The Parkton Open

This is Memorial Day weekend. As everybody surely knows, that means today (Sunday) was the Parkton Open. Ed and Lynne host people from around the area. There was a Western theme this year. Danita got us bandannas. I wore my serape. I don’t think I looked much like Clint Eastwood — I didn’t have an old chewed-up cigar or a baaad hat.The Western theme extended to the menu somewhat. We had chili, but I’m not convinced turkey chili is a true Western dish.

Winners!

The Parkton Open is, of course, a croquet competition. You can see the winners in this post. You may notice there are no Eichenlaubs included. Again. But the sun was bold and we had beautiful weather. Certainly the sky was as blue as it ever is in the West.

Mark, Danita

I had a great time at the Elvis dinner last Sunday. I even got up and did a little dancing. It didn’t hurt that they didn’t put wine glasses out. The plastic cups are much larger than the wine glasses. It’s possible I mis-judged my drink sizes.

Ed (left), Rebecca (right)

If I live to be a zillion years old, there are things I won’t understand. The SOCA board (especially Mark B.) saw that a few of us in the neighborhood are doing helpful technology things but that nobody else understands what we are doing. The board decided it would be wise to have a technology committee.

Suzanne (left), Bud (right)

Mark recruited me, Mike G. (who runs our web site), and Rob C. (our video expert) to be on the committee. As everybody knows, a committee needs a chair. Mike and I saw each other shortly after we agreed to be on the committee. The first thing we agreed is that neither of us wanted to be chair. I had previously suggested Mark should be our chair, but SOCA rules say he can’t be both a board member and a committee chair. I also previously told Mark I couldn’t be the chair because I was allergic to attending (long boring) board meetings.

Danita, Lynne, Addie

When we finally had our inaugural meeting, Mark didn’t understand when none of us introverted, geeky, technology types wanted to chair the committee. Mike pleaded he did too much travel. Rob said he is too busy. Then Mark asked me again. Being the most honest of the three, I said that I simply am not interested in being a chair.Then Mark didn’t understand why none of us knew other people who should be on the committee.

Dennis, Danita

I pointed out two of our most pressing issues: There is no documentation for the web site (passwords, contacts, etc), and there is no board password that would allow us to create executive access to the clubhouse computers. I was not surprised when Mark didn’t know what to do about these issues. We closed our meeting with Mike saying he would not want to meet every month, a feeling that Rob and I shared, but didn’t verbally second.

Pete, Rebecca, Danita

Our clubhouse and pool area has WiFi. Obviously, one WiFi transmitter isn’t going to reach the entire clubhouse plus pool area. Somebody installed two WiFi repeaters. One works, the other not so much. It works for a while, then stops working. If somebody resets it, it works again for a while. Mark asked me about this some 6 months ago. I did a little investigating and said it is a hardware problem. If he wants it to work, the board has to buy a new unit. After our technology meeting, Mark asked me about it again. I gave him the same advice I gave 6 months ago. I had to say the same thing 4 times in slightly different ways. Finally he wanted to know which unit to buy. I did a little more investigating and recommended two units. One will do a so-so job for $65. The other will do a great job for $105. Mark wanted the $65 solution. This from a board that is spending really big bucks to put up a very large permanent awning that will make our porch area look dark.

Lynne, Suzanne

Even geeks like me aren’t perfect, though. About 4 months ago, I made a recommendation for a configuration change for our WiFi. It would be a great idea for many sites. Unfortunately, it won’t work in our clubhouse. More unfortunately, I didn’t realize it won’t work until a few days *after* I made the proposal. Most unfortunately, Mark remembered my previous problematic proposal, reminded me about it, and made me fess up.

Rebecca

The new WiFi repeater came in Friday. Mark wanted me to install it tomorrow. He even offered to meet me “first thing in the morning” at 9:30. I told him I have to have wheels rolling before 8 tomorrow. After 6 months of delay, he’ll just have to live with imperfect WiFi for another day or two.

Lynne, Addie

I had an unusual biking day Saturday. I went out to do my metric century ride. But it was cool and windy and I wasn’t feeling so good. So I shifted to a different ride that is half is long. Then I cut *that* ride in half and came home early. I’m feeling better after a day of rigorous croquet tournament play. I’m going to try again tomorrow.

That’s it for this week. I hope this finds everybody doing well. Enjoy a few more pics of the Parkton Open below. As usual, you can make the pics larger by clicking on them. Joe isn’t pictured because he was at his girlfriend’s graduation.

Danita, Addie

Addie, Suzanne

Bud

Rebecca (left), Ed (right), Pete (relaxing)

Winners

Not Winners

If we didn’t win …

… we at least had a good time

Balloons Over Baltimore

This is Preakness week, and that means the hot-air balloons are in town. We went out early this morning (Saturday) to see the balloon inflation. Back when we lived on Rueckert Ave in Baltimore, they did this in Patterson Park. When we moved to Kingsville, they moved it to Hunt Valley. Now we live in Columbia, and they have moved to Turf Valley — just 15 minutes away. (I’m just stating a fact.) If we wanted to see lots of balloons, we should have gone on Thursday or Friday. By Saturday, many of the balloon teams had left. Only one full-size balloon was in the air (tethered balloon rides — just $15!). There were also a couple of mini-balloons. Still, it was a nice morning and we had fun. Afterwards, we went out to Bob Evans to take advantage of a BOGO breakfast. (BOGO means “Buy One, Get One”.)

We Were There!

It was eventful all week, starting with our concert last Sunday. As you may remember, we heard the symphony play the music to Charlie Chaplain’s “Modern Times”. We were both delighted. I had always associated CC with old-time slapstick comedy in silent movies — good in its day, but not very interesting any more. I found an amazingly funny and uplifting movie. The movie had slap-stick comedy — one great gag after another. It also had a story. It had characters. It was uplifting. In short, it was a good movie. Danita’s favorite part was when Chaplain started doing Michael Jackson’s “Moon Walk”. I got a biography of Chaplain from our E-library. The man lived through a very rough childhood. But he was eternally optimistic about his (and our) future. I found a copy of “The Kid” on Amazon. It’s on our “to watch” list.

Having passed my PT (I expect to be discharged Monday) and having raised the handlebars on my bike (so I don’t re-injure myself), it was time to get serious about training for the ride up the Blue Ridge. I have two serious training rides — a 65 mile course around Liberty Reservoir that includes 6,000 feet of climbing, and a hilly circle around Ellicott City, crossing back and forth across the Patapsco River, using the steepest hills I can find. My training plan has 3 parts. 1 – Ride both training rides twice within one week. 2 – Continue riding each training ride once a week, while mixing in some other rides I find more fun. 3 – Go back to serious training rides for the last two weeks of June. I must be in better shape than I thought. I achieved the first goal this week. I did the second Liberty Reservoir ride Friday in absolutely perfect weather. The temperature was moderate. The sun was shining brightly. The spring flowers and greenery were in full bloom. Having ridden around much of Howard and Carroll county, I can safely report that this spring has brought a bumper crop of construction. Everywhere I went, I saw house renovations and repairs, new home construction, and of course road construction. It looks like one of the roads I use on the Liberty Reservoir route will be unrideable due to a repaving project. This will close the route for me (there being no reasonable detours). Even though I temporarily lost one training route, I am quite pleased to have met my goal so soon (and also still a little tired).

Besides that, we went to “Medicare 101”, offered by a Howard County volunteer organization. We learned that if one MUST sign up for Medicare Part A within 3 months of their 65th birthday. If a person decides not to sign up for Part B and later changes their mind, they will pay a penalty for the rest of their life. There are many, many parts to Medicare. The system is unbelievably complicated. Lastly, we learned that thanks to Danita’s many years of service to the state of MD through her job at UMBC, we are very lucky to need only Part A. We don’t have to go to Medicare 102. We don’t have to compare Part D plans on the web. And we don’t have to visit a Medicare counselor to try and figure out which of the many options is best for us.

We also had a neighborhood art show Friday evening. We have a lot of very talented artists living in our neighborhood.The garden club offered floral arrangements next to many of the paintings. They did an incredible job of complementing the art. Of course, being a SOCA event, there was food and libations. After seeing all the art work, we relaxed on the porch, chatting with neighbors and enjoying the perfect weather. It’s a good thing we went to that party, because the next one won’t be until Sunday, when we have an Elvis impersonator coming. Sometimes it’s hard living up to the Jonses in this neighborhood. One does what one must.

Rick, Dani, and Mom might remember when Dad had that little Austin Healey Sprite, how we joked about how it was Dad’s road dinghy. Well, here’s a picture of somebody else’s road dinghy. I though it was a cute pic.

That’s it for this week. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

This was a great week because I finally finished my work at CASA. The job ended up being to issue new computers and take care of a few odds and ends. It wasn’t that big a deal. But the office manager is passive aggressive. She would demand unnecessary tests and meaningless information. When I did what she asked, she ignored the results. She refused to buy what we needed. For a week and a half, I stopped going in because there was nothing for me to do until she bought something we needed. (Of course, I told both the office manager and the executive director what I was doing and why). All together, the job ended up taking twice as long as it should have, which I found quite frustrating. But by Thursday I had done everything I could do. As usual, there was an issue. As usual, I told them. As usual, they denied me permission to solve it and did not solve it themselves. But this was for an upgrade for one PC that works perfectly fine without the upgrade. I told them they can call me if they need me, and that I need at least 2 to 4 hours of work to come in. (It takes me 2 hours work to pay for the trip.) I managed to leave the office without doing anything dramatic like shaking the dust off my feet.

It was just in time, because the weather Friday was perfect. It started out a little cool, warmed to 80, and was sunny all day. It was just the day to try my hilly metric century ride again. This time it went very well. I was tired at the end of the ride, but I had no pain in my arm, shoulder, or neck. The weather has been extremely unpredictable the last several days. I’ll look at the weather the night before and learn that I should be able to ride in the afternoon, but not in the morning. I’ll check the weather in the morning and see that I can ride in the morning, but not in the afternoon. By late morning or early afternoon, it becomes apparent that the thunderstorms that had a 95% chance of starting at Noon just couldn’t get started. And so it goes.

Last night we had a neighborhood “Chill and Grill”. The association provides hamburgers and hot dogs, buns, drinks, and plates / silverware / etc. Residents bring a side dish or desert. We had wonderful weather for the party. We sat inside, but the majority of residents were outside. After the party, one of the residents offered a movie. Just as we were walking in the house, a major thunderstorm started up. Lucky us!

Tomorrow is the last Symphony concert. This one is a little different. The orchestra will play music to accompany Charlie Chaplin’s “ModernTimes”. I’ve never actually seen the movie, although I have seen the famous takeout of Charlie working on the gears.  It should be a lot of fun. If we go out to eat afterwards, it will be someplace low-scale. Trying to eat at a restaurant on Mother’s Day is not our idea of fun. We make it a point to have Sunday breakfast at Panera on Mother’s Day, because it’s even less crowded than normal. And Panera serves a perfectly fine breakfast.

Physical Therapy is going very well. Last Wednesday, the therapist got 100% motion in my arm. I’m thinking this will be the last week of PT. That will give me even more flexibility for training.

Ed and Lynne Schmaus’s son Pete was working as the grounds keeper at a Boy Scout camp on the Eastern Shore. Pete lost that job this week. The house they were living in was provided as part of the job, so they lost the right to live in the house as well. We’re not sure what happened, and it doesn’t really matter. Pete, Rebecca, and their two daughters are moving in with Ed and Lynne. Lynne has been teaching Kindergarten full time for the last several years. She is well connected with the Baltimore County schools. She was able to get the older grandchild placed immediately because they are technically homeless. (The younger girl is too young for school.)

That’s the news for this week. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Note: There are no pictures this week.

After all the excitement we had last week, we were due for some quiet time. We had no neighborhood parties. We ate dinner out Saturday and breakfast this morning. Other than that, we didn’t go anywhere this weekend. I got a few good rides in. The higher handle bars are definitely a big improvement. I spent much of my time at CASA wiping sensitive data from computers so they can be donated or recycled. (As old as these computers are, they could still run Linux and Open Office.) I was able to add the Visitor Pool Passes to our neighborhood residents database. PT is starting to have a positive affect on my shoulder. That’s about it for the week.

I hope everybody is doing well.

Dennis