"GO DAWGS !!!"

We're not real big basketfall fans but are passionate when it comes to the March Madness... Our team, Oklahoma State University, lost out in the first round (boo hoo) but we're always for the "underdogs". So tonight it's between Butler University and Duke (Yuck)... and we're yelling for BUTLER...

"Pictures from First Tea Party Express"

Paste the following link in your browser and you'll see some fantastic pictures of the happenings in Searchlight...

http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=286482

Enjoy....We did!

"Letter to Sen. Reid"

We are so frustrated with our Senator that is suppose to represent the people of our state, yet he hasn't done a thing for us until it has come time to be re-elected. We promised, in a letter, that we would work diligently to see that he is retired in November. Here's a copy of our recent letter to him...

"Sen. Reid...

We sent an email the night that the House voted on the Health Care bill, expressing our disgust at what this bill is going to cost our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We were also disappointed in you for supporting a bill that will ultimately hurt millions of Americans.
As we promised, we said we would do everything possible to see that you would not be re-elected. We took our first step Saturday by attending the Tea Party Express Event in YOUR hometown of Searchlight. We were thrilled at the turnout of people that feel as strongly about this as we do. I, Ketha VERZANI, was interviewed by an Associated Press reporter. Interesting enough, this story made it all the way to my hometown of Oklahoma City. An article was passed on to me that was published in the local paper there. Please scan down about 16-17 paragraphs in the link and you will read a portion of that interview. We said what we meant and we meant what we said.. we are going to work diligently to retire you in November

And, oh by the way... WE didn't spend one penny in YOUR hometown to support it as you were "glad to see that so many supported your town". We gave our money to Nipton, California.

Here's the link to the article... We don't expect to hear from you but you certainly will hear from us again.

http://ww2.cox.com/myconnection/oklahomacity/today/news/national/article.cox?articleId=D9EN6I600&moduleType=apNews

Sincerely,
Ketha and Wayne VERZANI (grandson of Earnest VERZANI from Searchlight, whose ranch was flooded by the government and he received no compensation)"

It's time people... to stand up and take back our country... do something, anything... You can always go to the website of the U.S. Senators and find your senator and send them a note... We did.

"Tea Party Express...a day in Searchlight"

We had the most fantastic day in Searchlight, Nevada...it was the first stage of the "Tea Party Express"...a modern day conservative Woodstock. The purpose was to gather and show our support toward ridding our state of Harry Reid, Democratic Majority Leader. Harry is nothing more than a good "yes" man. He says one thing and does another. He hasn't done anything for the state in a long time. Right now, he is all "show". For example... a number of years ago, he voted for gun control after telling the locals that he was going to vote against it. Today was the Grand Opening of the Clark County Shooting Park...a state of the art shooting facility. A person can go and participate in target shooting with their rifle, handgun, bow, shotgun or black powder. Guess who was there pretending to be in support? Good old Harry. I guess he thinks we have forgotten his past voting practice.

Another reason for supporting the Tea Party Express is to let the people in Washington know that we're tired of them taking our privledges and rights away from us. Our fore fathers gave us a constitution for a reason and the current "leaders" do not know how to read and follow that constitution. Yes, there are some that work for their state, but Harry Reid is not one of them. He's nothing more than a career politican. After moving to Nevada, I knew nothing about the man, but he's quickly shown his colors as have others in other states. When he voted on this last very important bill...one that the people should have had more of a say in things... I immediately emailed him and told him I would do everything in my power to see that he's not re-elected. Today was our first step in that direction.

The picture shows only a portion of the number of people who were there today. They were everywhere..even some had climbed the hillside and was sitting there to take in everything. Neither of us are in favor of any violent behavior and there was no violence or outrageous behavior today, but we are in favor of removing this man from office...he's been there too long.

Just wanted to share our feelings... we, as parents and grandparents are very concerned about the future of our children, grandchildren and great-grand children and the debt they have just inherited.

Our Thoughts: Rings vs Singles

We're constantly learning new things about all aspects of letterboxing and we are currently focused on Letterbox Postals. The current issue is Rings vs Singles.

Let's first define the difference. Postal Rings are when you sign up with a group of other letterboxers and focus on one theme. This can be about anything. Currently we are in several...Gumby and Friends, Country Music Legends, and Your Favorite Tree. We'll carve a stamp to go with the theme and include a logbook. One also requires a CD of music (which isn't required of all). We'll be added to a "tracker list". This simply means one letterboxer will send their box to us, we'll send to the next person on the list and we'll continue until all stamps have made it around the "ring". Usually the amount of participants are smaller in rings because of having to carve a stamp and make a logbook.

The other type of postal is a "Single". This simply means what it says...the host of the tracker usually carves or has a stamp that belongs to someone else. They also have a tracker list and they sent it to the first person under their name and then the second sends to the third etc etc etc. These are easier yet, for me, require more patience. The unspoken rule is that you should "move" the box within a week. Not all people comply and that's when I loose my patience. BUT, after talking with others, I found out that some people have been waiting for almost a year to receive their "turn". This usually happens when there's a lot of participants. We signed up for one in November 2009 and we're still waiting for it to come...(we're at the bottom of the list)

As stated in an earlier post...letterboxing is not only fun, but it's also a lesson in learning patience... Have fun...get out there and explore!

Our Thoughts: Virtuals

Often, especially if you live in the Northeast or Midwest, you can't get out and go letterboxing because of the weather. There are a lot of other options for you to do...postals, LTC's and Virtuals. Today our topic is the last....Virtuals.

Virtual Letterboxing is much like the traditional except you do it in the comfort of your home. You log onto Atlasquest and search the letterboxes for "virtuals". Last time I checked, there were about 25 pages of this to search out. You choose one and go and read it's clue. If you already know the answer, you add it in and then record the find. If you don't know the answer immediately, you can go "research" the answer and then submitt it and record the find. By "recording the find" you are simply keeping track of how many, and titles of one you have completed. Virtuals do not add to your PFX (Plant, Find, Exchange) number. Many are for fun, a lot are educational and some require some serious thinking.

Next time you find yourself inside because of the weather or by not feeling 100%, try doing a few virtuals. I'll warn you....they can become addictive. Most end up with a picture of some sort. If you really wanted to go to the trouble, you could print that picture out and add it to your logbook....or better yet, start another logbook strictly for virtuals....we did.

We hope you found this information meaningful. Enjoy and Happy Letterboxing!!!

Our Thoughts: Huffing

Now, before you get too excited, we're not talking about anything illicit or illegal. We're talking about a way in which you can improve your stamping image.

Some letterboxers use ink pads. Others use colored markers (Marvy). Either way, sometimes, particularly when it's hot outside, the ink will start to dry before you're ready to stamp. Never fear...huffing is here. Go ahead and ink or color your stamp. Then, holding the stamp in your cupped hands, breathe on it like you would a window in the wintertime. There's enough moisture in your breath that it puts life back into the inked stamp and it's ready for use. We've even "huffed" a stamp when we had neither ink or markers... and it worked just fine. This is a nice tip that was passed to us by "Whiz Gee" and we're passing it on to you. Hope this helps you in the future, particularly when you don't have or have forgotten your inks.

Our Thoughts: Recording Finds

Today was kinda a drizzly day so we decided to go do some "box maintenance". We have five boxes planted not too far from our home and it had been reported to us that one was missing. We loved the stamp that we had put in and knew that it was hidden in a place not frequently visited by crowds. So we went to check.

Low and behold, the box was there. WHEW!!! But we decided to move it to a little easier location. As we checked inside, making sure the stamp was okay and that there was still room in the logbook, we noticed that many people had visited it but according to both websites...no one had recorded finding it. As we checked the other boxes, we discovered the same thing had happened. This got us to wondering if others were experiencing this same "problem". Reading that someone found our box is important to us. We have some in other states that we can't easily check on and knowing that someone found it and that it's either okay or not okay is benefical to us. This led us to thinking that perhaps "newbies" didn't know about recording their finds.

It doesn't take very long to record the information (unless, of course, you allow things to pile up). We always check (about once every couple of weeks) to see the status of our boxes. Either website easily explains how to record a find.

Bottom line...Would you please record your finds AND your attempts? And also let the owner know if the box is in need of repairs or even missing. I know two letterboxers that would greatly appreciate this small task. Thanks!!!

Our Thoughts: Postals & Patience

One of the things we have discovered in dealing with postals is....you have to have patience. If you expect boxes to move quickly, you're going to be disappointed and your patience will be tried.

Being a retired teacher of 30 years and having to be punctual with all the aspects of handling a classroom...this has been a great lesson for me. I have found myself edgy... waiting to receive the "next box". Because it has always been important to me to "send that report off on time"... "get those grade cards ready promptly"..."march those children to the library at our scheduled time"....I've had a little difficulty understanding why others don't move their boxes as quickly as we do. It's frustrating to us to not be able to "send the box" on to the next receipient in a timely manner. We start feeling that it's going to "make us look bad" if we don't move things on. We've had a great mentor..."Littlemonkey" who has taught and shared a lot with us. For that, we are grateful.

Knowing all of this, we've had to sit back and assess the situation and try to understand that not all persons handle things in the same way that we do. So what's the lesson in all of this? Patience is a MUST with postals. If this is a character trait that you can't deal with...then postals are probably not for you. If you think you can overcome this quirky thing and work on your patience...then you'll have great fun.

The one cool thing about postals is that you DO reach out to other parts of our country and meet people that you might not normally run into. It takes you "out of your box" and opens your eyes to just another great thing about letterboxing.

Have fun and get involved !!!

Our Thoughts: Quisps

We recently discovered another new aspect of Letterboxing....Quisps!!! Bet you're wondering what on earth they are. So were we when we found our first.

We recently participated in a Postal Ring. One of the few maintenance items is to take off the old address label in order to place the new one on. While doing this, we notice that our's had been taped to a plain sheet of paper and it felt a little bulky underneath. Wayne got out his Xacto knife and trimmed away... Low and behold, underneath we found the sweetest stamped puppy called "Buddy". On the back was his name, the owner's name and date. We had no idea until we emailed the owner as to what it's purpose was.

Quisps are just another little stamped treasure that you find while letterboxing. The person who finds it, logs it in as found, keeps it and can replace it with another if they so choose. This got us excited. Another "keep us busy" type of thing to do in the winter months when it's too cold, or at least for us, to go out hiking and looking for traditional boxes...

That's it... just wanted to share