i knew the exact moment when my neighborhood experienced a blackout: at 10:40am i lost my internet connection. i was in my bedroom at the time so figured i just needed to reset the router. but when i went into the living room i noticed the clock was off. it took me a few seconds to realize there was no electricity in the house. i wasn't sure if it was just my house until i pulled down the wifi network selection on my laptop and could only see somerville networks. i waited an hour before i used the data on my phone to find the eversource number so i could report an outage. they had an online reporting page so i used that instead. it told me that due to a high voltage equipment damage, service was interrupted but power should be restored by 12:45pm.

i decided to wait until the power came back. i didn't know when freddy was coming home (he was in east boston this morning assisting a diabetes clinic), but i wanted to be sure the wifi and thermostat were working before i left. but when 12:45pm came along, there was still no power. i decided i couldn't wait any longer and left for belmont.

i hadn't eaten yet so my mother cooked up some simple chongqing flavor noodles for lunch.

binbin invited us to dinner at the waltham mulan taiwanese restaurant. jason's parents were returning to xi'an next tuesday and we still haven't had a dinner gathering since they've been here for 6 months. the last time we saw them was when they made a surprise appearance at the cafe while we were doing renovation work during labor day weekend. they were planning on staying longer, but jason's mother developed a cough a few months back, and actually spent 2 weeks at MGH getting tested because the doctors didn't know what she had. they gave her drugs but it only seemed to make it worse. so she was returning to china to get a second opinion, maybe get some chinese medicine treatment instead. dinner was at 5pm (a bit early, but with daylight hours becoming shorter, it'd be dusky by then).