i went to the cambridge carnival parade, at it's new date (it used to be on the day after the boston carnival parade). i thought it started at noon, but the heart of the parade didn't kick off until almost 2:00. at least the weather was better (compared to the boston carnival), mostly sunny with occasional periods of grey. i even got a yellow bead necklace with a condom package medallion. i impatiently waited at the start of the parade at the intersection of blackstone and river street. once the parade started, i managed to see it 3 more times (two more places on river street then on mass ave) by walking to the front of the procession.

there weren't as many spectators compared to past years, which is surprising, given the good weather and the opportunity to ogle scantily-clad men and women. maybe the later start date confused a lot of potential parade goers. instead of following the procession down to kendall square, i got on my motorcycle and went home. i didn't leave empty-handed however: earlier i bought a yard sale bicycle helmet for $2 (giro flak).

around inman square i noticed that somebody had tampered with my trip odometer. it might not make a difference in a car, but since my motorcycle doesn't have a fuel gauge, i use the trip odometer to keep track of how much farther i can ride before refueling (usually about 180 miles). since i was near a hess gas station, i decided to fuel up and zero the odometer.

nobody was home when i showed up in belmont in the late afternoon for dinner. i toured the backyard, not much change since last week. almost all of the smaller immature bottle gourds have shriveled up, leaving just the 6. also in the grass i discovered a hitherto unknown butternut squash. it must've been there for a while but seems a bit pale.

growing up in belmont i don't think i ever saw rabbits before (at least not in my more parceled suburban part of belmont), but in recent years rabbit sightings have been more common, expanding from their original habit in nearby fresh pond. i see them especially at nights when i'm heading back to cambridge, sitting motionless on the lawns, their eyes glowing from the motorcycle headlight. i saw one again up close this afternoon. something was rustling beneath the gladiolas cage. i immediately thought maybe it was a toad (something else i've never seen in the backyard) because it was slowly hopping away but then i got a good look: it was a bunny, no bigger than a computer mouse, with a white tail. it jumped into the bush of iris leaves. i rustled the area with my foot. at first there was nothing, but then the bunny hopped away into the lilacs and quinces and disappeared into the neighbor's yard.

i left the motorcycle and borrowed the car back to cambridge. my roommate has a 6:25 international morning flight out of logan, so i'm driving him to the airport around 3:00. he came home from his weekend trip to acadia national park at 9:30. he gave me back his set of house keys and his charlie and shaws cards.

[update]

just came back from dropping off my roommate at the airport. originally i figured i'd stay up the entire night but ended up sleeping for over an hour before waking up at 3:00. my roommate's bedroom light was on but he was nowhere to be seen. i gently knocked on his door, gradually getting louder. what happened? did he die in sleep? "are you still sleeping?" i asked. finally i heard some rustling sound as he opened the door. he'd fallen asleep and his cellphone alarm clock failed to ring. he was all packed and dressed already, so we loaded up everything into the car: a suitcase, a small dufflebag, a laptop backpack, and a paper shopping bag with a toy gift.

to get to the airport i went down cambridge street through inman square to the lechmere stop and the tunnel to the airport next to the museum of science. there wasn't a car the whole way through, although occasionally we saw headlights in the distance. cambridge was a ghost town, and it felt stupid stopping at traffic lights when there was nobody around. we didn't talk much: my roommate was deep in thought reflecting about his month in boston, while i was too engrossed in driving and making sure i didn't crash the car despite the lack of traffic.

good thing i checked the united airline website because my roommate's flight departure time was changed from 6:25 to 6:00. not like it made that much of a difference since he had about 2-3 hours to kill before he left. i asked him for his e-mail address but neither of us had a pen so i told him to just send it to me. i noticed the overhead light was on meaning the passenger side door wasn't closed properly, but by then i was already back on the highway and i couldn't stop to fix the door so i just ignored it. after paying the $3.50 toll i sped back to belmont to drop off the car and ride back to cambridge on my motorcycle.

i remembered to bring my windbreaker, so i was relatively warm riding back. i ended up taking the long way, making a loop through harvard square, just to see what it looks like in the middle of the night (empty, homeless people sleeping by the coop and on street benches, a line of waiting taxis).

the first thing i did when i got home was to check out the assortment of cheese my roommate left me, including the leftover fourme d'ambert, which i ate a slice. no longer sleepy, i may just stay up until sunrise.