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4

more days!

i'd been pretty good about using my last few remaining days wisely, but today i found myself slacking. i didn't go out until 1pm, which meant i wasted some good hours when i could've been running errands, like biking down to the galleria for last minute gifts.

i remembered i had a garden plot, and i wanted to get some work on it before i left, because i wouldn't see it again until june. it was 73° today but very windy. i opened a window to air out the house. i wore a jacket thinking it'd be cold, but it was a warm breeze. every year i get a carpet of ground ivy and peppermint, which have to be dug up before they take over the garden. i've been working at it over the years so there wasn't that much, but i still had to dig some up.

as for my perennials, i only saw a single hollyhock (transplanted from my parents' garden) and a single columbine. i didn't see any lupines. i did however see delphiniums, whole carpets of it. my garden here is a mirror opposite of my parents' garden; there, lupines are columbines are common, and so are hollyhocks. there are however not a single delphinium plant at my parents' place.

i left the garden around 1:45pm. i got out my cargo bike and first went to union square to deposit some more cash (part of what mary gave me last night, extra money to take care of some autopay bills), before stopping my market basket to grab some toilet paper. i also picked up a bag of pistachios as a gift for sunmeng's father. it's hard to get him anything since he doesn't drink or smoke, and because of his poor health, he watches his diet so not a lot of salt or sugar.

i didn't use my inhaler and i felt fine. i think my exercise-induced asthma is definitely related to the temperature. when it's warm out, i don't have a problem breathing.

when i returned to the house around 2:30pm, mary was already home. surprised, i remarked that she was back earlier than usual. she told me she forgot to bring her PC charger so decided to come home.

i left for my parents' place, deciding once again not to use the inhaler. i felt no different than how i used to feel. pedaling up hills i still felt a little chest constriction, but not so bad that i felt like fainting, just the usual feeling of fatigue. soon my parents came home, followed by my sister. i went with her to home depot to pick up some soil and mulch for the garden (her garden, and a bag of potting soil for me).

my mother had purchased some japanese purple yams from chinatown yesterday and steamed them for 40 minutes to eat. they tasted like your typical sweet potato, a bit firmer, with shades of purple on the inside. for dinner we had some spicy wontons with bean sprouts.

i didn't use the inhaler when i returned to cambridge in the early evening. i was fatigued battling up the hills, but otherwise nothing worse for wear. i'll still bring the inhaler as a precaution when i leave for china, but i don't think i'll use it very much, if at all.