i woke up around 8:20am, once i heard the contractors moving around in renee's alleyway. figured it'd be better to wake up now before the construction noises started. i closed the bedroom window. they could've worked yesterday, it was nowhere as rainy as forecasted, but they were waiting for the building inspector to show up (which was yesterday) before they can move on to the next phase.

surprisingly, annie was still at home, though in the bathroom. she was in there a long time, and at one point i thought i might have an emergency, but managed to hold it back. she finally left around 8:45am, dressed for the fall instead of the summer. "it's going to get hot today," i warned her, "30's [celsius]," since she doesn't speak fahrenheit. she hesitated, maybe thinking about changing, but i told her it was okay since the temperature was still cool this morning (70's [fahrenheit]).

including today, we're looking at a heat wave for this weekend, the same weekend annie's planning on visiting yale. given the choice, i rather have hot humid instead of rainy humid. sure, neither weather is conducive to being outside, but at least when it's not raining you still have an option of going out.

i left the house at 10:20am, heading down to haymarket. temperature was still in the 70's, but under the glare of the beating sun it felt a lot warmer. it was just a matter of time before it'd get hot. that early on a friday, a few vendors were still setting up their stalls. nothing too interesting, but there were definitely cherries selling at $2/lbs. there also seems to be more traditionally asian fruits, like lychees and rambutans. i ended up leaving with: 1 lbs. of habenero peppers ($2, going to make another batch of hot sauce), 2 lbs. of lychees ($4), 2 lbs. of bing cherries ($4), 10 pluots ($1), sleeve of garlic ($1), 2 bunches of scallions ($1), 2 persimmons ($1), 2 bags of grapes ($1 each).

from there i followed the greenway down to chinatown, where i planned on getting some salt and pepper porkchops for lunch, the usual. i went to the bakery across the street to pick up some pineapple cakes ($1 each). finally i went to the washington-herald st c-mart to grab a bag of star anise for my mother.

i came back along the charles river bike path, all the way down to harvard square, before making the necessary corrections to get to my parents' cafe by 12:30pm. that whole trip look longer than anticipated. i was also getting hot enough that i started feeling cold chills, which is never a good sign (heat exhaustion).

the lychees were particularly sweet, and i couldn't gobble them up fast enough. they were so sweet in fact that eating anything else afterwards (grapes, cherries) tasted bland in comparison. these lychees were also of the variety that had very tiny pits, so you get mostly sweet lychee flesh with each peel.

when i finally returned home, the house was a cool 77°F, felt like i had the air conditioner on when i didn't. typically this only lasts a day, before the room temperature increases to more closely match the outdoor temperature. i went to go take a shower and when i weighed myself i discovered i didn't lose very much weight despite all that sweating (144.2 lbs.). maybe all the lychees i ate at the cafe and then drinking half a can of seltzer when i got back tacked on a few extra pounds.

after the shower i sat down for my long awaited lunch. immediately i knew something was off, as there was a fishy smell to the porkchops. they also didn't seem all that fresh, like maybe the chef reused the pork from some other recipe. it was edible nonetheless, but that's the bare minimum passing grade for any food. next time i may try the salt and pepper pork chop lunch at the cambridge mulan. it's a few dollars more (around $10) but it's a lot closer and hopefully it's better cooked.

at 3:30pm the upstairs husband and younger son arrived. the wife must've hid the key in the backyard (based on my advice) because i heard the husband open the backyard door. they may be from the netherlands but there's nothing dutch about them, as they're entirely chinese. i reckon he's probably in his late 30's. after they dropped off their luggage in the house, he took his son out, probably to get some food.

annie came home around 6:30pm. i saw her looking up directions on how to get to the south station bus depot. she told me her greyhound ticket to new haven is for 7:30am tomorrow morning.

for dinner i made one final sandwich instead of finishing off the leftover porkchops.

around sunset i could see the explosion of colors in the sky through the blinds. i went outside with my wide angle lens to snap some photos. even in the evening, the weather outside was still sweltering, humid and in the upper 80's.

today was a cloudless day but we don't get our maximum production on days like these. still, we got close to the 50kWh mark.