the first day of november and nothing much happened. i hung out around the house, surfed the web, watched a few shows. i walked to the dollar store to get some toilet paper ($9, 24 rolls charmin regular) and kleenex ($5, 3 boxes of 200 sheets). it was my first time outside and i was surprised by how nice the weather was. unfortunately it was already too late in the day to do anything with it.

i had a craving for hard cider so i made a bike trip down to the beacon street foodmaster, one of the few supermarkets in the area that actually sells alcohol (the only other place i know about is the memorial drive trader joe's). i wanted to enjoy this establishment while it's still here: i heard the sad news early this week that this foodmaster while close this month, to be converted into a whole foods by the end of next year. i think there's a place for whole foods on the supermarket spectrum, but it's a terrible fit for the neighborhood, since whole foods is anything but affordable. this will only drive people looking for "real" food to the somerville avenue market basket, which is already crowded. maybe market basket will realize the lack of affordable groceries and open up another store nearby.

the closing was on the minds of the employees, as i overheard many of them talking about it, some very animated (using saucy language) while others were resigned to the inevitable and saying their good byes. none of them were sure when the actual closing date was, and a few were trying to corroborate rumors with the other 5 foodmasters that will also be converted to whole foods. there would be no special sales, since they'd just pack up all the food and relocate them to the few remaining stores (like the one on route 16 near alewife and teele square). whole foods promised preexisting employees an interview but no guarantee of a job; besides, if they're not going to open until the end of 2013, all these workers will need to find new employment for the next year.

i despise whole foods. they represent an unwanted gentrification of the neighborhood; without a source of affordable food, the poor will be forced to move out, clearing the way for the rich to move in. granted, business at the beacon street foodmaster was never the best (often times there were only a few cars in the parking lot), and i rarely shopped there (my supermarket of choice is market basket). but anything else would've been better than whole foods. i would've even taken a trader joe's.

what i really wanted was the limited release fall cider (which i had up in acadia) but they didn't carry it, so instead i picked up a six pack of woodchuck amber ($9.29) and a bag of spicy pork rinds ($1.79). i returned home looking to spend the rest of my afternoon relaxing to some unhealthy snacks when i saw the e-mail from drew. i was surprised he didn't take the bike to MIT this morning; i figured maybe all the hurricane debris on the road scared him off. but turns out there was something wrong with the bike.

the chain had gotten caught between the real derailleur cage and the cassette and several links were twisted and mashed during a swift turn on the crank arm. i figured i needed to replace the chain but i managed to make a temporary fix by removing the damaged links (4 links worth) and reattaching the chain back together. after playing around with it intermittently throughout the rest of the afternoon (i went through several pairs of latex gloves), i i finally got it to work. it won't shift into the smallest or largest gear, but it can ride at least.

drew came home around 5:00, soon after i fixed the bike. i don't think he was fully appreciative of the amount of work i spent to get the bike in riding condition again; instead he seemed annoyed that the bike might not operate the same as it had before.

while drew continued to work on the lasagna he made about 2 weeks ago, i heated up my leftover kale and quinoa pilaf for dinner but added some chopped bacon to make it tastier.