ailanthus truck (the largest pieces that need heavy equipment to move), but when i looked out the window i was surprised to see them chopping down the mulberry tree that'd lost a large branch a few weeks ago. there was nothing wrong with that tree other than the seasonal nuisance of dropped berries dirtying 
the sidewalk for a few weeks each summer. as far as i'm concerned, that mulberry was murdered for no good reason other than the fear that it may borrow a chapter from the tree of heaven and topple over as well. what's with all the recent tree hate? by coincidence or design, they're all happening on the somerville side of the demarcation line. i wasn't the only one who was upset. i noticed a crow (when was the last time you saw a crow? the west nile virus has greatly reduced their population) flying around, perching on rooftops, staring at the void that used to be a mulberry tree, with a look of avian confusion. you and me both, crow.
it would've been a good day to go running but i wussed out and played half an hour of wii fit to compensate for my laziness. i still managed to break a serious sweat so i felt like calories were burned. i did the advanced hula, 6 minutes of pure gyrations. at one point i started to forget how to hula, almost dropping my collection of hoops. i also did a bunch of yoga stuff. as stretch exercises i think they're valid, and they're definitely challenging, as i find myself having a hard time balancing on my tippy toes or hold still standing on one leg for a long time. but i can do without the eastern mysticism, which i don't believe in. and i only do poses don't require me to move off the board because i don't have a lot of space in my living room.
my high pressure drug has finally been approved, and i went to CVS to pick up my 30-day supply. 80mg diovan AKA valsartan is also an angiotensin receptor blocker, like avapro. i'll take it for a month, see how it works out, and then maybe stick with it for the long duration if it's as good as avapro. diovan is shaped like a pink sunflower seed and seems to be coated with something to allow easy swallowing. the tablet itself has no taste (unlike chlorthalidone - talk about your bitter pill!).
i went to the cambridge public library branch in central square to pick up a pair of free passes to the new england wildflower society in framingham. the main library is still under renovation so the central square office now acts as the temporary headquarter. 
i'd never been to this branch before and was surprised by the location (on pearl street). apparently in this down economy everybody's trying to score free museum passes from the library so there was a long wait at the reference desk. that's when a pretty latina grabbed me to ask a question. i thought maybe she'd gotten me confused with a librarian. "can you tell me how to spell bullshit?" i smiled at her as i wrote the word down on her notepad. "why would you want to learn a word like that?" i asked. she smiled back but didn't say anything.
from pearl street i traversed the residential maze known as cambridgeport to arrive at the trader joe's on memorial avenue. i bought a few snacks and headed to the cafe. it was a hot and humid day with the threat of thunderstorms in the late afternoon. i went to the cafe briefly and found that they lost their power 30 minutes ago. i went with my mother back to belmont to grab the extension cord. i then quickly rode back home, trying to avoid the rain - the rain that never did arrive.
i reached a milestone today: finally got to 10,000 miles on the motorcycle. i was supposed to reach this milestone last summer, but a broken foot ruined my plan. my father and i bought the bike in 2000, and although he's rode it on occasions, i've done the bulk of the riding. in those early years i didn't do much riding, and was only after i moved to cambridge did i begin to use the motorcycle more often. and once i started freelancing fulltime, biking is my main mode of transport (throughout the seasons, not including winter). the thing with bike miles is i feel like i've earned every one of them. from the vibration up my spine, to bugs flying into my mouth, through rain and snow and falling leaves, behind garbage trucks, on good and bad roads. i wonder if i can add another 1000 miles to the bike before the end of the year?
it's tuna sandwich day here in cambridge, eating it both for lunch and dinner.
i'm still obsessing over my thumb and i probably won't stop until it's completely healed. last night i carefully peeled off the dried dead skin around the wound. at the time it seemed like a good idea but the exposed skin underneath is very tender and hurts when i press on it. i put on a bandaid over the thumb this morning, but when i took it off in the afternoon, the underneath was all waterlogged and white, so i decided to abandon the bandaid idea.