anxious about what i needed to do this monday morning made me wake up earlier than usual. after casually surfing the web from bed, i woke up before 9am to get ready, leaving by 9:30am for belmont. the morning weather forecast said rain wouldn't arrive until the late afternoon early evening, but i still followed the report from yesterday, which was rain by lunch time. it certainly looked like there'd be a lot of rain, with dark thick clouds overhead.

i called my dentist doctor huang. i was afraid he'd retired so was surprised when i heard his voice on the phone. i told him my crown was loose, and wasn't sure if it was the crown itself or the titanium screw implant itself that had been rejected. i managed to make an appointment for tomorrow morning 9am. i'll find out whether it's going to cost me a little or a lot to fix this problem.

i was in belmont to mow the lawn which was a substitute for leaf raking, as i realized it was easier to pulverize the dead leaves with a mower than it is to rake them. plus, shredding the leaves this way helps with decomposition when i dump everything into the compost bin. the construction guys weren't there, perhaps scared off by the unpredictable weather forecast.

leaves along the curb next to the sidewalk i throw away because they contain too much pollutants, including leftover road salt and sand from last year. at one point the mower jammed because i was going over a too large pile of leaves. i stuck my hand in the blade to get rid of the obstruction when i suddenly realized how dangerous this was and used a weeding tool instead. there was just too much leaves along the street and since i'd throw them out anyway, no point in shredding them so i did some manually raking, filling half a dozen garden refuse bins with dead leaves.

leaves on the lawn i shredded with the mower. it's messy, and bits of dead leaves flew everywhere, but whatever doesn't get picked up in the bag will end up being fertilizing for the lawn. there were more leaves in front of the house, partly from the large dying sidewalk maple tree, partly just from neighboring leaves blowing onto our property. there were less leaves in the backyard, only that single maple, which still has a good amount of yellow leaves on the branches. i finished mowing the backyard just as the mower ran out of gasoline, around 11am.

i unloaded the bundle of peat moss and bag of manure from the car, but didn't do any work with them. i did prune a bit more of the holly because it looked a little lop-sided. i set up the 2nd webcam in the sunroom.

i left by 11:30am and went to the cafe. when i saw my 2nd aunt on saturday she didn't seem to need anything for supplies, but today she seemed to be in urgent need, everything from milk to eggs. i hadn't plan on going to the supermarket until wednesday, but she seemed so worried i told her i'd go right now and bring back the supplies. she also needed mayonnaise and whole wheat bread. market basket was surprisingly busy for some reason despite it being a monday afternoon. as soon as i got there, i suddenly forgot everything i had to get. i walked through the aisles, hoping it'd all come back to me. in the end i remembered everything. while waiting in long, my aunt suddenly called me and said she also needed eggs. i had to step out of line (where i'd already been waiting for a while) and go to the back and wait again.

i returned to the cafe to drop off the groceries. i could hear the furnace in the basement making periodic clicking sounds as the nest thermostat attempted to sip electricity. when my parents get back in about another week we're going to need to fix this (i.e. installing a common wire) because over time it's going to ruin the furnace. i went to my sister's place and checked out the prime condition from yesterday, everything looked good and dry, although the bulk of the rain won't come until this evening, so that's the real test. i'm hoping to put down the 2nd and final coat of paint wednesday morning. i still won't be done though, i still have the doors to paint, which should be easier but involves leaving the doors opened for the paint to dry when the temperature will be getting colder next week.

i got back home by 1:40pm. i hadn't eaten yet all day. i was going to make one last english muffin sandwich but my final muffin had turned moldy. instead i made some coffee and fixed myself a arugula sweet pepper salad with prosciutto, along with one of the pastries my sister gave me yesterday.

in the early evening wu weiyu contacted me for camera advice, couldn't decide whether to get the sony 16-70mm f/4 lens ($998) for her sony A600 mirrorless camera, or buy a new sony RX100 v4 or v5 ($800-900). when i asked her if she was going on a vacation, she finally revealed that she's going to taiwan at the end of december. why are china people so unforthcoming with information? she knew i'm from taiwan, she should've told me as soon as she knew she was going. i told her to get the RX100 v3 instead, which is very similar to the v4 but only costs $650 (still a lot of money, but she's trying to save however she can). she said she was traveling with 2 other friends and they were going on their own, not with a tour group. they were also only going to 8 days, even though she must've saved up a month's worth of vacation from all the overtime her company forced them to work.

for dinner i heated up my remaining 4 slices of anchovy and onion pizza in the large oven. i tried to reheat it in the toaster oven, but it could only fit a single slice at a time.