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drew was gone this morning, back to pennsylvania for the weekend. this was his second trip back home.

i spent the bulk of the morning crafting a lengthy e-mail to steve regarding the current status of the roofers. if we want to get anything done we have to do it soon because they're all super busy right now. nearly all the roofers we contacted never bothered to call us back since everyone has too much work already.

i took the bike to market basket to get some breakfast items (english muffins, prosciutto). my groin pull wasn't as bad as yesterday, but it was still a struggle to straddle the top tube. i debated whether or not i should take the bike to the shop to get the bottom bracket replaced. i was thinking if i saw my neighbor ed i could ask him if he had a pneumatic wrench i could borrow to remove the bracket cover.

since drew wouldn't be riding his bike for the next few days, i decided to put it in the basement. that's when i noticed one of the front basket struts had come loose. i tried to use a #10-32 x 1/2" stainless steel screw to reattach it but it wouldn't fit through the hole.

i rode the motorcycle to the assembly square mall. at home depot i bought a packet of #8-32 screws with matching nuts and toothed locking washers ($1.18 each). i then went to ac moore and got a ball of patons bamboo silk yarn (sapphire) for my mother ($3.49 after 40% off coupon). i even found one was that the exact same lot number.

i came home via magoun square, down cedar and elm to porter square, to visit michael's. i was there to get another strand of amber crackle agate beads for my mother. it took a long time to find because i remember they were 8mm but the ones i saw in the store that seemed the right size were 10mm instead.

i went to the cafe to drop of the yarns and the beads before returning home with a container of curry rice noodle for dinner.

the #8-32 screw was a perfect fit for the front basket. after reattaching the loose strut, i finally put drew's bike in the basement.

i was in a rush to get home because there was a neighbor meeting at 4:00 regarding the fate of a diseased elm tree currently overhanging into several properties. i didn't want to go but my upstairs neighbor steve was going (he never participates in these things) so i felt like i had to show up as well. turns out the meeting was cancelled but nobody told me. then steve and i decided to meet on our own at 4:00 to discuss the roof. he pushed it back to 5:00 even though he came back home at 4:00. then at 5:00 he promptly cancelled. at this point i could care less about the roof. whether his skylights leak or not won't affect me at all. if he waits too long to decide and all the roofers are booked up, it'll be a good "i told you so" lesson for him. i could then use that roofing money to go on vacation or something.

my mother called me to let me know the beads i got her were the wrong size. i should've gone with my instinct and gotten the 10mm instead. i'll have to go back tomorrow.

i finally took a shower, after going almost 2 days without washing. this almost never happens, because i usually average 2 showers a day normally. but when the weather gets colder i take fewer showers, just because i don't like the feeling of being wet in a cold house.

i took apart the old pro-lite LED display sign again to reinspect the capacitors for damage. once more, i didn't see anything physically wrong with any of them, no swelling, no leaking, no breaks. i'm not even sure if replacing the 3 large capacitors would fix the problem, but worth a try since i've got nothing to loose because the sign appears to be broken. the glitch looks like a crash. when it's not randomly lighting up LED's on the right side of the screen, it actually works, and i can go in and program pages without any problems.