temperature was in the lower 40's by the time i left for belmont this morning. i was able to start my motorcycle, but only because i turned on the choke, it wouldn't start otherwise with weather this cold. i wore my flannel-lined pants which kept my legs warm; i felt the coldest on my hands, the wind cutting into the ventilation holes of the leather gloves. i have a set of handlebar mitts that i use to keep my hands warm during winter riding, i'll need to dig them out of the closet. they look kind of ridiculous (makes me look like a mechanized lobster) but they perform well.

when i got to belmont, i saw the progress of the neighbors' new house. last weekend they'd put down the joists. a week later, they've completed the first floor (walls) minus the ceiling. we don't know if they'll add another floor; when my parents spoke to the neighbor he said he liked the ranch style house, but projects like these, they also go big instead of small.

i told my father yesterday that we needed to repair the collapsed fence between us and our next door neighbors. it happened last winter while my parents were on vacation, strong winds pushed the fence over then a snowstorm dumped several feet of snow onto the fence. i managed to make a temporary fix by tying the fence to a tree. that worked for a while, but while my parents were on vacation again, the fence got blown over once more. some of the wooden posts had rotted away and needed to be replaced. instead of replacing them however, my father suggested we just add new posts next to the old ones and tie the fence onto those. we managed to sink 3 new posts. we also did some pruning, including the self-grown yew tree by the gerbil graves, a bit of the quince, and all of the roses. i raked all the dead leaves underneath the bushes, saving them for composting.

even though it was only in the 40's, today was a sunny day, and we got progressively warmer as we worked, taking off our jackets. i stripped down to my t-shirt. i did managed to get stabbed by a quince thorn and suffered some cuts on my forearms. we were working for nearly 2 hours before my mother called us in for lunch around 1pm. she wanted to make a supply run so i ate quickly (some cold fried instant noodles) and we left by 1:30pm, leaving hailey at home to watch the house.

we first went to the restaurant depot in everett, which closes at 4pm on saturdays. that was the extent of the supply run, but i managed to talk my mother into visiting the nearby chelsea market basket afterwards, so i could score some fried chicken. we returned to the cafe by 4pm to unload the supplies. while storing the cases of beverages in the basement, one of them broke open and the back of my right hand got hammered by half a dozen falling soft drinks.

back in belmont, i finally got to eat my fried chicken. i only had two pieces. i tried working in a 3rd piece, but by that point the revulsive of consuming so much oil started to make me a little queasy. my father sliced up one of the mangoes they got from restaurant depot. i rode back home by 6:30pm. my hands didn't feel as cold as this morning, but breath smoke kept billowing from my mouth like a chimney.

camelcamelcamel alerted me to a price drop on the aeropress coffee maker. normally it costs $30 and the price never changes because nobody else makes the aeropress. but amazon was selling it for just $22.49 so i immediately bought one. the only caveat is that it's back-ordered so i won't receive it until 12/10.