Sit down closer to the campfire, children, and Uncle Balthazar will
weave you a tale of letterboxing and the consequences of being too
forward about the pasttime.

My lovely and loving daughter, Ash Raven, has remarked ("complained"
is too strong of word, even when the act is accompanied by
eyerolling) about yours truly "witnessing" to folk about
letterboxing. I try to remind her that if JugglerMouse had not told
US that we would not be now so involved. I don't know if you have
such conversations with teens of your own but you must guess that an
older adult cannot win such an exchange. I would expect JugglerMouse
to support me in my case for telling others. Right! She also has
worried (aloud) about me doing this. Nice to know that not only am I
loved but also my judgement is respected.

The next thread in this tangled web also involves Ash Raven. So far,
though she has HELPED in planted many boxes, she has only CARVED one
and planted it solo: Creatures of the Night. She placed that stamp in
her place of work, her first steadily paying job. A week or two ago,
the stamp and its microbox was missing. Since Ash Raven does not
really know her boss and her boss' mother that well, she assumed that
one of them had found it and discarded it. The hiding place was bare.
Oh well, said Ash Raven.

Friday evening JugglerMouse and I had just dropped off Ash Raven to
visit her mother. JM and I were heading back home and decided to stop
at a restaurant to have some Atkins' approved food, hamburgers
without buns. There is a wonderfully funny waitress there whom we had
met twice before. Okay, while flirting with her I did explain about
the stamp I was carving, the series I had just planted and about
www.letterboxing.org. That was at the first meeting. On the second
occasion, she asked for the site URL once again, vowing to go out and
find some of the boxes. This time she was on break but came over to
talk with us.

She gushed about how she found the website, went out letterboxing and
got her first box. Then she asked the fatal question: "Ah, do you
TAKE the boxes with you?"

I groaned just a little in mock horror. She could not be serious,
right? "No, you are just supposed to stamp in on them, stamp their
stamp in your box and put it back."

"Oh," she said. Her face kind of fell.

"Which box?"

"Oh, you know I just LOVE bats. See these tattoos? I will put it
back, honest! It was the Creatures of the Night one."

So JugglerMouse and I convulsed with laughter at our sudden
understanding, especially about kicking a rock down the mountain and
then seeing the landslide afterward. And no, we are not going to tell
the Raven today about her box. We want it just to reappear. She does
not read this board and so it is safe to post this.

And I am STILL telling others about letterboxing. Let her roll her
eyes,
Sir Balthazar