Ok, I thought this was funny, especially since it has my name on it.

Can you think of any other weather conditions the stone can predict?

When something bad happens we always hope there is a way to take care of it. Large companies look for bailouts from the government. The small guy usually hopes his insurance will cover it.

What happens though if you are in an accident and realize your policy has lapsed or you forgot to call and add ‘full coverage’ cause you are a careful driver? Do you try to sneak one by on the insurance company? I have seen it happen in our office. A policy is started or coverage is added and then a day or two later a claim is turned in. It may seem like it doesn’t hurt anyone (and really helps you) but this is fraud and can mean jail time.

I just read the New York State Insurance Department report of a guy who crashed his motorcycle, bought an insurance policy, and filed a claim for $8,800 all within one hour.

Marrone was uninsured on the morning of May 14 when he lost control of his 2007 Suzuki motorcycle and ran off a rural Oneida County road. Marrone, who was not badly hurt, then used his cell phone to contact State Farm Insurance from the accident scene to insure the motorcycle. Less than an hour later, he called the insurance company again to report that he had been involved in an accident and file a damage claim. The claim was denied.

Mr. Marrone was arrested for insurance fraud and if convicted, could be sentenced to up to three years in prison. Wonder if it was worth the chance?

Have you ever been tempted?

I recently came across the 100 Words of Love Challenge and wanted to pass the word around. Not only can you win points with your loved one by putting your words to paper but you will have a chance to win a cool video camera.

Check out the post for the rules, but the main one that you have until January 9th, 2009 to pledge your love in 100 words or less. Your entry qualifies you to win a new Flip Video Mino HD (60-minutes of recording time, rechargeable, easy to hold, easy to upload videos).

Even if you can’t come up with a winning entry, just reading what others have written may give you some ideas on how to express your feelings to your spouse. I wish I had written this:

My love — If I haven’t taken the time to tell you that I love you enough lately, it’s not for lack of feeling. You are—and continue to be—the most valuable and special thing in my life. With kids, bills and responsibilities, it can become easy to enter a realm of monotony, presumption, and household routine… and although I cannot change the daily things we must do (kids’ lunches, homework, commutes, shopping, chores ad nauseum), I will make every effort to continue my efforts to add joy, love, and gratitude to your life. You are my daily inspiration, and my motivation to continue my growth as a man… as a husband… and as a father.

Let me know if you submit an entry!

Another year has come and gone. Was able to get in a little more geocaching this year than in years past. I have found 1901 caches since I started in June of 2002. This year is my record, finding 692 caches. Would have been fun to hit 700, but now I have a goal for next year.

It helped that I was able to attend cache machines (see note below) in January, March, and June. My 3 best days of caching (so far) were during these 3 cache machines. The Missoula Cache Machine pushed me to a new record of 200 caches in one month! Besides finding 91 caches on the day of the Missoula Cache Machine, I found 46 on the way there and 16 on the way home.

Other highlights of the year are adding Montana and Hawaii to the states I have cached. We were in on the Big Island of Hawaii for 4 days and spent most days driving around the island in a red mustang convertible and grabbed a couple caches each day. I also found my first British Columbia caches along the way home from the Missoula Cache Machine.

Cache Machines
Usually when a person goes geocaching it is either solo or with 1 or 2 other people. At a cache machine a large group, say 50 to 100 people, starts at daylight and attempts to find as many caches as possible before the end of the day (dark for some, bedtime for others). Even though 70 people may start out together, by the 3rd or 4th stop the group has dispersed as people make wrong turns, stop for coffee, skip a cache they had found previously, or just plain get lost, so that usually it is only 2 or 3 cars at a time pulling up to find any given cache.

With the group dispersed, if you do have problems finding a cache it is very likely someone else will pull up and double the manpower in the hunt. If you get behind, you will probably come upon a group hunting for a tough one, which you get to claim quicker. And if all else fails and you really fall behind, you can always skip ahead and rejoin a larger group. By the end of the day you have usually ended up caching with a dozen different groups, meeting a dozens of other cachers. I met up again with folks I had met 5 years ago at the first cache machine. And at the end of the day, there is a group dinner where you can swap stories and meet up again with the people you met during the day.

Any other Geocaching stories out there? Any other Tupperware Trophies?