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MAY

07

2012

i ran into elias' friend megan while riding my bike this morning; it looked like she was returning home from yoga. i was on my way to porter square veterinarian in davis square to pick up some heartworm medication for hailey.

i found myself sneezing so i used some nasal spray when i got back home, figuring it might be allergy-related.

i gathered up a box full of plants and walked down to the community garden to transplant them into their new home. i wasn't planning on staying long but ran into sharon (the gardener i met yesterday at the may fair) and had a nice long chat, despite being distracted by what she was wearing (a polka-dotted bikini halter top underneath a see-through shirt she nonchalantly tried to cover herself with unsuccessfully). she's one of the few gardeners that had their soil tested early, and she discovered high lead levels in her plot so decided on a bioremediation course to draw out the lead using cilantro and sunflowers. i have a feeling my lead level will be high as well once my soil test results come back.

i planted a row of hot peppers (4), a square of thai basil (4), and interspersed some sweet basil (2) between a few tomatoes. the remaining transplants were flowers, including my one healthy delphinium, a few of snapdragons (2), and a bunch of shasta daisies (6). i still have more snapdragons in my grow closet and a few small daisies; i'll transplant those next time.

i met laura for the first time, who's into her 2nd season at the plot next to mine. she thought i was new because she'd never seen me before, and commented about how whoever had my plot last season left it a mess, not realizing that person was me. when i told her she managed to hide her embarrassment but naturally she didn't make a good first impression. the reason why we never saw each other last year was she'd visit the garden in the mornings before work and i usually came in the afternoons.

i told my mother i'd be in belmont my noontime but didn't leave cambridge until 1:00. i took the fuji bike because i heard it was going to rain tomorrow and i got a really good parking spot for my motorcycle and didn't want to move it. i actually ran into my father who was driving back home from the cafe. i was ahead of him for half the trip (due to the fact that i ran a few red lights) but eventually he caught up and drove ahead of me.

while cleaning the house, my mother spotted more wings in the computer room, the same place that had the swarming last time. we were told this might happen again (not by ultra safe but by another exterminator) and now that i think about it, maybe that's why ultra safe called me this morning asking if everything was okay (and to let me know they'd send someone over soon to install the termite baits). the colony itself could be dying; the swarmers might've already been primed to leave the nest when the weather warmed up again (like it did yesterday and today). the key is whether or not there'll be swarming next spring. i did check the garage - site of the other swarm attack - but there was no swarm activity there.

my mother wanted my father and i home early because she wanted to go to target and figured we might want to visit nearby home depot as well. earlier my father was at the doctor's office getting treatment for his gout which hasn't entirely gone away since he came back from taiwan and recently had been flaring up again even more severely. entirely hobbled, he opted to stay in bed while my mother and i left for the arsenal/watertown mall.

first stop was home depot where i was looking for flowers to grow both in the shade garden and the partially shady southeastern corner garden. i wanted some ferns to replace the ones that'd died, but couldn't find any. i ended up going with a bag of mixed caladiums. they're tender perennials but if we did another mild winter like the one we had, they'll probably survive to another season. maybe one day we'll plant some peonies in the southeastern garden, but my mother picked out some lily bulbs instead, plus a bag of freesia.

after a visit to target, we returned home. a neighbor was throwing out a twin-sized mattress. my mother stopped to investigate; seeing that it didn't look too shabby, she asked for me help to load it into the car. once we got it back home, we realized there was a reason why the owner tossed out the mattress: pee stains! we prompted threw it back out onto the curb (just a few blocks away from where it was originally).

i took the car out on a mini-errand to hillside garden on blanchard road to see if they had any salt marsh grass (which i use as garden mulch). i didn't see any when i got there, but when i asked, it sounded like they had a lot. i paid first (only $10 a bale) then took the receipt to the delivery boy who was already out in the parking lot with my grass. i still have about a bale's worth saved from last year; this will be enough for my parents' garden as well as my own in cambridge.

my father was okay enough to help me plants my vegetables in the garden. into raised bed 4 (RB4) we planted 4 tomatoes (2 best boy, 2 cherry), 8 hot peppers, and 4 basils (2 sweet, 2 thai). he created a way to water the raised bed using water from the rain barrel being funneled through canals.

in RB2 we planted 4 tomatoes as well (2 best boy, 2 cherry) along with 6 basil (4 thai, 2 sweet). i planted the freesia on the western side of the house, and the caladiums in the shade garden. i'm returning tomorrow to plant the rest of my flower seedlings as well as the lilies.

after dinner my father helped me repair the power supply for my electroluminescent wire. for some reason it kept on cycling through the various modes seemingly on random. at first we thought it was because the AA batteries don't exactly fit inside the compartment, so my father filed off some plastic bits with a dremel tool. batteries fit now, but it still kept cycling through the modes. we even took apart the power supply but couldn't figure out how to fix it.

the daytime temperature approached the 70's today, but by the time i was leaving belmont the temperature was 59°. i wore shorts so i was a little chilly at first but warmed up quickly. back at home, my roommate paid me the final month's rent without me having to ask him (even though he's a few days late).

when i saw on the news that it was going to rain overnight and into the early morning, i went outside to cover up my motocycle and to put the fuji in the basement. normally i wouldn't care about leaving the bicycle in some rain, but because of the electroluminescent wire, i figured i wanted to keep the bike dry. while in the basement i plugged in the power supply just to see what would happen. i was surprised to find it working normally, no longer cycling. so there actually wasn't a problem: when you run the power supply without the wire, it cycles, but once combined with the wire, it works fine.

there was a package on the back porch (sometimes a delivery person will do that if they don't feel safe leaving it on the front steps). i thought it was mine at first but turns out it was for my roommate. it was 11:20 by that point and my roommate was already in his room preparing to sleep. the lights were on so i knocked on his door to delivery his package. when he opened the door, i caught a brief glimpse of tighty whities and regretted not waiting until tomorrow to give him his stuff.