Nanologology

Nanos! Great challenges to find but the challenges don't stop there. Ever had a log that seemed to be glued in and no tools at hand to get it out with? I've tried the inertia methods where I either tap the edge of the nano, hoping to creep the log out enough to grab it with my fingernails or the more vigorous thumping hoping to get it to fly out altogether. Usually my bruised knuckles give out before the tiny log does. One day after several tappers and thumpers and tender digits I decided to apply my noggin to nano logging.

My first thought was that a handle would be nice, so I went to my eclectic library and dug out the old origami book. Well a paper swan log would be really cool but wouldn't fit in the nano, so I just folded one end at a 45 degree angle and then folded the small vertical tail in half. That left me with a thin flag sticking up that was slightly stiffer yet still flexible enough to give when the nano was screwed back together.

The next revelation came when I was rolling the log up with its little tail in the center and aah aah sneeeezed. Well that sneeze was a doozy and my hands pulled away from each other, pulling that little flag out of the center of the roll quite a ways so that it looked like a paper corkscrew. Ok I roll it back up real small and place it in the nano and the flag just jumps up at me. I push it down and it springs back up. So I pulled the center all the way out and then re-roll it. It sprang up even higher. Screwed the base on the nano, unscrewed the nano and the log jumped up like a soldier at attention, waving the little flag. Wow! I think I'm on to something!

A few hours later with cramped fingers from opening nanos and re-rolling them it dawned on me (literally, I had spent all night playing with paper springs and having paper soldiers salute me) that if I rolled the log up in a cone shape, that I had more" handle" and could roll it up quicker and tighter without developing nano claw in my rolling hand.

Well, being exhausted and suffering from nano claw anyway, I went to bed and slept fitfully but at least my hand uncramped. After a cup of coffee I decided to cut new logs because if I could roll them up easier I could make them longer and have to replace the log less often. I folded up my tails, did the initial flat roll, pulled out the center by the flag stretched it out into a good spring, rolled it up like a cone and placed it into the nano. Grabbed another cup of coffee and opened the nano up. Oh nooo! My little soldier was barely peeking his head out over the bunker and if it wasn't for the flag I would have had to tap or thump it out.

Hmmm my greed or laziness in making the log longer was causing too much friction for the spring effect to work Easy fix, snip off a bit and it was jumping higher than ever.

Ok, I had this mastered and replaced my first nano cache log with my new sprung log and waited for the next finder to extol the virtues of the wondrous self extracting nanolog. Hmm a few weeks went by before it was found. No mention of the log's action. Ok a few more finders and still no mention so I went to check on it, opened it up and the log just sat there, no salute, nothing. Grrrr I sprung it out re-rolled it and it worked beautifully again. I guess paper just doesn't have the tensile memory of steel but if the twist is reapplied it will work a bit longer. I might have to try again with rite in the rain paper as it is a stiffer paper to begin with it may retain its springiness longer. In the mean time until my nanolog theories catch on, I carry a sewing pin with the big ball on one end, about 2 inches long stuck in my cache hat and haven't bruised a knuckle since.

So did I mention a had a few thoughts on bison tube logs as well?

By catsnfish

A couple of empty-nesters who caught the caching bug not realizing it was incurable. So if we’re found in the woods waltzing with Garmins, lifting lampskirts while tying our shoe or looking for “gum” underneath benches, be sure to stay away... it’s contagious and the only temporary relief can be found in finding bison’s, ammo’s, nano’s, or passing coins and spreading travel bugs!

Publisher's Note: Catsnfish write the periodic column The Adventures of Catsnfish. Subscribe (free) to The Online Geocacher to get an email alert when a new article is published.