What a Day!

It was a good thing that I ventured out this morning despite the rather heavy fog and got in a nice ride even though I had to stop once to fix a flat tire. Why? Well, it's because the rest of the day was pretty much downhill from there. First, I find out that that $499 charge that appeared on my bank statement, that I had thought was from the hotel, wasn't. It was some kind of fraud or, to put in it's kindest light, mistake. The charge was from some company in New York that issues certificates of authority for computer systems. So I had to call the bank, fill out a "statement of dispute," fax it back to them, and have them cancel and re-issue my debit card. Of course my account probably won't be credited for three days and I won't get my new debit card for about a week. Isn't that just great?

As if that wasn't enough, I had two of the networking guys up here working on my computer for a few hours trying to fix the mess they created. It is still not right, of course, and they managed to lose all of my WS-FTP IDs and Passwords and connection information, along with most of the non-default configuration information for practically every piece of software on the machine. I had to completely reinstall Adobe Acrobat, Palm Desktop and the sync conduits for Meetingmaker, etc. At least the blasted thing is usable again, but I am NOT a happy camper by any stretch of imagination.

Last night one of our club members who had been the secretary/treasurer for years before moving to Houston sent out an email to the club list about how she was withdrawing her name from the list of candidates. She wrote: "Unfortunately, after being contacted by current leadership and exchanging ideas... We'll find some position for you (so you will shut up), does not sit well at this time. So it is with much sadness and disappointment that I am withdrawing my name in the upcoming "election"?/appointments."

This was rather bizarre. She was certainly welcome to run for office if she wanted. The president had, however, already asked other people to run for the offices because he wants to get some new blood in there, which I certainly support. It's not like we ever have people begging to be club officers. Quite the contrary. The President sent out a request for nominations, and as usual, received none. So a few of the more active riders have been talked into running for the various offices. But for this person to think that other people in the club don't like her or that there is some sort of conspiracy against her is just wierd, and sending it out to the whole e-mail list is even more wierd. Anyway, I don't get it. It's just a little bike club, not the United Nations.