almost a week left before my parents return (next tuesday night). i went down to the cafe to deliver lunch for my grand uncle. instead of driving, i took the bike. enjoy it while i can because after the snow dump tomorrow, i don't think i'll be biking for a while. one of the things i wanted to check was if my grand uncle's clocks were right. the dementia clock had the correct time - i knew beforehand because i ssh'ed into the pi zero and verified that the datetime was correct. he also has an analog clock and somebody must've set it for him because it had the correct time as well.

while my grand uncle ate, i was discussing with my sister our plan for tomorrow. she thought my 2nd aunt might want to stay overnight at the cafe (there's a small bedroom in the basement) but when i went back to talk with my aunt, she agreed to close the cafe tomorrow. there won't be any customers anyway, and it'd be a hassle for her to get here and nearly impossible for her to return home. good thing i printed out a "cafe closed" sign earlier for my aunt to put up.

before i left, she asked me to get some milk. on the day before a major blizzard, she wants milk. she said it wasn't an emergency, maybe i could get it wednesday or thursday. i didn't bother explaining to her that i won't have the use of the car and probably not even the bicycle as well. fortunately i was going to market basket anyway later today, so i'd check to see if they had any milk left.

when i got back home i ate some scallion pancakes my aunt had made, they were pretty good, i probably could've eaten more than the 4 slices. i then set out for market basket. i had to cross the star market parking lot, which was already full, so that wasn't a good sign. not sure how many are customers though, i heard that neighbors sometimes park there during snow emergencies. when i got to mb the bike stand was pretty empty, but the parking lot was a congested mess. cars were double-parked in the back lot, not sure how they were even doing it without trapping some cars. and forget about any delivery trucks getting back there, it was just impossible. in the front lot, cars had formed a conga line, bumper to bumper, waiting to get a spot. inside, checkout aisles lines were like tentacles, tangling, prevent shopping carts from getting by.

it was under these circumstances that i bumped into judy, andrew's mother. i haven't seen her in years. she looked the same, her hair a little shorter than the last time i saw her. she was here looking for a specialty mayonnaise, brave of her to come out on the day before a blizzard. i also bumped into my garden neighbor wayne, with his wife/girlfriend. he didn't seem to recognize me (without my goatee, i have the sort of generic asian face that's easy to forget i think) and i didn't bother saying hi to him.

they actually had milk, but looking at the line, i only wanted the 12-items-or-less checkout, otherwise it'd take me forever to get out. i was already buying so many things for myself, i didn't have anymore space for the milk, so hopefully i'll do that later in the week.

back at home, i removed the fencing on our little front yard (it was going to be covered snow by tomorrow) then put the bike away in the basement.

the rest of the day i hunkered down at home, still a little disoriented by the daylight saving time change. it still seemed early judging by the amount of daylight but according to the clock it was already late. it was also weird to look outside and see how calm everything was. by tomorrow, that would be not the case. occasionally i'd check the news to see the forecast. originally we were supposed to get 12-18" of snow, but now it looks like it will be a little less, because by late afternoon early evening the snow will transition to sleet and rain. that's going to make for some messy shoveling, but now it looks like maybe 8-12". still a lot, but nothing like the 24" that might fall in western massachusetts.

karen came home around 6:35pm, went to the kitchen immediately to make a quick dinner, then went to her room to video chat with a patient. she came out a little bit later to tell me they cancelled work tomorrow (which i already knew from the clinic website). that's okay, because i won't be home anyway, i'll be shuttling back and forth between my parents' place and the cafe, shoveling snow. at least we have snowblowers. the one at the cafe i sort of know how to use, the one in belmont could be broken and i couldn't get it to start the last time i tried. shoveling isn't the hard part though; it's the driving back and forth i'm more worried about. i've driven in the snow and it's no fun, especially in a heavy vehicle with only 2-wheel drive. my biggest fear is getting stuck in the snow somewhere during the blizzard.

for dinner i was going to make these little chicken pot pie muffins with the leftover pie stuffing i had in the fridge. but the stuffing was from 3 weeks ago, and there was this very suspicious pink slime mold growing along the sides. i decided to toss it to be safe. but by that point i'd already set the crust dough in the muffin tin. what i should've done was to take out the dough, but like a moron, i decided to bake it anyway. i tried to find some chowdery canned soup i could use as a filler but i didn't have anything. so i ended up baking the crusts empty, making crust muffins.

i ended up heating a can of gumbo soup along with some frozen spinach and a dash of habanero hot sauce.

tomorrow is going to be a busy day.