the gutter guys came this morning to clean out our gutters. i wasn't notified, maybe they came on their own. typically they just scoop out the leaves with their hands, but they upped their game this year, sounded like they were using a leafblower.

i tried some of freddy's chicken-beef lasagna for lunch, warmed up 2 slices in the toaster oven. it was good, the top a little crusty from reheating, but quite filling. he only used one cheese - mozzarella - for the topping. one thing i noticed was how oily it was. maybe the lack of ricotta causes the fat from the beef to come out when i heat it.

bath tub drain update: the drain seems to be working again, even though it still seemed slow to drain after i poured in a bottle of drain-o. i'm curious to know what exactly is down there that's causing the blockage? i still think it's a piece of the drain plug assembly, that's why i can't seem to get my plastic snake very far down into the pipe. but anyway, it's working again, draining well, gurgles while i shower, which is music to my ears.

i weighed myself: i'm now at 147 lbs. compared that to the summer, when on one particularly hot and sweaty day i managed to clock in at 139 lbs. i can already feel a tightness in my clothes. it seems like after every thanksgiving i put on some weight which then doesn't come off until the following summer. hopefully once they get huron avenue fixed i can begin biking again, which if not reducing my weight, will at least halt its steady advance.

i went to the community garden to collect more rocks. it won't be long now, in a few more weeks, all of this - at least the plots on the right side of the garden - will all be torn up to make a new path into the park. i was surprised to find a note in the latest garden e-mail that my plot was already designated as abandoned and that they needed help in moving any remaining bricks to the other side of the garden by december 1st. i was afraid some good samaritan had already done that but happy to see my plot just the way i left it last time. i moved some good bricks and rocks into my bike baskets, and moved a few broken bricks to the side of the garden. i need to come back one more time to collect the final rocks.

in belmont, i noticed the rubber strings i placed around the seed feeder seemed to be doing there job, because i didn't see a single sparrow visit the feeder, although there was plenty of chickadees. not that the sparrows weren't there, i could see a few lurking in the trees, but somehow they were avoiding the feeder today. i'm not going to fool myself: it's only a matter of time before the sparrows find enough courage to make attempts at the feeder, and once a few are successful, the rest will follow. that's why i still need to get my hands on actual transparent monofilament fishlines and make better "deterrent fibers" to keep the sparrows away. all of this won't keep the squirrels though, which is another problem. i've been told they've already been snacking on the suet feeder, but i haven't seen it for myself.

rtsp streaming pi zero update: it worked great, especially after i changed the scripts and added a cron job that will automatically restart omxplayer if it loses connection. it also made good use of a spare LCD monitor. the problem was the monitor was simply too big for a discreet monitoring station. also there was no way to pan the camera (other than to use the phone app) and lack of audio. instead he used one of the china android tablets to run tinycam monitor pro; it's discreet, it's portable, the only downside is it has to be charged in all the time because it has a weak battery life.

my parents brought back the anker 4-port charger and the anker essential oil diffuser. the diffuser was for my sister so i left it in the box, but the charger i gave to my parents to use. my father immediately plugged 2 tablets into the device.

the temperature outside had already dropped to 32° by the time i decided to head home. the motorcycle was stubborn again, had to gently coax the engine to life by carefully toggling the choke button. the ride home wasn't too bad, my hands were a little cold, but it wasn't terrible. late autumn rides used to be feel so much worse, i think it was because my old honda rebel didn't have a windshield. once the temperature drops below freezing and if i'm still riding, i'll pull out my chinese handlebar mitts. so far this year i haven't put on my thermal underwear yet, so it's not that cold - yet.

earlier i turned up the heat when i noticed freddy was home by 6:30pm. in the kitchen sink was an empty lasagna dish, looked like he finished the rest of the lasagna. he came out of his room to ask me if i was renting out by place in late january/early february. apparently paula has a mexican doctor in mind who's looking for a place to stay. i asked him how long (he didn't know) and told him to have paula get in touch with me directly.