my parents were scheduled to be back in boston at 5:05pm but the japan airline flight was delayed by nearly half an hour. i left at 4:30pm, figured even with traffic, an hour should be plenty of time to get to logan airport. i took storrow drive instead of the turnpike since according to google map there was only a 6 minutes difference. everything was fine until i got close to the mass ave bridge, when inbound traffic slowed to a halt. i had the garmin gps running but it kept rerouting me through the city instead of on the highway, so i just ignored it's voice directions because i couldn't figure out how to turn it off. leverett circle is always a mess, you have people trying to get onto I-93 go right while others getting onto the tobin bridge going left. plus, the tunnel going onto the interstate is two lanes merging into one. underground, i saw the exit for the airport. thankfully most people were heading further south, so once i got off the exit, the traffic cleared up.

i arrived by 5:30pm, navigating to the cell phone lot, where it was completely full, which i'd never seen before. i was prepared to park illegally off to the side when i saw a space open up and grabbed up. the cell phone lot at night can be a creepy place, dozens of cars parked, each with a driver waiting inside. some people had their lights on because they turned on their cars to keep warm, even though that's a no-no according to the rules (can't leave you engine on when parked). i wore enough to keep myself warm but could feel temperature in the car slowly dropping. thankfully i didn't have to wait long, just half an hour before my father called to let me know they were ready.

even though terminal E is right next to the cell phone lot, the roads are designed such that i could only go counterclockwise, which meant make a large loop through the airport to get to E terminal. i went to the spot at the end of the terminal where i thought my parents would be waiting but i didn't see them; turned out they were on an island, and where i went was probably for buses only. my father spotted me and they pushed their luggages to where i was parked. my father drove us back via storrow drive, no traffic going outbound.

we got back to belmont around 6:40pm. my sister had told me she was going to make rice porridge for my parents but she was nowhere to be seen. later she called and said she was coughing up blood so she decided not to come. i ate a bowl of instant noodles my parents got in japan before i got a ride back to cambridge around 8pm. by that point it'd already started snowing.

it ended up not snowing all that much here in cambridge. by the time i went to bed, it'd already transitioned to rain, turning everything into slush. i was more concerned about the new layer of locust leaves on the sidewalk after i just cleaned it up this morning.

i went to market basket this morning to pick up some groceries. i was kind of dreading it because with the snowstorm coming tonight, i knew the supermarket would be a mess. however, it was surprisingly quiet when i arrived. the milk supply was still at 2/3 (my aunt asked me to get a gallon for the cafe), but i didn't check the bread aisle. by the time i left however, i could see it starting to fill up, checkout lines getting longer and cars circling the parking lot for spots.

since there wasn't anything to eat at my parents' place, i had some breakfast-lunch first: a cup of hazelnut cream coffee, a pineapple greek yogurt, and a salad. i finally left by 12:30pm, stopping by the cafe briefly to drop off supplies, before heading to belmont where i'd wait the rest of the day before going to logan airport to pick up my parents in the evening.

before i got to belmont i took a detour to the watertown home depot to return the two tubes of unused bathroom/kitchen caulk. i was there right when they were unloading a flatbed-truckload of fresh christmas trees. 'tis time!

it's been so cold the past few days that the temperature inside the house had dropped down to 50 degrees, the lowest it'd go on the nest thermostat. i turned it up so the house would be warm when my parents came back. yesterday i sprinkled some deodorizing powder on the living room rug, which actually stunk up the house with its artificial fragrance. i vacuumed the rug once more then vacuumed the rest of the house.

i went out into the backyard to do some yard work. the highway department still hadn't picked up the yard waste yet. i even had to call them just to make sure they were coming. the woman on the phone told me they're running on a delayed schedule due to the holiday, but also because they were running behind. they finally by around 4pm. in the meantime, whatever yard waste i collected i still had time to bring out to the curb for disposal. i ended up collecting a bin full of raspberry canes. i also put up the suet feeder. my sister stopped by briefly to let hailey go to the bathroom in the backyard before taking her for a walk around fresh pond.