a small weekend of small concerns

Oh, I'm still here, there just hasn't been much blogable activity these last few days.  Well, Grumpy Cat died, but you probably knew about that already.   As for the rest: 

Fast trip into New Orleans after work to fetch the mountain bike back from Bayou Bicycles – right into the teeth of rush hour traffic plus the Bayou Boogaloo festival going on all around the bike shop.  Both are on (or at least very near) Bayou St. John, which has a rich and interesting history.

But I did get to go mountain biking on Saturday, and that was good to get out there ahead of the rain.  Not a long ride, but still a good ride.  Sorry, no pics.  New water pack was tried out too (an Osprey Syncro 5 in bright red).  Expect a full review after I get in at least one more ride with it.  

Trimmed the new UHF antenna – literally, trimmed it down 0.8 cm on each element to bring its resonant frequency into the center of the band.  It's working much better now, with vanishingly small SWR across the 70 cm band.  (There's something cool about knocking together a home-brew antenna from junk that's laying around the house.  Like with fishing, it's free if you have the expertise and tools.)  Then I trimmed the grass, or at least got a good start on it.

Today was, as expected, rainy, so laundry was done, naps were taken, bills were done, radios were twiddled, magazines were read, all that rainy day stuff.  Then the rain stopped and the Formosan termites swarmed, so now the lights are out.  Time to read – by the light of a very small reading lamp, so as not to attract termites.

Sometimes it's good to take it easy on a weekend.  Just don't make a habit of it.