kevin woke up around 7am this morning, i could hear him in the kitchen. since i was awake, i turned up the heat a few degrees before falling back asleep. when i checked the router's client list, his laptop and phone were gone. i honestly don't understand how he can already be here for 3 weeks and still haven't figured out a morning routine yet. okay, maybe the first week he was jetlagged (which i don't believe), but that doesn't explain the past 2 weeks where he still wakes up at all random hours.

i was still in bed when my 2nd aunt texted me around 9:30am, asking me to call her. i did immediately, she told me she couldn't turn on the heat in the cafe. i checked the nest app and sure enough, the cafe thermostat was set to ECO and the temperature had dropped to 55 degrees. i quickly turned it on, one of those rare cases when i was able to fix something remotely. i was playing with the settings last night, noticed the thermostat had put itself in ECO mode. but there's the nest putting itself in ECO mode when it senses nobody home, and manually setting the nest to ECO, which was what i did. not only did it essentially turn off the thermostat, but because i never set a base temperature, it kept on dropping. thankfully it wasn't on a sunday when the cafe is closed, and my aunt was able to catch it in time.

i got dressed to bike down to michael's to pick up my online order of superglue. i wore my fleece puffy vest over a sherpa wool hooded sweatshirt, and a fleece trapper's hat on top of that. i didn't feel cold at first, but when i was traveling on the bike, my arms felt cold, that sherpa wool is not a windbreak. it was also so cold i was starting to get an ice cream headache and felt lethargic (later i found out it was because my back brake pads were frozen in place). instead of a seperate counter for online pickups, i had to wait in the regular line. it's still new enough that they haven't ironed out all the kinks yet, and it took some fumbling to finally get my order from the online merchandise locker.

next i biked to the dollar store to pick up some snacks for later tonight, when my sister asked me to dogsit hailey for a few hours. i got some gummy candy and a few beef jerkies.

finally i went to walgreens, to ask about the prescriptions i tried to refill over the automated phone service last night, but was denied for some reason. the pharmacist said two of the orders when through, but one of them seemed to be stuck. he fixed the error and said he'd have that refill done in a few minutes while i browsed the aisles.

i got home before noontime where i made another pesto ham egg cheese english muffin sandwich for lunch.

i had to go back to the dollar store when my sister asked if i had any spare batteries for her electronic mousetrap. this time i brought out my columbia interchange jacket, which i only wear in extreme cold conditions. that jacket is plenty warm, but sometimes i wonder if a down-filled heavy-duty parka would be even warmer? i'm just used to wearing winter jackets that leave me feeling slightly cold, since normally i'm walking or biking if i'm outside, and i can warm up rather quickly. but it'd be nice to have a parka, though then my feet would feel cold by comparison, so i'll need to invest in some insulated boots as well.

i biked to my sister's place around 4pm, first making a stop at the cafe to check on my 2nd aunt. i basically reassured her that it wasn't going to snow tomorrow, because she gets really skittish at the slightest sign of snow and will then decide not to come to work. i told her she probably wouldn't see snow until the evening. at least she'll get a break on sunday, while i'll be the one busy with work shoveling three properties.

for just the second time this month (and this year), we had a perfect production day. compared to the result about a week ago (jan.9), you can clearly see that the daytime amount is lengthening both at sunrise and sunset. we're also peaking above 6kW, which is important to keep in mind since it wasn't until late may of last year did we finally get the correct inverter and was able to generate electricity above 6kW. 2020 will be the first year where we can produce our maximum potential electricity for the entire year, so it'll be interesting to see how much more kWh we can make versus 2019. on the graph i plotted the line for jan.31st of last year, the first time that month where we surpassed 32kWh+; note the distinctive production plateau at 6kW.

after my sister left for work, hailey retreated to the bedroom, and i was left by myself in the living room, streaming a c-span interview that conan o'brien did of robert caro from april 2019. i also checked my router client's list periodically, noticing that kevin was already back home before 5:30pm. i turned on the heat, but later thought maybe he went to the supermarket (he seems to go every other day, prefers his ingredients fresh) because i didn't see his phone, but sometimes he's home with the phone off, and i couldn't take the risk of not turning on the heat when he could be freezing inside the house, so i figured it was a small price to pay.

i used the flir camera to scan my sister's place, at least to the best of my ability before the camera stopped working again. just being there tonight i could already feel how chilly it was. the infrared camera revealed very poorly insulated walls. this house would be a good candidate for pump-in insulation, but logistically it'd be difficult since it shares spaces with a commercial restaurant. something to think about for the near future. now the only place left to scan with the infrared camera is my parents' place.

at exactly 6pm hailey came out for her dinner. i gave her a cup of dog feed along with a squirt of her joint medicine. i coaxed her back into the living room with some dog treats then returned home before 6:30pm. the house was dark, just as i suspected, kevin probably went to the supermarket. while i was putting my bike away in the basement he must've just came home because all the lights were suddenly on.

after kevin finished eating dinner, he did a load of laundry, seems to be his routine, wash his clothes every week. he also asked me if i had any super glue, just so happens i got some this morning, but i lied and said no. he said he needed glue to make the wood project for his girlfriend, and showed me the wood slices he bought off of amazon (kind of expensive, about half a dozen for $17). he said he wanted to glue a piece of dowel onto the wood, i'm still not quite sure what he's making, he's still being vague. i told him to check out michael's or tag hardware in porter square for glue and screws.

it would've been a nice quiet friday night were it not for the fact that kevin pissed all over the bathroom floor again for the 3rd time. i knocked on his door to tell him what happened, he was in his room exercising with his dumb bells, listening to music. he didn't seem to believe me and came into the bathroom to see for himself while i was on my knees wiping up the urine. first he denied it, then said it was probably water, but i assured him it was his urine, as it was all over the walls and the back and front of the toilet. he volunteered to clean but if he doesn't even know how to pee correctly, how would he even know how to properly clean up? he's been peeing sitting down to prevent dripping on the floor, but i think it makes it worse, because ever since he switched to the sitting position, he occasionally pees directly onto the floor. i told him to stop and just pee normal, but clean up any drips afterwards. i said i already cleaned a pee-soaked bathroom three times already, and don't want to clean it again. i don't think he understood what i meant: if he does it one more time i'm going to kick him out.

kevin went to bed early, before 11pm. i wonder if that means he's going to wake up early tomorrow and go to work?

i've been keeping my eye out for good led grow light deals on amazon. we currently have 3 (2x 1000W iplantops, 1x 1000W xeccon) which are all being used; once i begin growing some seedlings towards the end of winter, we're going to need another light, whether at my parents' place (running out of room) or my place. i ended up buying the luxauto 1000W: retails for $108, but there was a half-off sale bringing the price to just $54, plus some taxes. i also had some credit left from the eton shortwave radio i returned a month ago, further lowering it to $29. in the back of my mind there was also my $200 reference bonus, so after an hour of comparison research, i decided to get the luxauto. it's been on my radar from when i was researching cheap but good led grow lights. it ranks amongst the highest in terms of PAR value, but that's misleading because it uses reflectors, which amplifies the light but makes them too focused, more like spotlight when i want a flood light. so i'm leery, and still might return it if it doesn't seem good. but at $54, it's the least expensive led grow light in our collection. the luxauto 1000W is a few inches longer and slightly more narrow, which is good when you have a rectangular growing area (instead of a square). at 24" height, the center PAR value is 565, compared with 516 of the iplantop or 447 of the xeccon. the graph however doesn't show the falloff value, which i imagine to be worse than either the iplantop or xeccon, since those lights don't use reflectors. the luxauto employs triple chips leds (like all the led lights we own), but only 96 of them. there's a few IR leds but no UV, which i don't mind since i believe the UV kills the beneficial Bti bacterias. it's due to arrive on monday. when turned on, it draws 180W of power, comparable to running 3 T8 fluorescent shop light.