i was going to take the bus to belmont due to the torrential rain we were going to receive, but the forecast said it would be fine in the morning and evening, so i decided to risk it. first i went to michael's to get a spool of yarn my mother had requested. returning home and gathering my things, i left by 10am. by the time i arrived at my parents' place, it'd already started to drizzle. i covered up my bike seat with a plastic bag to keep it dry.

it was a supply run saturday, first to the waltham costco, then the nearby market basket. ever since we discovered the simple shortcut up prospect hill lane/border road (through the new waltham office park), getting from one place to another is now easy. by that point drenching rain was now falling, heavy enough to flood roads and blind the windshield at times. i was sure we'd get into an accident, but we made it to costco unscathed. the waltham costco has an above ground parking lot and an underground garage. a lot of people were parking underground to avoid the rain, we'd never seen the garage so packed before.

costco was super busy, as always on the weekend. but only when we went to pay did we realize why there was perhaps more people than usual: the massachusetts tax free holiday was this weekend. my parents didn't understand at first what the cashier was trying to tell them, that if they pay with a personal credit card (instead of a business card) that they don't have to taxes today. unfortunately they only had the company card, but had enough cash after i pulled out a $100 bill to cover the cost.

later we went to market basket. compared to costco, MB was a sea of tranquility even though it was still the weekend grocery getting crowd. i didn't want to since we got barbecued ribs from costco, but i couldn't resist getting a bag of fried chicken; the ribs will have to wait until tomorrow.

after dinner, i didn't return to cambridge until 7:30pm, waiting for the rain to stop.