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today was supposed to be a day of rain but the temperature unexpectedly turned colder than forecasted and all that rain began to freeze, glazing the landscape in a slick layer of ice. it's actually quite beautiful as long as you're not traveling. i left the house at 10:30am, walking down to market basket (surprisingly fast, just 10 minutes) to look for fresh christmas turkeys. the sidewalks were treacherous, covered in ice, and i journeyed as if walking on eggshells, anticipating a nasty slip with each step. i carried my umbrella but didn't bother using it.

they had fresh turkeys at market basket but were more expensive than the shady brook turkeys i saw at star market yesterday, with birds selling at around $2.50/lbs. or more, even MB brands. the were a group of people waiting outside the meat department for fresh stock. don't they realize they could get cheaper birds at star market? i decided to get the turkey from star market after all, which in hindsight was the wiser decision, because i didn't have to carry back 12-13lbs. of turkey on icy sidewalks.

i returned to star market. i was afraid their cheap fresh turkeys would be sold out, but the same birds i saw last night were still there. i ended up picking a 12.820 lbs. shady brook fresh turkey at $1.59/lbs. for $20.38. compare that price to the 21.79 lbs. fresh turkey i bought before thanksgiving at just 88¢/lbs. for $19.18 (nearly twice the amount for half the price) (this was a fresh turkey too! imagine how much cheaper a frozen bird would be).

my father called to say he could give me a ride and grab the turkey while he was at it. he wanted to bring me to see my grand uncle at the nursing home, but i told him the turkey needed to be refrigerated, so i got dropped off in belmont. while my father left to go visit my grand uncle, my mother made belgian waffles for lunch after i found the waffle maker hidden in the sunroom. we have several boxes od krusteaz belgian waffle mix because at one point i thought they stopped carrying it because i couldn't find it at the supermarkets, so i began to horde them, until one day i realized they just relocated them to a different aisle.

i didn't realize how bad conditions were outside until i went out into the backyard looking for photo opps armed with my camera and a large umbrella.

it was the worst possible combination of non-stop rain mixed with freezing temperature. anything that dripped formed icicles, and everything outside was glazed in ice.

the prettiest were the red hawthorn berries covered in ice, like some kind of holiday dessert. it also reminded me of how ice wine is produced, that grapes are frozen then thawed, the process concentrating the sugars.

there was no point in testing the solar panels as they were not only covered in ice but also a fine layer of snow. we'd have to wait until the panels thawed out before we could test them.

my parents brined the turkey so it'd be ready for christmas. a brine solution was heated on the stove, with ingredients like cloves and chinese all-spice. the solution was then left in the cold sunroom to cool down before added to a large plastic food-grade bucket along with the turkey. there was no need to add ice to lower the temperature, as the sunroom itself was a large walk-in refrigerator.

i was willing to take the bus back home to cambridge but my father gave me a ride. i brought along the $2 plunger my sister bought from home depot a while back. i wanted her to return it because it was a bit small, but i decided to keep it so i could try the double plunger technique of unclogging the bathtub. it seemed to work for the time being, but the drain started to slow by the time i was finishing with my shower.