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today's weather was just a few degrees shy of 70°. i thought about going out and doing some naturing but lost interest by noontime. instead i patched up a little damaged area on my porch (that i didn't notice before) and then put some fresh paint on the repair. while moving some stuff into the basement i noticed that my christmas cactus have started to bloom.

i was heading to belmont and once again faced with the choice of either taking the motorcycle or the bicycle. since the weather was so nice, i figured the bicycle was the better option, working in a little bit of exercise in the process. i bungeed my backpack into my milk crate and headed out. bicycling makes me better appreciate the contours of the local landscape that i wouldn't otherwise notice driving in a car or riding a motorcycle. i start categorizing roads as either flat, uphill, or downhill. one thing i notice when i'm biking is i get really thirsty since i'm panting through my mouth. i should learn to take advantage of my bottle rack. i also don't roll up my pants. personally, i think it's kind of a ridiculous habit. the trick to not getting your pant leg caught in the chain is to not wear bell bottoms or don't pedal so closely.

my sister was at home in belmont with the little girl she takes care of during the week. i was out in the backyard with hailey. i was surprised when my father came home. turns out there wasn't many customers for the grand opening of the restaurant (not a big surprise, since they didn't really advertise) so the owners don't need my father's delivery help just yet, not until business picks up. he came back with a tall step ladder to clean out the gutters. later he went on a supply run with my mother while i bagged a few leaf piles. he brought home some takeout from the restaurant, kung pao chicken with some fried wings. i ate about half until my hovering sister asked if i was going to eat the rest.

since my 2nd aunt was still in town until tomorrow, my mother didn't have to work tonight so i managed to have dinner with my parents. nothing special, same thing as yesterday. i left soon afterwards. i was excited to be riding home because it was a change to try out the LED tire lights again. this time i made sure i had fresh batteries so none of the lights would blink out. once again i couldn't really see the lights from where i was sitting, but combined with my headlight and backlight, there was definitely a lot of flashing. it took 15 minutes for me to ride back to my house, with an additional 3 minutes to lock the bike and remove all the lights.

nstar sends me both an electronic version of my utility bill along with a monthly paper bill. i have it set up so they take money directly from my bank account. the strange thing is my gas bill has been $0 for the past few months, even though i'm sure i've been using it (anytime i turn on the stove, or use hot water in the house). turns out they haven't been billing me because i had a chunk of gas credit for some reason. i'm pretty sure that won't be the case once winter arrives. my gas consumption for the past year:

and here's my electricity usage for the past year:

in honor of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall:

dusty springfield - "auf dich nur wart ich'immerzu"