i got to the cafe sometime after 11am. the nest thermostat had been online since yesterday and hadn't gone offline so it seems to be running stable. i did some research last night, i forgot the nest does something called "power stealing" when it doesn't have a common wire. apparently when its battery is down, it will secretly turn on a connected appliance to sip some electricity. i vaguely remember that's what happened to me when i installed my nest. the problem with that is it has the unintended consequence of making your HVAC run weirdly, like things turning on when they shouldn't. that's also what happened to me and i ended up pulling new wires for a common which fixed the problem. the nest website actually says it doesn't need a common but common sense says any smart thermostat needs its own source of power.

i didn't start working until around noontime. there was something automatic to it, like i was on autopilot. i wouldn't call myself a painter but i seem to have a lot of experience with it and know what i'm doing. i had a choice between two pieces of equipment to strip the paint: heat gun or orbital sander. after setting up the multiladder, i decided to go with the heat gun first. heat gun removes more paint, and litte soft then brittle strips of old paint are easier to clean up compared to sanding particles.

ideally, i would've stripped all the old paint from the porch before painting, but that would take a long time. i basically had to triage, only strip the areas that really needed like, like fat globs of dried paint. smaller blemishes i could probably sand down flat. so that's what i did. i worked the heat gun until i got tired then switched to the sander. the sander made quicker work, but all that dust worried me, especially lead particles. i had on a mask, but the dust gets everywhere, like in your hair, your eyes, and on your skin, so it's not the most healthy thing to do.

i stopped working at 3:30pm. originally i planned on going to haymarket afterwards (it was friday after all) but there wasn't enough time. i went back to the cafe to wash my hands (3 times, making sure i removed all that paint dust). i still need at least another day of paint prep work, which won't happen until next tuesday at the earliest.

returning home, i was greeted by a pile of boxes waiting outside my front door. most of it was for frances, but my gap pants came today as well. i tried them on, all 4 pairs fit well. there's still a few more days left in the online sale, i'm deciding whether or not to get even more pants.

i ordered a factory certified refurbished t-mobile TM-AC1900 router for $40. it's essentially a brand locked asus RT-AC68U router, which i got for my sister. there are ways (complicated) to reflash the firmware so it becomes a RT-AC68U, which is what i plan on doing. i got it in preparation for dumping the verizon FIOS gateway router my parents still rent from verizon every month for their cable/internet. it'll be one of my projects for the month my parents will be on vacation.