the people from tree tech were supposed to arrive at 8:00. when my alarm went off and i looked out my bedroom window, there was nobody around, so i went back to bed. i got up again soon afterwards when i heard the noises of heavy machinery coming from my backyard. they were moving in the cranes, one for the camera crew, one for the tree pruning team. it was a tricky spot, a shared driveway between kate and her next door neighbor. the tree crew put down plywood planks to protect the surface and even took down a partition fence to make more room for the equipment.

since it looked like it was going to take a while, i decided to run some errands. i did 2 loads of laundry, including sheets from the guest bedroom. i tried cleaning out the old rubber tubing of my aquarium vacuum with a length of string and some small pieces of rag tied in the middle. it did clean the tube a little bit, but the effort it'd take to get it spotless was just too much for the work (if it's even possible), so i ended up just tossing the whole thing away (i have 2 brand new tubing away).

i emptied the hallway closet to make room for the eventual grow house (stashing everything in the guest bedroom). i then prepared the growing containers. usually i use a power drill to make 3 holes into each cup, but the drill tip is too blunt and requires too much force to poke through which has a tendency to crush the bottom of the cups. after i made a few using the drill, i discovered i could also use an awl. the holes aren't as big, but they're clean without any leftover plastic bits, and the containers aren't crushed in the process. finally, i poured a layer of crush gravel on my 6 plastic trays.

elm tree removal:

i finally sold the HDTV to a newly-married cape verde couple from dorchester. they asked if they could have a newlywed discount so i gave it to them for only $200. at this point i didn't care, i just wanted to get rid of the television. i thought they were brazilian at first because they were speaking portuguese, but the husband told me where they were from.

so i finally got my first sell on craig's list. how does it feel? i guess i'm a little resentful. nobody went for my initial price, which i thought was more than fair and still quite a bargain. i got better results with a price reduction, but all those spoofbots with their fake buy requests left me with an unpleasant experience. and when i finally did manage to sell, my buyers pull the "could we get a discount?" card at the last minute. if i wasn't in such a hurry and was in more of a bad mood, i could've played hardball and told them my initial asking price was firm and showed them the door. but i guess the last laugh is on them when they get their electricity bill and realize that HDTV uses the equivalent of several refrigerators.