Fence sitting

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

Things I didn’t do this weekend:

This weekend, I did not plant my carrots. I didn’t plant my radishes, beets or lobelia.

I didn’t fix my leaky new drip system. It’s not like I had to call someone to come fix it, either. I built it, and I’ll fix it.

I didn’t go the movies this weekend. Kathleen and I had planned on seeing Sin City on Friday night, but our babysitter was busy. We’d also planned on taking the kids to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but I was pre-occupied.

I didn’t mow the lawn on Saturday. Or Sunday, for that matter. I don’t generally like to mow on Sunday because the sprinklers run on Sunday morning.

I didn’t fix the backyard fence. I didn’t pick up the dog poop. I didn’t read the new Cormac McCarthy, which I’ve been anxiously awaiting for more than two months. I didn’t work on next week’s cover story, either. OK, maybe I did, but just for an hour or so. Actually, the subject arrived with some documents during dinner, a break I would have taken anyway.

I didn’t even go to a bar.

Things I did do this weekend:

This weekend, at least on Friday and on Saturday morning, I spent some time on the Federal Express Web site. Waiting. Waiting.

Saturday, Danny and I moved a bunch of stuff out of the garage and into the shed out back. I carried boxes that we never unpacked after we moved into this house two years ago. For a few hours, the garage was almost as clean as two days before we moved in.

Shortly after noon, grinding gears and squeaking breaks signaled the arrival of my new baby. That is, my new toy. Tool, that is. Plasma cutter.

Do you know what a plasma cutter is? It’s kind of finding your higher power.

Only my higher power generates 60,000 degrees and cuts steel like butter.

That’s what I did this weekend.