i woke up late, close to 10am, but i knew GC was still home because i could see the kitchen lights through the crack around my bedroom door. he's basically turned the kitchen into his makeshift home office, even leaving his MBP on the dining table when he's not using it. his friend was gone, i'm assuming he left at 8am as planned, all the pillows and sheets stacked neatly on the sofa chair. GC was meeting him for lunch in boston, so it didn't look like he was going to the office today. he did leave at 10:30am, not to the office but into the city to meet up with his friend. the only thing he carried was his kindle.

aretha franklin passes away today. news of her serious condition had been on the news for several days now. in fact, early this morning when i briefly checked the news on my phone, they said she was already in hospice care, and then moments later i read that she was already gone. i knew of her and listened to her songs, but the only two i could remember were RESPECT and the duet she did with george michael.

my upstairs neighbors returned home today. i bumped into paul while he was tidying up the yard for their incoming tenants. he filled me in on some details. the new upstairs neighbors are actually moving in tomorrow. they're already in town, living temporarily in an airbnb waiting for the house to be available. steve and paul came back today to tidy up the house, but the previous tenants had left the place so immaculate, they even cancelled on the cleaning lady scheduled to arrive today. paul said the reason was the romers made heavy use of the air conditioners (one of my few complaints, and they must've seen the electricity bill, thankfully paul and steve hardly ever use the AC), so they never opened the windows, so there was hardly any dust. paul said they were only here for the day, and wasn't spending the night. they were returning to the island, and their month-long european trip wouldn't begin until mid-october, coming back to cambridge to coincide with their tenants leaving.

i went to market basket to get a few groceries, just enough food for the next 2 days. i bought another watermelon, but didn't pick wisely this time, as when i got home and cut it open there was some hollowness on the inside. hopefully watermelons will remain on sale long enough to give me some practice selecting the best ones.

along the way i saw a figure tossed out with some trash. intrigued, i stopped to check it out. it was a rubber doll, less than a foot tall. the head at deteriorated such that it was partially gone. yet for some reason i could still recognize who it was: the wrestling pose and outlet, the remnants of an afro, all suggested this was none other than andre the giant. when i got home i confirmed my suspicion when i did a google search of "andre giant toy" and came up with some matching results. manufactured by LJN for the WWE , this 1984 toy also came in another variant where andre had shorter hair. i was never much of a wrestling fan growing up, but i must've been exposed to enough of it in the background that decades later i can still recognize the giant when i see him.

i finally managed to download the last episode of condor and watch it. spoilers! i love the show but the conclusion in this season finale was just too convenient and they wrapped it up way too quickly. and they managed to kill even more characters (sharla shepard, marty frost, deacon mailer), so now almost all of the original cast is dead. i'm left with a lot of questions and why the writers introduced so many characters only to have them all die at the end for no good reason? seems kind of sloppy storytelling. i'll still watch season 2 but i'm really worried going forward what more can they do with the show. maybe the CIA comes after joe and he has to exact some kind of revenge, but with his uncle bob in charge, i doubt any harm will come to him. condor reminds me a lot of AMC's rubicon (2010), another show about intelligence analysts. unfortunately that show as cancelled after just one season.

GC came home around 4:30pm. after lunch in chinatown, he waited with his friend at the bus depot until he left at 4pm. i thought maybe he would go back to work but that was not a part of today's equation. instead, another friend invited him out to dinner tonight (since he's leaving next saturday) after playing some badminton. i was in the bathroom around 6pm when he left without saying anything.

for dinner i ate half of a large ham and cheese sub. GC didn't come home until almost 10pm. they had dinner at the chinese restaurant around the corner. after a shower, he retreated to his bedroom and i never saw him again the rest of the night.