot spot for a 10-day vacation in Vermont. What a nightmare working with that company was!! I’m going to start off venting a little, so if you want to skip ahead to what I learned, scroll to the bottom. Data Plan Pricing First of all, I couldn’t get a straight answer from either their website or their online chat rep about pricing. I wanted a Nighthawk Mobile Hotspot, but found two…
I have a Delta faucet in my kitchen that is about 25 years old. It recently started leaking and making a flood every time I used it. I found a couple of YouTube videos that seem to indicate it isn’t hard to fix. All Delta faucets are pretty much the same, and the universal repair kit is available online or at a home improvement store. I discovered that, since Delta faucets are guaranteed for live, they will send you a…