Homeland Security

Today, I got stopped by the border patrol again. This time they didn't believe in my innocence. 'US citizen?'
'No, permanent resident.' 'No, I don't have my green card with me'
'Do you know you can be deported for that?'
Didn't really have a good reply, but wondered what they would do with the van full of kids if they deported me right away. 'Sorry, I am afraid to lose it or have it stolen'
'But it's just like a driver's license or a credit card, you can have it replaced
Yeah, only it's a much bigger PITA and time frame to replace a green cardDidn't say that, but sure was thinking it.
'OK, go over there, and park behind a border patrol unit, we will have to check you out on the computer'

Drove over, tried to look innocent again, but I guess being sent over there convinced him that I wasn't. He reassured me that they weren't going to arrest me today. That was good, because I wanted to go geocaching, not spend the day in a cell. He asked for my alien number, I had to admit that I didn't even know that by heart. I handed him my driver's license instead, so he could check me out on the computer. He disappeared within a trailer, while we tried to explain to the kids why they were being so difficult. I tried to decide whether it would have been a good thing, or a bad thing, to have all those ammo boxes with me. I saw a DMV vehicle, and hoped that I wouldn't get into trouble next for not getting my new registration sticker yet.

We expected he would be back soon, but he wasn't. We were waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting. I should have nursed Sylvia, but I hadn't realized that he must have been using a dial-up connection as opposed to broadband. Cees started worrying about his and my criminal records. I just wanted to go on so we could do more geocaching. Didn't want to end up on yet another night time hike, even although I would have been able to blame the border patrol. I doubt that they would have been coming to my rescue if I had gotten myself lost in the woods without a green card. Unless they wanted to deport me, I guess.

It took at least twenty minutes for them to find me in the computer. I was wondering whether they had found my blog and were checking it out ;-) But then, I got my driver's license back and was allowed to continue my journey. Isn't it wonderful how they keep our borders safe? By stopping every single car on an interstate somewhere in the middle of Vermont?

After all that excitement, the caching seemed almost boring. The first cache was a very beautiful spot, nicely stocked cache, lots of bird houses, and birds. No bushwhacking, no brambles, no bogs, no night time hikes, just a very easy trail to a peaceful reservoir. But still the thrill of finding the cache, in the middle of nowhere.

The second cache was in a park, less peaceful, but a longer hike. Most of it on a paved road though, so that every one could drive their coolers to the picnic spots. Jane worded my sentiment when she sighed 'I wish they hadn't put a car road here, but just a trail instead'. Pretty easy find, but huge fights between Tara and Tim about the pocket knife, and between Kate and Jane about the crayons. My friend M came to the rescue when she pulled a pack of crayons out of her backpack, telling us that she was going to put those in the cache, maybe one of them could take it. The fight between Tara and Tim lasted longer.

It was definitely colder today than it was on our other caching outings, we are expecting the first frost tonight. Guess I will have to pick all those tomatoes tomorrow. I dont' like the idea of winter creeping up on us, maybe this winter I will make good on my plan of taking the kids on an extended road trip down South, and visit internet friends between all the caching we could do :-)

Now I really want to get a query out tonight, I still haven't gotten the epregnancy writer guidelines, so I will just send them the query and hope for the best. Then I want to write more queries, since I was going to work on trying to get one out every day. I really excel in procrastination!

Thanks to Heather for explaining to me what the difference is between an executive and a managing editor. I had no idea.

And to Annalise and Paula, This includes a nice introduction on how to write a query. I have seen other ones on line too, but somehow it's so much easier to read about it than just to do it :-)