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.

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

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.

 

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.

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.

 

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

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.

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

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.