i went with my father in the morning to market basket to pick up some groceries. i even got mary a box of belgian cream puffs, saving her a trip.

while i was in the basement wrapping my new abus ugrip chain around the seat post of my fuji bike, i also took the time to replace the broken bike bell on my trek utility bike (a phillip screwdriver and a 5mm hex wrench was all that was needed).

today was the first day i've biked since we began to have significant snowfall on february 5th less than a week ago. i also got to use my new bern helmet. it's small enough that i can't wear a hat underneath the helmet, but since it was cold, i pulled up the hood over the helmet. i noticed right away that it didn't keep my head warm, since the 4 front facing ventilation holes were still allowing the frigid air to circulate inside the helmet. either i need to reserve the bern as a warm weather helmet, or figure out some way to block the ventilation holes. i didn't have a problem with this on my old helmet because i wore a cheap baseball cap inside the helmet. and as there was plenty of room inside, i could also put the old helmet over a hat and a hood, since it was big enough to accomodate both.

i replenished the feeders in my parents' backyard: fill up the globe feeder with more seeds, added a new cake (peanut butter) to the suet feeder. i broken apart the old suet cake and put it at various spots in the backyard for the squirrels to find. i glimpsed birds when i first got home (carolina wren maybe?) but after i filled the feeders, they never came back.

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we had hot pot for dinner, eating all the leftover ingredients from sunday night. we used a new hot pot base, a sichuan-flavored one. it came in a solid block of oil that had to be broken apart with a cleaver. we used a quarter portion at first, before i added another quarter, for a total of half. it's similar to the chongqing hot pot base, but with less peppercorns, and more crushed peppers. there was also a sweetness to the base.

my father ended up giving me a ride home because he said it was just too cold. i didn't think it was that bad, but took the ride anyway, pushing the bike into the backyard.

when i got back home i used the bathroom and took a shower. when i went into the kitchen afterwards, mary came out of her room. i told her i got her a box of cream puffs, and explained that she had to defrost them first before eating. eating seemed very normal so what happened next was a total shock.

she asked me again if anyone can peek through her bedroom window. i said no. then she blurted out, "but i still don't feel safe!" and began crying. at first i didn't know what she was doing, because i just couldn't believe a 40-year-old woman was having a temper tantrum. she stood there like a child, face in a grimace, tears coming out of her eyes, sobbing. i asked her what she was doing, and told her she was too old to act like that. i asked her if she's ever had problems like this elsewhere, and she said not like here. i asked if she had ever been a victim of a crime, and she said no again. she stopped crying, and asked me not to think badly of her, that she just gets overly-worried sometimes.

i told her i was sorry she didn't feel safe, and if she wanted to find another place to live, i was fine with that, and i'll even return her money, no hard feelings. but she said no, she liked the place, and thinks i'm a good person, but told me in china they don't use venetian blinds, that they have curtains instead. she asked me if i could install curtains in her room, and i said no. she also brought up the bathroom windows again, apparently that's still something that bothers her. i never made a roommate cry before, and it wasn't even my fault, it was the house's fault. i'm just baffled that mary would throw a crying tantrum over something so trivial, i genuinely wonder how she reacts to something actually serious.

i spent the next few minutes convincing her that we live in a safe neighborhood, and if she were to look out the window, she'd see my neighbors don't even bother with blinds, and you can see right into their houses. so my place actually has more privacy protection compared to them!

without a doubt, mary has some deep psychological problems. as far as roommates go, she's not too bad, goes to classes during the day, comes back at nights, her cooking isn't smelly, and she keeps to her room. but the woman has some deep-rooted mental baggage. if she throws another outburst like she did tonight, i really have no choice but to force her to move out. at this point, i'm sort of worried about my own personal safety, letting a complete psycho live at my place.