i went running this morning, for the first time since probably early june. it was already warm with temperature in the 80's but it was a dry heat so it wasn't too bad. i listened to my book on tape, the curious incident of the dog in the night-time by mark haddon, which is a great way of distracting me from noticing i'm actually exercising. cambridge road crew made some renovations to the pedestrian path along the charles river, repaving and widening the road. i did pretty well considering i haven't been running in a few months, made a complete loop without stopping, something i wasn't able to do on my last outings. granted, i wasn't traveling very fast, but i worked up a sweat anyway, and was panting ferociously afterwards. walking back to my house, i felt a cold tingling sensation, which i believe is a symptom of heat exhaustion.

after a shower and a toaster-oven baked hot dog for lunch, i headed to belmont.

i couldn't just watch and do nothing while powdery mildew slowly infects all the squash and gourd leaves. i'd been to home depot but all the fungicide stuff they carried were pretty toxic. what i wanted was this product i saw online called serenade garden disease control. instead of chemicals, it employed an active bacteria strain effective against a whole range of plant diseases. however, i couldn't it anywhere, so i ended up getting a bottle of safer garden fungicide from the hillside garden store. it's also an organically-approved solution that uses elemental sulfur to fight fungal diseases.

my father got a chance to use his favorite new piece of equipment, the pressurized water gun. after seeing the miracle it performed cleaning the bricks on the front steps a few months ago, my father took the spray to the wooden bench swing in the backyard, sun-bleached and covered in mildew and dirt. afterwards going to apply some australian timber oil to treat the wood.

after dinner my father invited my aunt and uncle over without asking us first. the next 15 minutes we spent frantically cleaning the house while my father just watched from the sideline. they came by to let my parents know they probably can't make it to china this year. i left soon after they did. [thumb progress 090803 front], [thumb progress 090803 back]