This weekend was supposed to see some progress on both my major projects. One, I got some work done, the other stalled for reasons beyond my control.
ANT+ Farm isn’t where I’d like it to be. I found some great sample code and spent the evening trying to get the Arduino linked-up to the ANT+ breakout board, with no luck. Tonight, I’m going to re-check the solders on the breakaway headers and see if they’re okay.
As for the CX/gravel racer frame…well, I had arrangements to work with A-Train on Saturday afternoon, but he was out of steam about the same time I was going to leave to head over there. So we cancelled until next weekend. I suppose I did get some progress done. I started to mark-up the tubes and printed out mitering templates.
So I can’t complain. It was a pretty awesome weekend all the way around.
Friday, after riding to work, I scored a used Burley trailer on Craigslist for a lot less than it would to buy new. Based on the trail conditions, I didn’t want to haul it home, which was good, because the return trip was brutal. I was already tired, plus had to battle a stiff headwind most of the way home, and the trail surface was still soft enough where my tires sank in more than they gripped. I arrived home beat to shit, back hurting, and wiped out, but happy. I had planned on doing some work on the ANT+ Farm project this evening, but only managed to get the breakaway headers soldered to the ANT+ board. All my wire was too heavy a gauge to work with the headers.
Saturday, all sorts of insanity happened and I’m a little muddled on the order of things. Sam got introduced to music on the headphones, and sat and swayed and bounced in his highchair to Damien Rice, U2, and a few other bands, which was hiliariously entertaining. Later in the day, we all went down to the bike shop at the bottom of the hill and got Sam his first strider bike, and Eddy a new helmet. We took the boys to a nearby park and Eddy was all over the place, and even managed to start going down a pretty steep hill pretty fast before he endo’ed over the bars and into the grass. He whined for a few seconds and then got back on the horse — I was pretty proud of his resilience. Sam also puttered around a bit, too, which was fun to watch. After this, Kate and the boys went to her brother’s place for dinner, and knowing I’d have issues with the coconut in the curry, I opted to drive up to Micro Center for some geek tools to get back to work on ANT+ farm. I got everything wired up and called it a night at midnight, after being unable to get the board talking to my Garmin HRM strap. Some troubleshooting is in-order.
Sunday, Kate let me sleep in until a little after nine, which was decadent and amazing and left me feeling only slightly guilty. After I’d been up for a bit, Eddy and I drove to my office to pick up the Burley, and I snagged a few other things, too. Eddy was very excited about the LEGO® on my desk, and even went so far as to ask if that’s what I did all day. Alas, no, it is not. While leaving the parking ramp downtown, he observed, “We’re driving down in circles!” And fell promptly asleep. Rather than wake him up, I opted to drive around for awhile. Did some exploring of the southern reaches of Scott county around Jordan and found some great gravel roads (hilly) that I’m going to ride as part of an Almanzo prep. Went home, and then the family went down to the 50’s-style diner in old downtown and had a big lunch together. After lunch, I got geared-up, put Eddy in the Burley and set out for a ride together. It was short, it was windy on the return trip, and I wasn’t used to hauling the Burley/toddler combo, so I was slow. But he loved it (and cried when we were done), and I had a blast, too. We also counted out the money in his piggybank, some of which he took to Target with mom, and bought himself some Big Hero 6 stuff (Baymax action figure and fuzzy blanket). Once the kids were in bed, Kate and I settled in and watched some TV together.
A busy, but happy weekend.