I am writing this on Sunday, Jan 19. There are no pics.

It’s a three day weekend, which is always nice. The weather has been mixed, but I was able to get a couple of rides in. One thing for sure this time of the year, there’s no danger of having to drink warm water on a ride.

We didn’t have anything planned for Friday. But there was 30% of snow showers in the evening, plus another 30% of snow showers late at night, plus a 30% chance the forecast was wrong. That adds up to a 90% chance of snow. We had our traditional snow emergency party. Fortunately, there were several clumps of snow on the deck when we got up Saturday. Saturday Danita went to a neighborhood Bingo. People brought their own “white elephant” prizes. Danita won a package of 18 glue sticks. Fortunately, Lynne teaches kindergarten. We’re pretty sure she can use them.

Tonight, our condo has a pot luck dinner. We are planning to have Circle Monday, but there is some flu running around, so we’ll have to wait and see about that.

Some of the condos have a party every month. This is the first party our condo has had since we moved in. We have an awful lot of government. Below Howard County, there is the Columbia Association. That is divided into five communities — ours is Long Reach. Then there’s or neighborhood organization, Snowden Overlook. Finally, Snowden Overlook is divided into 5 condo associations. Ours is Kendall 1, with a little less than 80 houses. Apparently, before we moved here, the president of Kendall 1 was conflict habituated. There were royal battles. At one point, all the Kendall 1 officers except the president resigned. Their idea was that this would force the president out. But the president appointed interim replacement officers. Some residents sought an opinion from a lawyer, who said the president was within her rights. I’m not sure how, but somehow after that there was a wholesale replacement of Kendall 1 officers. Well, I obviously heard only one side of this story, but it’s interesting none the less. Whatever happened, it seems to have had an impact on our condo association. Since we moved in, we’ve had a laid-back condo association, and one that is  not very active socially. Also, our condo is relatively lax in enforcing restrictions on lawn ornaments, wind chimes, and minor exterior modifications.

Our condo is comprised of all houses on Endless Ocean Way, which is a loop. We are divided into “inies” and “outies”. Those who live on the outside of the loop all have views of trees, which are there because of wetland areas. In other words, all our back lots are rather steep hills down to some kind of stream. We all have walk-out basements and decks high above the ground. We “outies” have issues because paint won’t stick well to the materials used to trim the deck posts. We get no help from the condo because decks, porches, and driveways belong to the unit owner, not the association. Those who live on the inside of the loop all back into each other’s units. The builder did a lot to maximize privacy, but of course those living on the inside loop have less of it. The “inies” also all share an issue with rain water. The all have a patio behind their unit, with access from the main floor or the basement, via a stairwell. Apparently, the builder did not do a very good job of providing rain water egress. They have some areas that are pretty wet, and they all rely on their sump pumps to keep their basements dry. A couple have had their sump pumps fail, which resulted in a flooded basement. There has been discussion about the importance of keeping the stairwell drain clear. Most “outies” have sump pumps that never run. Danita and I, and a couple of units near us, are the exception. I suppose there is an underground stream that runs near our unit. We are “outies” who have the issues of both “outies” and “inies”. Anyway, it will be interesting to see who shows at the pot luck Sunday. Hopefully, we’ll pick up some folks who don’t often attend social events.

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