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About UsPeople often ask where we came up with the name of Ponywagon.com. Here's how it goes: Cathy, Micky's wife, loves to go horseback riding and when she sees horses out grazing or when she talks about them, she calls them "ponies". One day Cathy was getting ready to go for a ride and Micky stated, "Are you taking the pony wagon?", wondering if she was going to use the horse trailer. From that point, it stuck. Out on the road whenever there's a rig towing a horse trailer, we find ourselves looking at the fancy pony wagons and the ponies in them.
Then Micky decided to register a "dot com" name to make it easier for people to find our site. The trick was to find a name that's easy to remember and wasn't already being used. Getting site names these days are like trying to get a custom license plate: you really need to get creative. Site names are being gobbled up at a rate of 10,000 names a day (it's a worldwide thing). After discussing names a bit with Cathy, we decided Ponywagon.com would be creative and fairly easy to remember. Micky did a search for it and found it to be available, so we snagged it. We are a private site with two things in mind. (1) We are here to share our knowledge, and (2) to help utilize our troubleshooting skills by helping people with their computers. If there are questions or comments about this site, please feel free to contact us on the front page. |
Who We Are |
Micky Hedger operates Ponywagon Computers as a side job. It's a talent he shares with the community as troubleshooting comes naturally to him. His main work is in San Luis Obispo working in Quality Engineering at Trust Automation where he verifies product is manufactured to the proper specifications, and also performs root-case investigations when product fails. He is also an IT Senior Workstation Specialist there, handling workstation (desktop) troubleshooting and security. He also volunteers his time by helping run the Atascadero Mud Dogs, a non-profit baseball program for local youth. He also a paid volunteer to umpire Atascadero Little League games.
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What's with the weather? |
Ponywagon Weather was something we stumbled into. It began with two things: efficient (swimming) pool heating, and maintaining healthy horses.
We quickly established that running thermal solar pumps on cloudy days does not warm pools, just makes the electric company take more money from us. Knowing if we are going to have an upcoming sunny or cloudy day was a definite need to know! When we moved to Atascadero in 2005, our horses were not used to the larger weather extremes the North County has to offer, and they were needing the vet more often than usual. During one of our visits, the vet offered some valuable information: his busiest days are the first heat wave and first chill of the seasons. Why? The horses don't drink enough. During the beginning of the heat wave, they are already behind in getting water into their system, so they develop colic. During the first chill, they don't drink enough, so their body is thirsty and they don't know it. Same result. Knowing the upcoming temperature differences in advance allows me to get water into their system, as well as adding extra fiber to their diet prior to the weather event. Since we began this approach, we have had to take one of our horses to the vet, but it was after 9 days of a scorching heat wave and his body couldn't keep up with the heat. Some additional first aid from our vet got our horse back on his feet and he was able to endure the final four days before the temperatures cooled again. Due to the micro-climates, we needed better data where we lived, so with the help of some crowd-funding, we were able to purchase a weather station for the property. The station now delivers its data to over 800 sources across the country to assist in better forecasting for our area. We are also a certified Weather Spotter with the National Weather Service based out of Oxnard, CA, and for PG&E's John Lindsey, who is an invaluable resource for the local community for weather and forecasting. With the weather station and data monitoring came people beginning to ask me about the upcoming forecast, and with my methods became rather accurate in them. Eventually I had to start an email service to distribute the forecasts and I continue to do it to this day. Each report is typed up by Micky and typically an email goes out once a week. We also send out emergency information in regards to local fires, traffic, and "unusual" weather events, like high winds, damaging storms, and "convective" activity (thunderstorms). If you are interested in receiving the weather forecasts by email, you can sign up for it here. |
Our History |
We have been servicing computers in San Luis Obispo County since 1984, before Windows was common in computers. We don't advertise, just rely on word-of-mouth. We now run out of Atascadero, but still service the local communities of Paso Robles, Templeton, San Luis Obispo, Cayucos, Morro Bay, Los Osos, Shell Beach, Pismo Beach, Grover Beach, Avila Beach, Arroyo Grande, and others.
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