it's my 3rd day of delivering my grand uncle's lunch, i'm starting to get the hang out it. i rode the bike to the cafe this time, after relocating the car to the front of the house when i saw there was an empty parking spot, a spot so good i didn't want to risk driving then coming back and finding it gone again. once again it seems like my grand uncle ate everything, but i'm not really sure now, he might be secretly dumping it in the trash. late last night i saw him up again, as late as 1am, sitting in his chair, seemingly waiting for lunch. i don't think my sister noticed (she doesn't have the webcam app anyway).

i looked in the mailbox before i left, there was a letter from the senior center. back at the cafe, my 2nd aunt asked for my help in fixing the VoIP phone; i taught her how to unplug the obihai to reset the phone whenever she notices bad connections. she also asked my help in signing up for autopay; i told her i'd set up a comcast account for her and then we'd finish it on monday when i return to delivery lunch.

back at the house, i looked at the mail i look. that letter turned out to be the check my parents have been waiting for. it was significantly less than they anticipated, simply because for some reason 40% of that amount ended up getting taken in the form of various taxes. in total there are 8 itemized taxes (some of which i don't even know what they are, even after searching online): CO MEDC, federal insurance contribution act tax (FICA, 2nd largest), CO FICA, federal unemployment tax (FUTA), federal withholding (the largest amount), medicare (MEDFICA), and MA state tax. maybe they can get some of it back next year when they do their 2017 taxes.

for lunch i had another honey ham egg cheese english muffin sandwich. i stacked the ham so thick, it was hard biting into the sandwich without the meat slipping out. i added some pepperoncini for additional flavor.

i walked down to harvard square to deposit the check in the bank. i never noticed it before, but all the clerks working at TD wore green. for a second i thought it was st.patrick's day. they seemed busy, 4 clerks behind the desk, all with customers. i managed to deposit the check with just a deposit slip (i didn't have the card); i guess when it comes to depositing money, banks aren't too picky with the formalities.

i went out again shortly afterwards, to visit the community garden, to look at some of the available plots. for displaced gardeners, we get first dibs before available plots are distributed to the wait list. there are just 3 of us, so our names will be put into a lottery. plot 22 is the best, on the eastern half of the garden, with a lot of good sun. plot 27 is the next best, although it's on the western side, so it doesn't get as much afternoon sun. finally i picked for my 3rd choice plot 5 all the way in the back. it's next to the fence and underneath a tree, but i like that it's on the eastern side. i really hope i get picked no.1 or no.2.

i've been monitoring the heating situation at my parents' place, or the lack thereof. the nest thermostat is set to 50°F, and so far the furnace hasn't kicked in once, as the temperature slowly drops. when my parents do return, i wonder how long it'd take to raise the room temperature back above 60°F. i'm also going to check the house tomorrow, make sure it isn't too cold that the pipes in the basement start freezing. that totally reminds me: i also have to go back to the cafe and reconnect the pipe heating cable at my grand uncle's upstairs apartments. my father and i disconnected it before they left, figuring it couldn't possibly get freezing cold again, but we figured wrong. better to have some heat on the pipes than risk having them freeze and explode.

i wasn't very hungry by dinner time. maybe it was because i'd been snacking all day, with sunflowers and pretzels. for dinner i finished the last two of my tea eggs.

karen came home around 7:30pm, early for her as she's been doing some late nights all this past week.

i've been systemically uploading my blog photos onto my google photos account. it's not as easy as it sounds. first i have to sort through each month's photos, removing the thumbnails, which are designated with either _s (for small) or _med (for medium). i do a sort by file size, assuming that the larger sized photos are the full-sized ones, then i sort by name, quickly browsing through the list to weed out thumbnails. by june 2011 i started doing something different, marking medium-sized thumbnails with just _m, saving myself some time. and as the years went on, full-sized photos got bigger, higher and better resolution.

looking through these old photos is like a trip down memory lane. i'm surprised by some really good photos i took back in the days, more than a decade ago. it's interesting because i also experiment with different cameras, different lenses. i went through a period where i took my wide-angle everything, and i'm really impressed with the photojournalistic aspect of it, i think i want to work it back into my repertoire (right now the wide angle is my least used lens).