annie was once more gone by the time i woke up this morning. it was supposed to be a rainy day, at least the first part of it, so i was surprised when i noticed renee's contractors still came to work today. they also brought their tall ladder, which i guess is for me, but joseph left by mid-morning, before i could talk to him, leaving behind his two workers.

i had some calls to make this morning. first was to xfinity comcast, to confirm that the cable appointment was indeed scheduled for early sunday morning. i don't remember them working on the weekends, but maybe this is a new thing. i was going to call solaredge to ask about the wrong monthly production numbers, but it mysteriously fixed itself, saving me the hassle of getting in touch with solaredge. why it ever gave me the wrong numbers in the first place is a mystery, and i wonder if it's related to the lost production tracking that happened on july 4th.

the weather improved by midday, and there were even a few hours of sunshine, before it became progressively darker again. i decided to run some errands during a break, navigating the two brazilian contractors using my front porch as their makeshift bed/couch.

first i had to readjust the brakes on my front tire (brake arm tension issue), before taking the cargo bike to rite aid. today was the first day of the transition to walgreens, i go there often enough that i felt it was my duty to be there for the inauguration. for the most part everything seemed the same, although they did some minor renovations in the front counter area, and slightly readjusted the aisles. things were still where they used to be, although did they move some things, so it took me a while to find what i needed. sale items weren't marked clearly, but the discounts rung up when i checked out. i left with a bottle of 91% isopropyl alcohol ($2) and 2 cans of almonds (2/$5).

afterwards i went to market basket specifically to look for some kettle avocado oil himalayan salt potato chips. if they didn't have it i would get it at whole foods. but turned out MB did carry it, 2/$5. only later did i discover that it was actually cheaper at WF, which after sale and discount was only $1.90/bag (sale until tuesday, still plenty of days left to score some more). i also got some more white nectarines ($1.99/lbs.), one of my favorites amongst the stone fruits.

i returned home just when it looked like it was about to rain, and the contractors were packing up for the day.

annie came home by 5pm, wearing a red sun dress i'd never seen before. i'm guessing there must've been some formal event at her work place today. but she quickly changed into her sweats shortly afterwards and started making dinner. soon after she finished with the kitchen, i went in to make my grilled ham and cheese sandwich. first i had to clean the sink, which was filled with discarded bits of vegetables. i wonder if she was this way when she lived with housemates back at MIT, it probably didn't win her many friends, although she does clean up afterwards (why not immediately after you're done cooking? instead of leaving everything in the sink for others to find).

around 9pm there was a bout of torrential downpours. i closed all the windows while the rain water was crashing onto the back of the living room AC. so much water was falling that some of it began to leak inside the house and i had to use some paper towels to clean up the mess. i went outside to see if i could find any leaks in the front gutters but couldn't really see in the dark with the heavy rain falling. it was right at that moment i noticed an asian woman with her asian son running towards me...then up to the house! i had a moment of deja vu, as exactly this time last year my friend wangyang was here with her son. i thought maybe they made a mistake, and it took a few seconds before i registered that these were the people living upstairs. the woman saw me and it took her the same amount of time to make the connection. we introduced ourselves in the rainy darkness. she said she tried knocking twice on my door but nobody answered so she thought maybe i was on vacation. she said they were in cambridge common when it suddenly started raining so they grabbed an uber back home. where was her husband and her second son? her son was either shy or unfriendly, didn't say anything when i greeted him. he didn't look mixed race though, very definitely all chinese. and from her accent, i had a feeling that maybe she's originally from hong kong, a hint of cantonese in her english.