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saturday is a time for healing, and i'm not just talking about my foot. today hillary clinton finally started the democratic party healing progress, giving her concession speech and asked her supporters to get behind barack obama as the democratic nominee for the white house. it was a speech that was supposed to start at noon but began late (fashionably so, i'd imagine), with television cameras focused on her house and the speech venue. it wasn't the greatest speech, but it was effective, and i suddenly felt sorry for her, like i always do for any losing team.

after her speech about not looking back and wondering "what if" but looking forward and working for the future, i suddenly couldn't remember any of the bad blood that was shed by her campaign in the months leading up to this point. her speech made me feel warm and fuzzy, and any animosity i had for the woman quickly disappeared.

after yesterday's dreary weather, i started to wonder if we'd ever see the sun again. there were reports of an oncoming heatwave starting this weekend, but it was just too hard to believe. until it happened. my house stays pretty cool during the summer so i didn't even notice it at first. then i went outside and the wall of heat hit me, like walking from an air conditioned room into a muggy sauna. how could this be? but here in new england, we learn not to ask too many questions about our uniquely unpredictable weather patterns.

on a nice day today i would be going out, but due to my foot injury and a slightly busted motorcycle, i'm grounded for the time being. i watched helplessly from the window, people in their shorts and flip-flops, riding bicycles, going to the beach, enjoying this serious preview of the coming summer. not wanting to be completely useless, i decided to wash the wooden stoop of the house. i bought a special chemical cleanser a few weeks ago, mixed a gallon of the stuff, then went about applying it with an used paint brush. afterwards i did some parts of the backyard porch. i would've kept on going but my foot started to hurt all from that standing so i went ahead and rinsed off all the cleansing fluid (soaking myself in the process because the sprayer was broken, but it felt pretty good in this hot weather). i thought maybe the cleanser would restore the wood's natural color but it just made everything look sort of faded. it did however get rid of the green algae that was starting to form on the bench portion of the porch. tomorrow i'll coat the wood with a special layer of protective oil; maybe that'll bring out some of the colors.

after a shower, i ate some more leftover rice noodle with chicken broth. i played some hellgate then fell asleep on the couch as evening rolled around.