i went on a supply run with my parents this morning. costco, super 88 malden, then bianco & sons sausage. since we passed by the somerville market basket on our way home, we stopped there as well.
it was very busy at costco, despite it being a monday. i overheard an employee singing a made-up song, "it's always crazy here, it's always crazy here." they sold pallets of 30 eggs, which meant we didn't have to go to restaurant depot to get our eggs. costco also had "beef rolls" in the freezer department, used for hot pots. seems like they have more and more ethnic asian foods, like punjabi cookies and haldiram soan cakes. i managed to find a package of paperwhite bulbs at the back of the store, but no go on the lawn fertilizer.
my mother wanted to visit the malden 99 asian supermarket, but it was out of the way, so we went to the malden 88 supermarket instead. we only needed to get a few asian vegetables for the cafe, but ended up buying more than planned. the malden 88 has an amazing fresh fish department which is very much a secret.
besides chinese sausages, we also got some hot italian sausages and basil sausages from bianco & sons.
the sky outside market basket had an undulating pattern that looked like sand dunes. these are in fact high altitude cirrus clouds interacting with gravity waves. my father waited in the car while my mother and i went in to grab a few things. my mother hasn't been to the somerville market basket in a long time. i told her all the cashiers know me because i visit so often.
my parents dropped me off at my place before heading to the cafe. i chatted with sheri briefly, who was outside loading her car, in the middle of moving to her new place, which just down the street, so not too far. i grabbed my things and headed to the cafe as well to help unload the supplies. while my parents returned home, i stayed behind o try and register the new surfboard modem that i failed to register yesterday morning. i got an american agent this time - nancy. the call took 49 minutes and we failed to register the new modem. nancy did notice that there was some bad signal on the line, which might be preventing the surfboard from registering. she set up an appointment tomorrow for a technician to come out and take a look at the line between 4-6pm.
i didn't get to my parents' place until 2:30pm. my mother made me a bowl of wonton soup. afterwards i did my weekly indoor garden maintenance. i dug up the caladium tubers from the two hanging planters. i trimmed my prayer plants and replanted them into those two same hanging planters. i finally watered all the plants in the grow room. originally i was going to add systemic insecticide powders, but i was afraid it'd kill the beneficial Bti bacteria, so i opted to hold off for the time being. i did check the foliage on the jasmines and gardenia, didn't see any pests.
i tested the rtl-sdr dongle on my father's laptop using the cross-platform sdr++ app. it worked immediately, we got a waterfall of the FM band and was able to receive clear transmissions from several stations. it didn't work so well when we tried listening to 2m and 70cm bands, but that's probably because we were just testing with a simple retrofitted baofeng radio antenna. later we tried it again using the 2m homemade rooftop antenna. we never got any clear signals, but could definitely see there was something transmitting from the waterfall display.
my sister brought esmei to my parents' place in the late afternoon. i let her into the backyard and tossed the ball with her. at one point she got the zoomies again and bolted away to the other side of the yard.
my father finally turned on the heat tonight, after the weather forecast said the temperature will drop into the 30's overnight. the furnace worked as expected. also earlier in the afternoon i called fireman's fuel to order 150 gallons of heating oil for my parents (at $2.99/gallon).
for dinner we grilled some drumsticks and italian sausages with fennel. it was cold enough - 40's - that i saw my breath as i waited by the grill for the meats to finish cooking. the finished drumsticks were a little undercooked, we forgot to grill them to doneness with a lower temperature. the sausages were cooked to perfection though, with a crispy snap to the skin, made me dream of making my own sausages one of these days.
i returned home after 7:30pm. temperature hadn't changed very much since earlier - still in the 40's - but the darkness made it feel even colder.
bunch of sports games were all happening tonight: bucks-celtics, giants-steelers, dodgers-yankees. i ended up watching the world series game as there was more at stake, though i periodically tuned in to the basketball game to check the score. when it looked like the celtics were going to beat the bucks, i could safety tune in to the baseball game. dodgers won again, 4-2. they're now up 3-0 in the world series. no team has ever come back from being down 0-3 in the world series. only the red sox has come back after being down 0-3, but that was the ALCS (against the yankees no less).
i didn't wake up until 10am, probably the only time this week i can afford to sleep in late. last night i rifled through my closet looking for that literal unused flea trap that i bought a while back when i got fleas from rob's cat. i couldn't find it, so this morning i went down to the basement to rummage through my boxes hoping to find the trap but no luck.
i wanted to take a quick trip to market basket to get a few things. i called my mother to ask if she needed anything, but she convinced me not to go since we're going there anyway tomorrow for a supply run. so i finally left around 11:30am, first to get some gas before stopping at the cafe to swap out the cable modem. a man with an accent approached me at the pump. he seemed very friendly and resembled an older looking michael. he asked my help to work the pump. the thing he didn't realize was there was a toggle by the pump that he needed to flip to choose which grade of gasoline he wanted. later i asked him where he was from that he didn't know how to work the pump. he said in spain the pumps don't work like that, and they select the fuel type from the touchscreen, not a physical toggle switch.
riding down walden street, i saw a pile of discarded kitchen items. i parked on raymond street so i could double back and take a look. i grabbed a krups waffle maker that looked to be in good condition, as well as a large heavy wooden cutting board. the surface was scarred with cut marks, but nothing that a little sanding and mineral oil can't bring back as good as new. the waffle maker i could stuff into my backpack (barely), but i didn't have my bungie netting. even if i did, the wood block was so heavy and large, it would've been difficult to strap onto the motorcycle. so i put it behind a tree, hoping i could tell my sister and we could come back for it if she wanted it.
i text my sister a text with a photo of the cutting board when i got to the cafe. she immediately came over and we drove back to raymond street to retrieve the wood block. it'd only been less than 10 minutes, but during that time, somebody else had taken the cutting board. street treasures go fast! it was for the best, i don't think we had a place for it anyway.
back at the cafe i connected the new SB6190 cable modem and called comcast business. on weekends they use a foreign call center, so my indian agent was named sean. he was polite enough, but i don't think he knew what he was doing. i ended up spending nearly 40 minutes on the phone with him as he tried to register my new cable modem. he never got it to work so i ended up switching to the netgear modem i got a few days ago, with hopes of coming back either tonight or tomorrow to try again.
that meant i didn't get to belmont until almost 1pm, when i was supposed to be there earlier to make pastrami reuben sandwiches for my parents for lunch. my father figured i was at the cafe working on the modems when he couldn't see any of the web cams. my mother made wonton soup for lunch, said we'd have sandwiches for dinner instead.
i got a chance to inspect the krups waffle maker. it sells on amazon for $68. we already have a waffle maker, but it's one of those kitchen appliances that you use a few times before never using again. that was our case, and most likely the case of the previous owner of the krups waffle maker. this one was better, featuring removable plates for easier cleaning. each plates can also make 4 waffles, while our old maker could only make two at a time. no time for waffles this weekend, but we'll definitely try out the waffle maker next weekend.
after lunch we all outside in the backyard getting to dig up the daikon radishes. we could see the radishes poking up from the soil, but had no idea how big they'd be. my mother had the honors, and wearing gloves (the leaves have tiny thorns), she easily pulled up the radishes. they were much bigger than i'd imagined, though most of them had weird shapes, kind of like ginseng roots. my sister brought esmei around that time, and we distracted esmei long enough to harvest the daikon radishes, otherwise she'd try to grab one thinking it was a chew toy. instead esmei was happy playing with an empty plastic milk container. at one point she got the zoomies and all over the yard. my sister tried making esmei wear some halloween costumes she bought. the oxen hat she didn't like at all and tried to take it off as soon as we put it on. the only costume that kind of worked was the dracula cape.
we harvested the dried long beans and blue beans, as well as the hyacinth beans. my mother went back inside while my father and i stayed out and continued working. the weather wasn't too bad, even though the temperature was only in the 50's, it felt warm in the sun. we continued harvesting dried bean pods, while ripping and cutting down all the vines. i also removed all the dead perennials using the japanese hori hori knife, which i've found to be the most useful tool in the garden: it cuts, it digs, it can also weed. i bought it off of ebay for only $6 (nisaku japanese stainless steel 5-inch mini leisure knife), and originally i thought the low price meant it was junk, but it's actually a very well made tool. now you can't buy it for less than $20. i chopped down all the goldenrods, the phloxs, irises & gladiolus leaves, faded ornamental grass, dead peony leaves, dried foxglove flower stalks, and climbing vines. my father took down a segment of the canopy fencing above the rain barrels. i removed all the hanging attachments from the maple tree, to be used next season. we finally went back inside around 3pm. one last thing i noticed today working in the backyard was zero bugs. the cold weather must've killed all the mosquitoes, which is a blessing despite the chillier temperature.
there was an early afternoon patriots same still in progress. the game was roughly tied in the first quarter with drake maye throwing against the jets, but by the time i caught it in the 4th quarter, jacoby brissett was at center. i quickly looked up what happened, apparently maye left the game after suffering what appeared to be a concussion from a helmet-to-helmet hit that was even called by the referees. the crazy part is new england ended up winning, beating aaron rodgers and company, who seem to be floundering even more after they fired their head coach robert saleh two weeks ago, and they haven't won a game since. now the jets and patriots have the same terrible 2-6 record, with the dolphins not far ahead with 2-5. only the bills are decent at 6-2. it's funny, but the only two games new england has won this season have been against the jets.
my mother got a new heating pad for her bed last week. everything seemed okay until she reported she was getting bites overnight, all over her body. so all this week we've been trying to figure out what it could be. the two leading candidates are fleas and bedbugs, with fleas being the far lesser of two evils. the bites don't seem like bedbugs (a relief) because they're more random. but why would a heating pad cause bugs to show up when they never did before? so today i vacuumed underneath her bed, which was super dusty, which could be a potential breeding place for fleas. i then tried testing out the bed with the heat turned on, using my body as bait, to see if i could draw out any potential bugs. i didn't get any bites, nor saw any critters. so the mystery remains. in the meantime my mother has become very paranoid and afraid to sleep in the bed, or use the heating pad.
i finally made pastrami reuben sandwiches for dinner. my father helped me butter the bread. instead of heating the sandwiches in a pan on the stovetop, i toasted them in the air fryer oven. my father heated his sandwich in the pan, which wasn't hot enough to melt the swiss cheese. the sandwiches were oily because of the butter. my mother only finished half her sandwich, saving the rest for later.
my father and i discovered a new radio gadget: the retevis RT97 full duplex UHF/VHF repeater ($400). apparently it's been around for a while, since we saw a youtube video about it dated 5 years ago. if money was no object, we'd buy it to realize the dream of wireless VHF communication from my house (20ft elevation surrounded by dense 3-story condos) to my parents' place in belmont (52ft elevation) using the cafe as an intermediary (36ft). i also gave my father an audio file of his HAM radio call sign in morse code form, since he doesn't like saying his callsign when antenna testing. unfortunately for some reason the surecom simplex repeater (SR-112) doesn't hear the morse code audio and won't repeat/transmit the audio.
i returned home around 8pm. the temperature by then had dropped down into the mid-40's. it was chilly but it wasn't too bad, though my legs felt cold through the thin khaki fabric of my pants.
after a shower i watched the cowboys-49ers game in the background. i found my RTL-SDR dongle and ordered a simple dipole antenna kit for it (to arrive on tuesday). i did some research on broad band discone antennas and how to properly ground a roof mounted antenna. i watched some head massage videos, which is my latest interest.
i made a trip to market basket to get a few things for the cafe. i also picked up a package of shaved pastrami to make some reuben sandwiches this weekend. i returned home to collect my things before heading to the cafe. i got there pretty early, had time to prep for the day: cook rice, turn on all the tablets, boil some water, set up the patio deck. because it was windy i didn't bother opening the umbrella.
my sister brought esmei to the cafe before we opened. esmei was carrying a toy in her mouth. my mother walked to the cafe while my father drove. when esmei saw my father, she excitedly ran towards him, and then later presented him with her toy. my sister brought esmei home before returning to the cafe to work "unofficially".
i noticed it yesterday but saw i again today: the upstream and downstream lights on the netgear cable modem will occasionally flash. i understand that to be a bad thing, as i've learned that all 4 lights need to be steady in order to be good. however even when it's flashing the internet still works. regardless, last night i ordered another SB6190 cable modem, scheduled to arrive today. i'll try to switch out the netgear cable modem this weekend and replace it with the SB6190.
today was very busy. even though we were opened for only half the day, it was the busiest day this week. we sold at least 16 bentos, 9 beef noodle soups, and more than 2 dozen boba milk teas. a lot of asian customers, a lot of taiwanese (which is a good sign of food authenticity). xiaojun and her father showed up after spending less than a week in taiwan. they left when we got busy during the last hour of business. then after we closed, zhangyu showed up. they were without binbin who was working, while lucas tagged along in the office. i didn't stay as i had gardening things to do in belmont.
i saw that the temperature tonight was going to drop into the 30's, definitely frost weather. so it was imperative that i dig up our hot pepper plants if i want to save and overwinter them indoors. i could've just put a tarp/blanket over the raised beds, but i saw we had an unopened bag of potting soil, so i had everything i needed for transplanting. i rummaged in the garage and alleyway to find 7 suitably-sized pots. the peppers themselves looked very healthy. no cold temperature damage of any kind, despite a few nights where the temperature had briefly dipped into the 30's. it was even still making flowers and producing tiny peppers, but those would never reach maturity. one of the things of being a gardener is making the hard decisions, so i had no choice but to pull off any existing peppers and prune all the branches leaving just the central stalk and a few bare side branches. it looked pretty nasty defoliating the pepper plants like that, but it'll all grow back come spring/summer if i can keep them alive over the winter. besides the long hot peppers, i also treated the two habanero plants the same way (they're already in their 2-3rd season).
once properly defoliated, i dunked the bare pepper plants in a bucket of neem oil water. i saw this in a video, it's to kill off any pathogens or pests that might be hitchhiking on the plants. if the roots were too long i gave them a trim. i then planted the peppers in pots, before moving them into the sunroom. they'll eventually live in the basement. not in the grow room because it's too warm, but elsewhere in the basement where it's cooler. the trick is to keep them cool so they stay dormant.
while digging up the peppers, i noticed our leafy patch of daikon radishes in RB2. i've grown daikon radishes for many year, both spring and fall, with zero success. the most we've ever harvested was just a bunch of very leafy daikon greens which is rather tasty with a crunchy texture. i figured that'd be the case again this season, but when i looked down below, i was surprised to see some actual daikon radishes emerging from the soil. i don't know how big they are until we dig them up, but they're at least egg-sized, if not larger. when they emerge from the soil like that, it's time to harvest.
my parents were busy chatting with zhangyu and family and didn't get back home until 6pm. i was about to call them and tell them i was returning home. i wasn't in any mood to make sandwiches, so instead my father grilled a salmon steak while we ate some leftover rice from the cafe. the reuben sandwiches will have to wait until tomorrow, we'll probably have it for lunch.
i got back home around 7:30pm. there was a celtics game against the pistons, but i had a feeling boston was going to win that one. so instead i tuned in to game 2 of the world series. dodgers won again, final score 2-4. a scary moment in the 8th inning when ohtani tried to steal second base and looked like he broke his wrist or dislocated his shoulder. he was escorted off the field by a trainer. that put a damper on the victory celebration, despite the dodgers being up 2-0 in the series. later the manager said during the postgame press conference that ohtani suffered a left shoulder subluxation, which means he dislocated it but then popped back on its own. hopefully he'll be back for game 3 on monday. has a team ever come back from being down 0-2? yes, it's happened 10 times in world series history.
i woke up early this morning to bike to market basket and get a few things for the cafe. i returned home to drop off a few things but also to dig up the caladiums in the front planter. the leaves had already wilted more than a week ago. i dug through the soil but didn't really find tubers. was i too late? had they all rotted already? i salvaged what i could before heading to the cafe.
first thing i did when i got there was make a new batch of tea eggs. this is the third batch this week, after i made a fresh batch tuesday and another one yesterday. i've been trying to use up the store bought tea egg spice packets (which i bought more than a year ago) and i'm down to my last box.
i also mixed up a solution of azapro to water the few plants we have in the cafe. i figured out how much azapro i needed to make a liter of solution (about 3/4 tsp). the concentrated azapro itself had an oily consistency and smelled of petroleum byproduct. i watered the two jasmines, the jade plant, and the pilea. afterwards i took the jasmines outside and sprayed them thoroughly with 70% alcohol. with this two prong attack, i'm hoping to finally control the mealybugs once and for all. pesticides like azapro - which contains azadirachtin (1.2% by weight) - are surprisingly expensive. that little 4 oz. container of azapro just $21 - and that was on sale. azamax - what i originally wanted to get but couldn't find anywhere - costs $60 on ebay for a 4 oz. bottle. they're all OMRI listed insecticide, which makes them costlier (being organic and all), but i'd gladly use a more synthetic manmade insecticide if it works just as well. later i sniffed the azapro drenched soil and discovered it has a foul odor, like fermented fruit. that explains why i saw some vinegar flies hovering around the jasmines when i was watering them.
it was a slow morning. the kind of morning that makes you wonder if it's going to be like this the rest of the day. but around 11am business started picking up, gaining momentum. and that's when it happened. the internet went down. i've had the internet go down in the past, but it usually just goes back on after a few harrowing minutes. not this time though. this time was different. it wasn't just that the internet was down. the cable modem was dead. like, no lights were on. i tested the plug with a multimeter and it showed 12v so the plug was okay. just the modem was dead. oh no oh no oh no i kept repeating to myself. how do i fix this?
other than not having electricity or running water, having no internet is the next worst thing that could possibly happen. maybe it wouldn't have mattered in the past, but without the internet: our square credit card reader doesn't work; square point-of-sales can't take any new orders; the phone doesn't work (because we ported the number to an internet phone); we can't receive any online orders; we can't see any incoming orders (whether through square/ubereats/grubhub). basically all commerce grinds to a halt unless you're ordering in person and paying with cash. when we had internet outages in the past, my father has been known to just offer food free on the house for customers since we can't process their credit card payment.
the xfinity comcast office is right in fresh pond. so i grabbed my bag and a copy of the comcast business bill and quickly biked down there. when i got there i had to wait for the next available agent. it doesn't matter if you're on the phone or in person, dealing with comcast always require some amount of waiting. i tried to stay calm but i was freaking out inside. while i was there, i saw an online square order come in. i called my mother to let her know to make it. when an agent was finally able to speak with me, i calmly told him what was going on, and that i needed to rent one of their cable modems. he gave me some surprising bad news: they only do residential customers, and since the cafe is a business account, they can't process any equipment upgrade. to do that, i needed to call comcast business, in which case it'll take a few business days before they can have the issue resolved. i didn't have minutes, much less days. so in my mind i was already thinking about plan B, which is to drive down to the watertown best buy and buy a new cable modem. that would take maybe 30 minutes, and then however many minutes to activate the new modem. but the agent - nate - gave me a very useful suggestion. he said i could go buy a cable modem from staples just a few stores down, and then he could register the new equipment for me. i thanked him for the advice and ran to staples.
i haven't been to this staples in ages. online shopping really killed their business, so now they're surviving as a printing station and a place to buy last minute supplies and equipment, when you need something right away and money is no object. they had all the telecom equipment in the front of the store but i only saw routers and switches. i desperately searched for sales rep and finally found one after a few minutes. "do you sell any cable modems?" i asked him. he pointed to the telecom section. i told him i didn't see any. he gave me some attitude. "what's that right there? cable modem. cable modem." there were two models, i picked the cheapest one which was still $120 (the other one was $180) - a netgear CM700 (they didn't have any motorola/arris, which is the brand i've always used). it was bundled in that fancy security device that looked like an electronic puck with strings attached. the cashier removed it for me while i paid.
i went back to the xfinity comcast office. nate was helping another customer, and the two other agents were on break. i waited for what seemed like a few very long minutes before nate finally helped me. i'd already opened the cable modem box but it was necessary. all nate needed was the MAC address. he updated the account so it was now paired to this new modem, at the same time he unpaired the old dead modem. i thanked him before riding back to the cafe.
my sister was there helping but was just on her way out. she was surprised i came back so fast, but i couldn't even speak, i was hyperventilating as i attached the new modem. i didn't even have to replace the plug, just used the old one which worked fine. i then waited for all the lights to come on. after a few cycles where the modem would reset and start over (about 8 minutes), i called comcast business to get some technical support. and like clockwork, as soon as i call and get an agent, the problem fixed itself.
so now that the internet was working again, one fire had been put out. but there were many other fires now, as there was a logjam of orders. there were 8 tickets, some handwritten, walk-in customers, phone orders, and even a few new online orders. it was just a flurry of containers and dishes and bento boxes, people shouting, trying to figure out which order was what, and which came first and which came last, and what orders went out and what orders were still pending. when it was finally over it felt like we'd just fought a war. my mind was numb from restaurant work PTSD.
i had time to inspect the new cable modem (CM700). i'd never used a netgear cable modem before. besides the 4 typical lights i attribute to cable modems (power, upload, download, internet), it also have a 5th network activity light. the modem also has a dedicated power button (the old arris surfboard SB6190 has no off switch, just always on). i thought they price gouged me at staples, but it was only $10 more than what i'd pay on amazon. the CM700 is DOCSIS 3.0 which is getting a little old; a DOCSIS 3.1 modem is better suited for future proofing, but those ones cost on average around $200, and the cafe itself is only on an old grandfathered 35Mbps plan, so we don't need any fast and fancy modem. most likely i'll end up buying another SB6190, which sells for $60, half of what i paid for the netgear. the one that we had was actually a refurbished unit purchased almost 2 years ago; i think a new one might work a little better.
my father picked up some local conversation on GMRS channel 22 with the quansheng radio. we could only hear half the conversation, as the person who was chatting with out of radio range for us. the speaker had a thick boston accent and sounded like a middle aged woman who smoked all her life so it could've also been a man, hard to say. it made me think that maybe the person on the radio was a homeless person. GMRS radios would be very useful in the homeless community since it's all free once you get your hands on a pair of radios. use it as local "phones" to keep in touch with friends.
my aunt showed up in the late afternoon. ate, chatted, took home some food with her.
later i went to my sister's place to check up on esmei, after my sister went out with her friend. esmei was sleeping in her tent. when i got back up she came out of her tent and headed straight for the backyard, holding what looked like a dehydrated parsnip in her mouth. i made her give it to me before sending her outside. she actually got mad and tried to turn around and bite me. in the backyard, we played tug with a ball that had an attached strap. we played for a few minutes before she got bored. i managed to get her back inside the house by pretending i was running away, which triggered her chase instinct as she followed me back inside the house. i returned her parsnip before leaving.
some girl left her mini backpack at the cafe. she never came back for it, maybe she'll return tomorrow. i looked inside for an id but the only thing it contained was a crushed ice cream cup and a spoon. outside was a white raccoon doll plug a tag that said, "anti social cat mom".
we barely had any customers the final 2 hours at the cafe. that meant we didn't believe last friday's profit but we came close. the rest of this week we managed to outmatch every day compared to last week.
i used the bathroom and took a shower when i got home. it was cold enough today that the heat came on when i got back, but it only heated up the house by one degrees, from 64 to 65. afterwards i threw a frozen chicken alfredo dinner into the oven and started watching game 1 of the world series.
i didn't realize the dodgers had the better record because game 1 was played in los angeles. what a great game. no score in the first 4 innings, until dodgers managed to score a run in the 5th. yankees came right back and scored 2 in the 6th to take the lead. dodgers scored another run in the 8th to tie, before heading into extra innings. yankees scored again to take the lead, but in the bottom of the 10th the yankees loaded the bases only for freddie freeman to stroke the first pitch he saw for a grand slam walk off homer to end the game.
i have a feeling red sox nation is rooting for the dodgers. first, no red sox fans would ever root for the yankees. second, there are so many former red sox players on the dodgers, like mookie betts and kike hernandez. plus the coach is one of the heroes from the 2004 reverse the curse red sox dave roberts and his base stealing talents. third, dodgers seem like the underdogs, as most pundits are predicting a yankees world series victory. red sox love a good underdog. it's just really weird seeing alex verdugo playing for the yankees.
i recalibrated my macbook pro battery last night, after i started noticing it would drain rapidly whenever it got below 50% charge. i replaced this battery back in april 2023, after the previous replacement battery started having issues. i followed these steps: charge the battery to 100%, charge an additional 2+ hours, unplug and drain the battery, leave unplugged and off for 5+ hours, recharge back to 100%. i left it unplugged and completely drained overnight.
i slept in the guest bedroom. the advantages of this room won't be felt until the weather turns cold again, but it does have one advantage i can appreciate now, which is closer proximity to the bathroom. i woke up from a dream where i was in japan (that's all i could remember) and got ready for work.
i noticed a folding table was inside. when my parents arrived, my mother told me she broke one of the tables when she tried to collapse it. it was the same table that my 2nd aunt broke last week, but i managed to fix it. i ended up biking to belmont to get some wood glue. i also watered the front lawn while i was there, before returning to the cafe. i fixed the unattached wood table slat by filling the screw holes with glue and tooth picks. i then glued back the wood slat and reapplied the screws. the screws bit into the tooth pick shims, which made for a very secure fit.
my sister brought esmei to the cafe again. since she's not allowed in the dog park anymore (due to her pending heart worm treatment, she's not supposed to get overly excited), she's spending time with humans, which seem to bore her besides the treats. she really likes to sit on the deck and watch the traffic, but even then there wasn't a lot of things happening.
the health inspector showed up today. i've been routinely cleaning in preparation for the possibility of a random inspection which finally happened. while the inspector was in front of the cafe, my mother and i was busy removing all the violations, like pots on the ground, or dirty dishes next to clean ones. honestly, on any given day, you could probably find a handful of violations. but the inspector maybe took pity on us and passed us anyway. the only thing he asked was we got some new chlorine solution test strips. the ones we had looked like they were from the 90's and had long since expired.
today in what seems like all days this month was another busy one. i still remember the old days when we'd just get a handful of customers and call it a day. more customers mean more profit, but it also means more work. we'd gladly go back to the good old days. a lot of customers today were ones we'd never seen before. how are these people finding us?
feifei and her husband and baby came to visit today. they're finally leaving for germany on saturday. feifei came to give more yarn to my mother, more than $200 worth. they came to express their gratitude for us renting the apartment to them during the pandemic. they probably helped us out more as we couldn't find any tenants during the height of covid, and they were the ones willing to rent.
and old man asked to use the bathroom today. my father let him use it but he had to come in through the back door. what we didn't realize was his nurse also had to help him. they were in the bathroom a long time. when they finally came out, the nurse asked if we had a plastic bag. after they left, we checked the bathroom. imagine somebody with a jar of nutella going crazy in the bathroom. that's what it looked like. there was poop everywhere, from the lid to the seat to the bowl. i even saw clumps of poop on the floor but that was just some broken jasmine leaves. not only that, but they didn't flush the toilet. for some reason the nurse turned off the water valve. do they just go to public bathrooms and defecate everywhere just for fun? this is the whole reason why we don't allow customers to use the bathroom, to prevent situations like this. the nurse was even going to throw the plastic bag into our compost bin but my father managed to stop her in time. to make matters worse, the man and nurse didn't leave, and returned to their seats in front of the cafe, where they'd been sitting for a long time and made another mess with the food. after they finally left, my father and i went to their table and sanitized everything.
my parents made a new batch of beef noodle soup (34 servings). we had a lot of leftover tendons and sinews. my mother gave me some to take home for dinner.
when i got home it was just in time for the celtics-wizards game. after the first quarter, i went to fix some beef noodle soup. there was an awful smell from the stove that i couldn't quite identify. later i realized it was the smell of melting plastic handles on the stainless steel 3 quart pot. it's the same pot we use at the cafe but because we have induction stoves, the handles never get hot. however i have gas heating, and the heat of the gas flames going up the sides of the pot will heat the handles. i will probably donate the pot to the cafe, and get myself a 3 quart stainless steel pot with a long handle.
boston ended up winning 122-102. there was never any doubt celtics would be victorious. the game was competitive for the first half, but starting the second half the celtics just took over, building up to a 32 point lead.
woke up at 8:40am after having slept in the guest bedroom for the second time. took me an hour to get ready before i left for a run at 9:45am. temperature was already in the 60's, hardly any breeze, blue sky, bright sun. i noticed a neighbor had already tossed out their chrysanthemums even though it still looked good. is it too late to buy mums now? i went at a leisurely pace, no hurry whatsoever.
coming back, i stopped by the empty community garden. my last visit was way back in september, i've pretty much given up on my plot, especially when cambridge turned off the water a few weeks ago. the only thing i need to do now is come back at some point and clean everything out for the season. i was basically here to see my deadly monkshood, which have finally bloomed since my last visit.
they hadn't collected the garden refuse yet, so i had some time to sweep the front walk and rake all the oak leaves from the backyard. later when i went outside the sidewalk was once more littered with yellow honeylocust leaves.
for lunch i baked some honey barbecue chicken tenders in the oven. i had some old blue cheese sauce that i used for dipping. the sauce was probably bad because i had to use the bathroom afterwards.
i grabbed my canon 55-250mm lens and heard a troubling rattling sound. was there a glass element loose in the lens? but when i tried shooting with it, it worked fine. so what was that sound? turns out it was the UV filter. the glass had come loose from the threaded ring. i tried to push it back together but it was still rattling. i'll need to buy a new one (probably from temu, where they're only a few bucks). it was a relief, because originally i thought i had to send out the lens to canon factory for repairs.
1:40pm i went on a field trip that's been on my mind for a while. a few weeks ago somebody in reddit was asking where they could get some fried clams locally. someone mentioned courthouse seafood in east cambridge. i was curious to try them so i went there via motorcycle, thinking i could bring them back to my parents faster than if i took the bicycle. that turned out to be a mistake, as it's much slower traveling by motorcycle when you're stuck in traffic and have to follow all the traffic lights. plus they stripped the surface of cambridge street outbound, so it dangerous to ride on a motorcycle. at least the weather was nice (75 degrees), i just had a t-shirt on, probably the last time this year i can ride without a jacket.
courthouse seafood is the sort of old timey place that caters to its portuguese neighbors. the owners seemed to know all the customers, and they were all friendly with him, coming and asking for particular seafoods. the prices were also pretty good. whole native clams dinner (which comes with cole slaw and french fries) sells for $24.95. true, it's the most expensive item on the menu, but fried clams elsewhere can be as much as $35-40. i also got the wednesday/saturday special super fish & chips for $9.95. i waited for my food. on one side of the wall were refrigerators stocked with seafoods. they also sold refrigerated quince jams, which i might come back and get some in the near future. i admired how clean the place was, especially the open kitchen. i didn't have to wait long, they had no food ready in a matter of minutes. they also threw in two tartar sauce.
it took nearly 20 minutes to ride to the cafe. my takeout was strapped to the back of my motorcycle, i didn't care for the hot fried seafood smell. my parents and 2nd aunt were surprised to see me. i made sure to come in the afternoon, after their busy lunch time stretch (it was just as busy today as it was yesterday). everyone clamored to tried the fried seafood. it took me so long to get there, the food was a little soggy from the steam. the fried whole belly clams were good but i wish there was more. my father said they reminded him of the gigantic whole belly clams we had at the clam box in quincy, which is probably the best fried clams we've ever had. super fish and chips was just fried white fish. and there was lots of leftover fries. i ended up taking all the fries home. i also brought two glass pot lids i found while running. the larger lid fit our 20 qt stock pot, while the smaller lid didn't fit any of our pots.
i returned home by 3pm. my father told me he couldn't transmit with one of his quansheng radios. i noticed it had an AM designation. when i came home i looked into it. apparently there's a demodulation setting with options of AM/FM/USB. once i switched it to FM, i was once again able to transmit from that frequency (2m band). we gave it a test: while my father couldn't my transmissions (with 5W of power on the stock quansheng antenna), i could hear him transmitting on an external roof mounted DIY antenna amplified to 20W (loud but a little staticky).
speaking of ham radios, while i was just casually looking up call signs online, i discovered my parents next door neighbors recently (last year) got their technician license, the father and the daughter. i've also been researching SDR's. currently i'm researching the RX888 MKII which has two SMA ports that allows full spectrum reception, from HF to VHF/UHF bands. unfortunately it seems to work best with SDR-console, which only runs on a windows PC.
i got really sleepy in the early evening and decided to take a nap in the guest bedroom around 6:30pm. i didn't wake up until 8:30pm. honestly, i wasn't very hungry, especially after finishing all those fries earlier, and could've just kept on sleeping. i woke up and made an instant cup of korean shin black noodles (with beef bone broth).
i slept in the guest bedroom last night. the new comforter did its job and kept me warm. it seemed to have puffed up after a few hours being out of the vacuumed sealed bag. the guest bedroom isn't as bright as the master bedroom, but that darkness makes for better sleeping. it's also quieter, as the guest bedroom isn't directly below the kitchen like the master bedroom, so i don't hear my upstairs neighbor stomping around in the kitchen early morning making breakfast.
my sister brought esmei to the cafe in the late morning. we've been training her to give us a kiss in exchange for a treat. because i rarely offer her any treats, when i ask for a kiss esmei just ignores me. she's also learned to jump up to reach your face. while my sister was inside the cafe making herself some coffee, esmei watched from outside. she was so engrossed, i didn't even have to leash her. she never cried or made any noises, seemed happy just to watch.
we ran out of salt & pepper chicken and ramen today, so i had to pull them from the menu. it got crazy around lunchtime, when it went from being not busy at all to insanely busy. we ran out of dumplings and black soy noodles so i was cooking more as fast as i could. we weren't prepared to get this busy, and didn't have any boiling water ready for cooking noodles, so i had to use the same water over and over. i accidentally told an online customer that her medium sized order was ready when we didn't even start preparing it. as busy as we were, starting at 4pm we barely saw any customers. it was so boring i could barely keep myself awake. thankfully some customers came in during our final hour.
besides 3 consecutive batches of black soy noodles, i also made a batch of tea eggs, a batch of boba pearls, and 5 boxes of ice cubes. my father was boiling a mix of bones to make ramen bone broth, but i was in the basement and discovered a frozen pot of made ramen broth from a few months ago. the only other thing we made today was a new batch of chinese sausage. we needed salt & pepper chicken but they needed to be thawed first. my father will fry two boxes tomorrow morning, as well as portion out the ramen bone broth.
i measured the cafe toilet today in possible preparation for buying an electric bidet. my parents have a smart toilet seat at their place but i've never used it. the only good thing i can say about it is the heated toilet seat is a nice feature on cold winter days.
i brought the spare TYT 9800 UHF/VHF transceiver from my house. my father didn't hook it up (he's bringing that unit back to belmont), but did connect a quansheng radio to the external antenna at the cafe via a 50W VHF signal booster that we originally bought from the baofeng radio. apparently it also works for the quansheng, and it was able to transmit at 50W versus its native power of less than 5W.
my mother packed me a bento with some red roasted pork and stir-fried bitter melon slices. i used the bathroom when i got home and took a quick shower afterwards, as watched the celtics championship banner raising and ring ceremony from my phone propped up on a soap dish. i heated up the bento before the game started so i could eat and watch. this was game 1 of the 2024-2025 NBA season. they faced the new york knicks, who specifically traded for karl-anthony towns in the off-season so they could face off against boston. things didn't go according to plans for new york. boston scored so much in the first quarter (leading by nearly 20 points), that they just needed to keep pace with the knicks to win the game. the final score was 109-132. celtics made 29/61 3 pointers, which tied a franchise record. the 4th quarter was just the bench players trying to hit another 3 pointer to beat the record, but they suddenly went cold and couldn't made one. an excellent start for the season.
even though i tried to sleep in late on the only day this week where i didn't have to wake up early, i still woke up at 8:30am. there was street cleaning this morning, on the opposite side of the street. it took me a while to figure out which side before i moved my motorcycle last night. there was one solitary car parked on the opposite side. instead of a ticket, the city road crew employed a leaf blower to blow all the leaves out from underneath the car since they had to clean around it. it's the second year that cambridge has stopped towing cars for street cleaning violations. i kind of wish they'd start again.
i thought i saw a mouse scurrying along the edge of the wall in my living room, running behind a chair. when i went to move the chair, i didn't see a mouse. was it my imagination? i sure hope so. i haven't seen a mouse in the house in probably 20 years. how did it even get in? but there's nothing to eat, and i keep all my perishables in plastic bins or up in cupboards. if it was a mouse, hopefully it found its way out.
i went to market basket around 10:40am to collect a few more things for the cafe tomorrow. i wore a long-sleeved pullover but it was entirely unnecessary as it was already hot by mid-morning. in fact, we'd set a new record high temperature for this day at 85 degrees. it definitely felt like the last hurrah of warm temperature, and after this we'll be back to more seasonable cold weather.
after gathering my things from home, i stopped by the cafe to drop off the supplies. i moved out some food from the freezer to thaw in the fridge. i hung up the boston fern that my father lowered on saturday to water. i restocked the drink fridge.
i made it to belmont around noontime. i had a day of yard work planned, including moving and expanding raised bed zero. but first we needed to mow the lawn. we took down all the barricades i put up while i was growing new grass. while my father was doing that, i was emptying out the garage so we could clean it after discovering what looked to be rat droppings.
with most of the garage's content emptied out onto the driveway, it's amazing how much stuff we had in there. we filled several boxes with things we were going to throw out, and several boxes more with partially emptied old paint cans and motor oil containers that we'll drop off at the hazardous waste recycle day next month. we swept the perimeter of the garage (where most of rat droppings were located) before i vacuumed up the rest. i was going to change out the vacuum filters anyway, so it was okay that i was vacuuming up all sorts of gross stuff. we then put everything back into the garage. i need to spray expanding foam at the two corners by the garage door as there's enough of a gap for critters to get inside. once that's done, the garage should be rodent proof.
cleaning the garage took most of the day. we finally finished by 4pm. there was no time to build a new raised bed frame, but my father did mow the backyard. earlier i'd taken down the automatic sprinkler timer in the front yard. if we need to do any watering, it will be done manually.
i didn't realize esmei was home and let her outside so she could get some exercise. i teased her with some milkweed fluff, she caught them in the air but regretted the decision immediately afterwards as the fluff wasn't much fun once caught. while my father mowed, i disassembled the sawhorse tables we were using for our outdoor houseplants. now that all the houseplants are back indoors, these tables were just taking up space.
my sister kept coming back to the house multiple times. i knew she was coming back because her dog was still in the house. one time she left to go see the doctor. another time to fix her car? and then a third time with my father to home depot to buy gravel.
i replaced the shark vacuum filters with some new ones i bought a few weeks ago. i then vacuumed parts of the house. it always amazed me how much dust gets vacuumed.
around 5pm i made the rounds watering our houseplants, starting with the basement grow room. i used Bti-infused water of course (to kill off any fungus gnats), but i also need to apply some general insecticide at some point as well, to treat for mealybugs and spider mites. it's better to get a head start eradicating those critters instead of waiting for an infestation to take place. even though i don't see any bugs now, they're there, and with no natural predators living indoors during the colder months, it's easily for their population to grow. after i finished with the basement plants, i watered the plants in the sunroom, with include the holiday cactuses and still more pileas.
my father came back from home depot around 5:30pm and starting grilling the lamb chops and asparagus. we kept asking my sister if she wanted any, but she said no. esmei didn't want to leave, and plopped down on the ground. she had to be coaxed with some lamb before she finally left.
the lamb and asparagus and the pico de gallo salad my mother made were all good. the lamb was probably cooked a little bit too long as they were medium done, but i actually prefer my grilled meats medium. while everyone else had 3 lamb chops, i ate 4. there were two left, and honestly i could've ate them as well, they were so good. it felt like summer foods on a day that was warm enough to be summertime.
after dinner i filled up a bucket with rain water and added some mosquito bits for watering next weekend. i also moved the plank table we built a few months ago into the basement grow room, replacing the folding table we'd been using for a few seasons. the plank table is slightly longer and gives a better natural aesthetic to the grow room.
my father told me he fried the TYT 9800 because he powered it with reverse polarity. good news is it can be repaired cheaply, but bad news is it can only be done in taiwan, so he has to wait until the next time he goes back to get it fixed. this unit was actually our second unit, after the first unit was fried in the same exact way. that unit is back at my house, working after my father got it repaired in taiwan. we briefly looked online for a cheap substitute. my father didn't want another quad-band transceiver, but rather wanted an all band SDR transceiver/receiver that can be hooked up to an LCD screen to display a spectrum waterfall. we checked out radioberry pi and malachite SDR radio.
another thing that stopped working is our DIY LiFePO4 battery in the dining room. the battery charges via solar and the voltage is correct when we measure with a multimeter, but the onboard voltage meter, cigarette lighter and USB port don't work anymore. we connected to the BMS which showed everything was normal. my father also checked the wires to make sure none was loose. he finally figured it out: an inline safety fuse (10A 250V) was blown out. we replaced it with a 7A fuse and battery started working again.
i returned home after 8pm. i didn't bother looking for the comet tonight, but i did briefly glance into the night time sky when i was refilling the barrel with rain water.
i opened up the twin comforter tonight, stuffed it inside the twin duvet cover. i'm going to sleep in the guest bedroom to break in the new comforter. it seemed a little flat which may just be because it's been packed in a vacuum sealed bag. it may take a while for it to fluff up.
my alarm went off at 7am this morning but i couldn't wake up. i snoozed it for another 30 minutes before finally getting out of bed by 7:30am. bathroom, shower, i was out the door by 7:50am. temperature was in the 40's but would warm up. i left with some hot linden leaves tea. i wore my fleece hooded jacket layered with a vest. by the time i made it down to the river, the men's youth singles was already in progress. i went to my usual spot, removed my jacket, and got ready for the next event, the women's youth singles.
i didn't go to last year's head of the charles because it was too rainy. the last time i went was back in 2022. i came with my old 55-250mm lens but armed with new knowledge: shooting with my recently discovered action shot settings of manual f/8 aperture with 1600 sec. shutter speed, guaranteed sharp images. it was a bright sunny morning and the sun was casting a blinding glare on the surface of the river, shining directly at me whenever i faced due east. made me wish i had a hat to block the glare.
after the women's youth singles was the women's under-17 fours. i'm not sure what the difference is between youth and under-17. around that time a man showed up behind me. he was on the phone with his wife, saying he had a great viewing spot (my spot). after he hung up, we chatted a bit. james from chicago, watching his daughter compete in the women's youth eights. he wanted to shoot a video as his daughter's team (no.8) came up the river. i told him i'd move out of the way so he could have a clean pan. he wasn't here last year, but said he heard from other parents that the weather was miserable. he said the head of the charles was the most prestigious (and the last racing event of the season). they've been to other regional events in the northeast, though the final happens in florida in the spring. HOCR is a timed race, while in other places it's a head race where teams compete in separate lanes.
as the morning progressed, the glare started to diminish as the sun rose higher up in the sky. the next event was the women's youth coxed quads. finally the women's youth eights began. after i got photos of the first few boats, i let james take my place so he could film his daughter. i thought he was going to be quiet but as soon her boat came by, he was shouting words of encouragement. he thanked me for letting him film. before he left, he asked if i took any photos of his daughter's team, and asked if i could send them to him. we exchanged phone numbers as he raced off to the finish line.
i stayed and watched the rest of the youth eights. after that there was the women's youth doubles and fours, but i had enough rowing for one day. by then it was close to 10am. i walked back out to memorial drive where i parked my bicycle, then pedaled back home.
i got home by 10:15am. since we were planning on a baifu supply run, i quickly grabbed my things and left via motorcycle. my parents were still asleep when i got there by 10:30am. they didn't expect to see me so early after i told them i was going to go see the head of the charles. my mother didn't think we were getting supplies until tomorrow. since it was still early, we decided to do a supply run after all. my mother elected to stay home instead.
driving to baifu took us onto storrow drive, back to where i was earlier this morning. there were even more people now crowding the bridges. crossing the eliot bridge took some time as they reduced the lanes to control traffic, but after that it was smooth sailing. we watched as crowds of people lined the charles river watching the boats go by. we got off at kenmore square and went down mass avenue to baifu. traffic was surprisingly light, both in cars and pedestrians.
we got to baifu by 11:15am. we finished shopping in about half an hour, heading back to cambridge. once more we traveled on storrow drive, crossing back over eliot bridge. we made it to the cafe around 12:30pm, unpacked the supplies, then returned to cambridge.
my mother was gone. i assumed she took off with my sister to walk esmei in the woods. my father made wonton soup for lunch. i felt a little light-headed, thought maybe i was too hungry, but i think i might've gotten carsick.
after lunch we left for chip-in farm in bedford to buy some chicken manure. when i called them on friday they said they still had them in stock. we left by 1:40pm and it took 30 minutes to drive there. we would've been pretty lost without the help of google maps.
things didn't look good when we arrived, as the manure truck was empty. we went inside the shop to ask the clerk if they had anymore chicken manure, he said they were all sold out. i asked when they'd have them available again, he said in a few more weeks. so we drove all the way out for nothing. at least we got to see some goats in the petting zoo, and one of the goats licked my hand. another goat had the same fur colorations as esmei, like a goat version of her. there was also a child's birthday party happening (which explained all the cars in the parking lot).
we got back home by 2:45pm. my mother had already came back.
i downloaded the photos pertaining to james' daughter's rowing team and sent them to him. there was too many to attach in a text message, so i created a google photos album. i sent him the link, he thanked me afterwards.
my father was trying to figure out how to use the 12v wifi-enabled power switch i got last year to remotely control our transfer pump. we'd already disconnected it but the attached wires were confusing, as there seemed to be more than necessary. that's when we figured out that power had to both go into the switch to power it as well as the load circuitry in order to power that as well in addition to turning it on and off.
prior to sunset, i climbed the roof to mount my gopro on the solar panel frame to take a night lapse of the sky, in hopes of capturing the comet.
for dinner my mother made a stirfry of tofu with chinese celery, along with a garlic chive omelette. unlike yesterday when i was the first to finish the risotto, tonight i was the last to finish my dinner.
i got up this morning at 8am to go to haymarket. the thermostat had turned on the heat by then, so it wasn't as cold as usual. i tried to leave early but didn't set out until 8:45am. temperature was in the 40's but will be in the 70's by the afternoon. the sky was clear and sunny. i went to haymarket via cambridge street and lechmere. there was barely any bike traffic this early on a saturday morning. i got there in 20 minutes.
i was happy to see the fishmongers were back. i looked to see if any of them were selling softshell clams but no luck. i wanted some hachiya persimmons but could only find the flat fuyu variety. my haul: 8 fuyu persimmons ($5), 2 scallions ($2), 1 cilantro ($1), 1 lbs. of red anaheim hot peppers ($1), 1 swiss chard ($1), 2 lbs. of tomatoes ($1).
i left haymarket by 9:30am. after crossing the longfellow bridge, i took a detour to ride along the shores of the charles river back to harvard square. i wanted to see the start of the head of the charles, which i'd never seen before. it wasn't easy riding, as there were many saturday morning joggers. the race starts from the BU boat house but there's no good place to see the launches from there so i kept riding. it wasn't until western avenue didn' they finally close memorial drive and i could ride in the empty road. i made it as far as ash street before i detoured and returned home.
i got back by 10:15am, but left immediately afterwards, this time to market basket to get some ingredients for making risotto tonight. back at home again, i grabbed my things and took the motorcycle to the cafe, getting there about 15 minutes before we opened.
on saturdays the action at the cafe begins as soon as we open. it was busy - probably more so with the nice weather - but the good thing is we close early, so after a few hours of work, we can call it a day. we used up all the tea eggs in the slow cooker, but instead of heating up the backup batch of tea eggs (which we couldn't possibly all use up today), we just fished out 10 eggs and put them in the slow cooker. for lunch i baked some mini pizzas in the oven. it was good, but my 2nd aunt the recent nutritional buzzkill was looking at the ingredients listing and said there was too much salt.
after work i left for my parents' place. they haven't turned on the heat yet so it was freezing inside the house. i opened a few windows to let the hotter outside air into the house. my parents returned a short time later.
italian sausage & broccoli risotto
(2-4 servings)
32 oz. carton chicken broth
(equivalent of 2 cans)
1 cup arborio rice
1 cup white wine
1 tbsp red pepper flakes
fresh ground pepper
bowl frozen broccoli, steamed
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
warm up chicken broth in separate pot, turn off heat and cover. in large pot cook onion and garlic in butter. add sausages by squeezing out of casing and forming small meatballs. toss in leftover casings. once sausages cooked, add rice, coating in juices. add wine and spices, simmer until most of liquids gone. began adding chicken broth in 1/2 cup increments, stirring constantly to prevent scorching, add more broth when most of liquids absorbed. separately thaw frozen broccoli in microwave or steamer, 2 minutes. when risotto nearly done, mix in broccoli. add parmesan cheese, mix until melted.
around 5pm i started making my risotto. the last time i made it was june 2023, so we're long overdue. my father helped me chop the onion and garlic, i was tasked with putting it all together, but mainly to stir the risotto non-stop for 20 minutes. i realized why this risotto is so delicious: the sauce is essentially the same sauce we make for our steamed mussels - a combination of butter, garlic, and white wine. my mother came out of her room around 6pm, eager to eat some risotto. it's a great winter recipe because you really start to warm up afterwards.
after dinner i went out into the backyard to look for tsuchinshan-atlas. i managed to spot it using a pair of binoculars, and used my camera phone to confirm. i went back inside to grab my telephoto camera and a tripod. my father came out and spotted the comet as well with the binoculars. he said without it, he would never be able to see the comet, and he was surprised by how faint it was now. supposedly it has a magnitude of 6.8, too faint to be resolved with the naked eye from the suburb. my mother came out as well to finally see the comet with the binoculars before going back inside to watch her shows. i remained outside to photograph the comet before it disappeared behind the maple tree.
before i left i helped my mother buy a heated mattress pad for the twin bed. originally we were going to buy a sunbeam pad because my parents have used that brand before and it had over 17k ratings, but ended up going an unknown brand because it can arrive by tomorrow. i'm not a fan of the heated mattress pad. i much rather prefer a heavyweight winter comforter. yes it's cold at first, but your own body heat quickly warmed up the comforter.
going to sleep early tonight, need to wake up tomorrow at 7am to catch some head of the charles action.