without explanation, my internet was working again this morning. after a few hours to make sure it was really back on and not just a fluke, i called comcast and used their automated service to cancel the repairman appointment i'd scheduled in the early evening. why did it fail in the first place? do cable modems just arbitrarily fail every once in a while? i will probably never the real reason.

bruce and jack were driving down to revere beach to take a walk and invited me along. the last time i was down there was a july evening last summer (coming back from a party in winthrop) where i briefly saw some fireworks. the weather was in low 40's with some wind, but the sun was shining so it was too bad. there was only a handful of people on the beach, everyone bundled up in their winter jackets. i hid my camera in my jacket when i wasn't shooting to prevent windswept beach sand from getting into the lens.

revere beach in the summertime is pretty devoid of nature (other than the human animal), so imagine the desolation during winter. broken shells and seaweed littered the beach, and the only wildlife were seagulls, either herring gulls or the much larger great black-backed gulls. we walked down a stretch then turned around. when we returned to cambridge, bruce gave me their broken floor lamp to see if i could fix it for them (they already got a replacement). i took the thing apart but i think there's something wrong with the circuitry, which is beyond my expertise. i will probably cannibalize the lamp for parts before putting it out on the sidewalk for trash removal. in the torchiere lamp shade i found a few dead bugs.

i had more chinese dumplings for dinner.