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i tried one of my latest blueberry muffins (v4) yesterday morning but i was in such a hurry i didn't have a chance to document how it tasted. i ate another one today, microwaved for a minute to soften and warm it up. soft, moist, strong blueberry flavor, good crusting. when i showed up in belmont in the early afternoon (along with one last container of fresh squeeze orange juice, 4 minneolas and 1 jumbo navel), my mother actually asked me how many more muffins i had left.

i had some savory rice porridge for lunch. my parents left for the airport to pick up my sister's godmother, back in boston after spending several months (including chinese new year) in taiwan with her family. she wasn't even here when my grand uncle passed away back in december, even though she lives upstairs. she also wasn't here when we got solar power.

today was more sunny than it was cloudy. riding on huron avenue, i spotted yet another house with solar panels; i never noticed it before because the southern side doesn't face the street, but i spotted the edges of panels while i rode by. after 2pm it was a production freefall as the sky became progressively darker. unlike yesterday, it turned dark and stayed dark. i put the bike away in the garage when it looked particularly threatening of imminent rain.

something else needed repairing today: one of the bedroom lamps has started to flicker. my father said he changed the bulb and the problem still persisted, so he thought there was something wrong with the corded dimmer switch. there were replacement switches for sale online (a few dollars) but my father thought he could bypass the switch (involves desoldering the wire connections) and have the lamp always be on since it's connected to a remote controlled outlet plug anyway. but i did some testing and found out the lamp works just fine plugged elsewhere, just not on that bedroom power strip. we thought the problem had something to do with a faulty USB charging plug sharing the same strip, because the light stopped flickering after i removed the USB plug. but moments later when i tried the lamp again, it began flickering. then i thought maybe the power strip was damaged. long story short, i fixed it by switching LED light bulbs. my father said he tried it and it didn't work, but then he couldn't remember if he actually did it or not. there's something a little weird with the electricity in the house and i don't exactly understand why, just know that whatever i did fixed it for the time being.

it turned out sunnier than i expected, and we managed to reach 30kWh+ again with 33.26kWh, the 5th 30kWh+ day of february, the 3rd consecutive day of 30kWh+ production, just a few kWh shy of 35kWh+ (we've only had two of those this month).

there was only a misting at most after dinner so i managed to bike home. steve and paul were outside when i got back, saying good bye to a friend who was leaving. i politely ignored them as i put my bike away. paul told me that they'd be gone for the next 10 days. i asked him where, he said the bahamas. a vacation for them is also a vacation for me!