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the traffic on huron avenue heading into boston this morning stretched from the fresh pond parkway all the way to the belmont cemetery. in the other direction, there was hardly any cars. by the time i got to my parents' house at 9:00am, my father had already set up the tarps and was up on the ladder scraping some loose paint. i didn't have any breakfast yet so i ate two madeleine cookies (100 calories a piece!) before putting on my work gear. by 9:30am i was sanding.

my father left at 10:00am, i continued sanding until 1:30pm, a good solid 4 hours of sanding. i worked on the right-of-center middle and lower shingles, then a little bit of left-of-center upper shingles. did i mention the temperature was in the 90's? it was so hot i had to work topless with sunblock. it wasn't bad when there was shade, and occasionally there was even a strong cool sea breeze. but as the day got closer to noontime and beyond, the sun began to shine on the western side, heating up the ladder hot enough to nearly scald bare flesh. i stay hydrated, drinking several tumblers of ice water.

something new in the garden: one of the lupines behind the garage has formed a flowerbud, looks like a green corncob about a few inches in length. i didn't think i'd see any lupine flowers this year. first, because i remember reading they don't flower until the second year, and second, i thought they were spring flowering plants, not late summer. i can't wait to see what color the flowers will be. my first flowering lupine!

some of my mine online orders are in limbo. the unbelievably cheap SJCAM SJ4000 wifi camera i ordered from china? i filed a claim with ebay end of last week, i had a few more days to wait, but they reached a decision today, told me i'd get a refund since the seller didn't give them a viable tracking number. i already knew it was sham so a week ago i ordered another SJ4000 from amazon ($87). but for whatever reason, they still haven't shipped it out yet. i wrote the seller and they never wrote back, so i went ahead and cancelled the order, and ordered the SJ4000 from another seller ($89). why is it so hard to get my hands on one of these cheap action cameras? finally, awwyeah.com still haven't replied to my e-mails. i sent one thursday and another one today, asking about the missing handlebar grips. thing is i could really use them, because the grips i have now are giving me contact dermatitis again. i never had any problems with them before. in fact, usually when they make a mistake, they'll send a replacement free of charge.