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9:30am is my new wake up time these past few days (bear in mind i'm going to bed at 2-3am). nevertheless, it is still not late enough for GC, who always managed to get up after me. he left for work today around 10:15am. though the fishy smell for the most part has disappointed, i can still find pockets of it in secluded corners of the house. i tossed out the trash (didn't want mussel and shrimp shells stinking up the house the rest of the week) and lit an incense in the kitchen.

while eating my granola yogurt and watching the news, i saw a patch of rain clouds about to hit the boston area. i gathered up my things and left for belmont. at least today i managed to get some lunch before i went.

the motorcycle started up completely normal, all lights bright and solid. but a few seconds later the green neutral light began to flicker then went out, though the engine itself was running fine. once i throttled the gas the light came back on. for the first minute of riding the bike was feeling sluggish. when the lights go out, the throttle doesn't seem to be doing anything. after that though, the bike ran fine, though i was worried it might stall out anytime i stopped at a light.

once i arrived in belmont, i wheeled the motorcycle into the garage for the inspection. i removed the seat and battery cover, checking all the wires to see that none was loose or broken. everything seemed fine. i also checked the speedometer cable attached close to the axle of the front wheel, that seemed fine as well. then i took a reading of the battery after detaching it from the bike. 12.56V. a normal motorcycle battery when fully charged is 12.7 to 13.2V. once it gets to 12.4V, the battery begins to sulfate and degrade. it wasn't at that point yet, but it also wasn't fully charged either. so i hooked up the battery tender to trickle charge the battery. hopefully this is all it, just a weak battery. it would've been more surprising if the battery was fully charged and i was still get electrical issues. i'll know for sure once the battery is charged and i take the bike for a ride. otherwise, if it's something else electrical, i don't have the expertise to tackle it myself and will have to send it into the shop for repairs.

the sky was grey and there were intermittent periods of very light rain, though i managed to get to belmont during a momentary lull.

i wrote to united solar this morning. it's been 6 days since their site surveyor came to the house to take measurements and photos and i haven't heard back from them. lucas (my agent) finally wrote back to me saying he was ironing out some belmont municipal electricity questions but would send me a proposal later today.

my mother biked home around 2pm. she was surprised to see me home because neither my motorcycle or bicycle were outside. she kept complaining that my father (along with hailey) wasn't home yet, until i realized he was carry a bag of yarn she bought earlier in the day. the rubber case and the screen protector for my father's moto G4 arrived today. he'd already put on the case but i helped him put on the screen protector after watching a helpful video. i've always been afraid of applying screen protectors because i always get it misaligned or dust on the screen, but these came with a kit that included stickers to help you align the protector which made it much easier. with the moto G4 now protected, my father can begin carrying it around without fear of scratching.

around 4:30pm i went to the garage to check on the status of the recharging battery. i was surprised the battery tender was already green, which meant it was finished charging. before i reconnected the battery to the motorcycle, i inserted a wedge of rubber tubing underneath each of the rectangular terminal nuts, to make it easier to screw in the bolts. with the multimeter (a most useful 2015 christmas gift from frances) i took a new reading. 13.06V. the numbers confused me at first, until i remember that this was a 12V battery and having 13V is a good thing. with the wiring uncovered, i turned on the motorcycle to see what would happen. everything worked fine, no flickering lights, no disappearing odometer display. so it'd seem the problem was in fact battery related, and once i fully recharged it, the bike runs like new again. to prevent this from happening again in the future, i need to take longer motorcycle trips. august is around the corner and i haven't done a solo nature outing yet, so i'm due.

we made thai red curry for dinner. while my father cut the chicken thighs and japanese eggplants (he was amazed by how white and seedless it was inside, but once exposed to the air some seeds started to show up, but still better than store-bought eggplants), i went outside and picked some thai basil and then assembled the ingredients. i started the cooking before my mother took over, probably afraid i was going to make a mess of the kitchen. my mother was worried there wasn't enough liquid for a proper simmer, but a can of coconut milk plus the water from the reduced eggplants create more than enough liquid. i only really like to cook in my own kitchen because i'm familiar with my pots and pans and tools and know where all spices and additional ingredients are. my mother and i were afraid the curry was too spicy for my father but he managed to finish a plate, although we were all sweating from the heat. it could've used more salt (maybe in the form of fish sauce), but that would've just enhanced the spiciness. it also was missing cashews, an ingredient i like to add to thai curry for that bit of sweet crunchiness.

the light rain had stopped for the most part so i could ride back to cambridge. my father helped me move the cars out of the driveway so i could get out of the garage. while leaving the driveway, i made a turn too sharp and too slow and ended up toppling the motorcycle on top of me. fortunately it landed on a grass curb so the motorcycle was unharmed, just my pride. this is the 2nd time i've dumped the honda shadow spirit and it's always been on exiting this driveway! the motorcycle wouldn't start after that and there was a strong odor of gasoline though we didn't see it anywhere. i hit the starter button a few times and held it down until i could hear the soft whisper of the engine slowly coming back to life. i revved the throttle slightly to give the engine some gas and the motorcycle was back to normal.

there was just a tiny amount of rain for a few minutes while i was riding home. i was still afraid of the motorcycle's electricity giving out, but it never happened, everything worked as normal.

GC was home, about to make dinner. tonight he wasn't having seafood, so i wasn't worried about smells, because i can tolerate all smells except for that. GC seems to be busy all week because he still hasn't finished watching those last 2 west world episodes.

lucas of united solar kept his promise and sent me his proposal. they only gave us 24 panels based on our roof size, with LG 335 panels and a solaredge inverter. but the thing that caught my eye was the price, which was thousands of dollars lower than the numbers from other vendors. united solar was at the back of our list because we knew very little about them other than jonathan's recommendation, but now they're on the top.