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for some strange reason kevin always seems to wake up and need to use the bathroom whenever i'm already in there. i woke up around 9am this morning and waited for him to get up until i couldn't wait any longer and went to go use the bathroom. right at that moment - 9:50am - that's when i heard kevin coming out of his bedroom and jostling the locked bathroom door handle. i quickly finished up, spraying a little courtesy air freshener before i departed. a few seconds later i heard kevin going into the bathroom, didn't even wait for the air to dissipate, guess he was in a real hurry, glad i could keep the seat warm for him.

today was a rare occasion where i ended up leaving earlier than kevin. once more i waited for him to leave until i couldn't wait any longer and left by 11am for belmont.

i was bringing the luxauto grow light for testing but my main reason for going was to refill the bird feeder, which i could see from the webcam it was running empty.

BRING IN THE MAIL: neighbors could probably tell my parents haven't been home in weeks judging from the unmoved cars in the driveway, but the one person who can always tell if someone's home or not is the mail carrier. but the fact that the mail gets collected every few days at least let them know that somebody was still checking up on the house.

CHECK SOLAR PANELS: based on production alone i knew the panels were cleared, but i just wanted to see for myself, haven't laid eyes on it since early sunday morning, when there was still bits of snow on the panels. all the snow on the roof had melted with the except of the gap between the main roof and the sunroom roof. i saw our opposite door neighbors, their panels had automatically cleared from the steeper angle of their roof.

REFILL BIRD FEEDER: i like to give the outer shroud a wash with soapy warm water but for the most part it's been clean. 2 of the 3 seed columns were empty, the 3rd had that clumping issue because some big dried berries had jammed the chute opening. there was nothing left but crumbs and dust in the seed bag so i just dumped it all in the backyard for ground feeders. instead i opened a new bag, which was still old. when i have time i should pay a visit to OSJL to get fresh bird seeds. the ones that i have were leftovers from one of my sister's nanny care who was getting rid of their bird feed supply. it's old enough that some of the seeds have started to turn to dust, which may be a sign of bug infestation but i didn't see anything.

REFILL BIRD BATHS: i also like to refill the bird baths when i have the chance. not much good it'll do because the water will turn to ice in this below freezing temperature, but until that happens the bird will have a temporary source of water, which is hard to come by during the winter.

CHECK ELECTRONIC MOUSETRAP: thankfully there was no mouse in the electronic mousetrap. it wasn't blinking but i checked manually just to be sure. the dead mouse i left in the yard was still there (i just wish we had some critters in the backyard that would eat the dead mice), so i scooped it up and tossed it in the trash.

THROW OUT THE TRASH: since trash collection is tomorrow, i threw out the bag of trash along with some dead dried flowers. not sure what the town bylaw is regarding bringing out the trash so early, but i'm come back tomorrow and bring in the bin.

CHECK SOLAREDGE INVERTER: i check the inverter whenever i can, to make sure all 24 panels are activated (24/24) and to get a quick peek of the current production. it said 6.52kW but i didn't see those numbers on the graph. either the actual production is a bit lower after the electricity gets inverted, or it actually did reach 6.52kW but only briefly, with the average being lower.

CHECK HEATING OIL LEVEL: the heating oil is now down to nearly 5/8th in the time that my parents have been gone. i don't know if it's normal or not, to me it still seems to be usually up a lot of fuel even though the thermostat is turned down low and there's nobody in the house.

CHECK RADIATOR WATER OVERFLOW BIN: this is the first time i found water in the bin, all other times it's been dry. not sure why that is, maybe the cold snap had the heater running more than usual, generating excess water. i dumped it in the basement sink.

i finally made it down to the grow room. not much has changes since my last visit on sunday. there were still a few fungus gnats flying around. i couldn't find a place to hang the luxauto light, until i moved the led shop light so i could have the luxauto from the ceiling pipe.

when i plugged in the luxauto 1000W grow light, the first thing i noticed immediately was it wasn't as bright as when i turned it on in my own house. that's because the walls of my house are painted in bright near-fluorescent colors which seem like they're exploding when struck with blurple lights. under normal circumstances, it seems to emit just as much light as the other grow lights. the light cast was more focused due to the reflectors, but i couldn't tell if it was any brighter comparison wise. i had it in a smart plug so i could read the wattage: bloom (red) 53.5W, vegetative (purple-blue) 108W, combo 154W - which more or less follows the specified wattage of 160W. there isn't a lot of room in the grow space to accomodate another led grow light. i'll need to discuss it with my father when he gets back. we're still maybe 2 months ago at least from starting any seedlings.

CHECK YELLOW STICKY TRAPS: the thai chili pepper plant seems to have the most fungus gnats. maybe i shouldn't be surprised because instead of potting soil it's actually planted in garden compost, which is full of organic material larvae like to feed on. the long scallions/chives pots have a good amount of gnats as well, but greatly reduced compared to how it was before.

i left by 12:30pm, going straight home, hoping to catch the start of the senate impeachment trial happening at 1pm. nearly home, i passed by a guy who looked like kevin, walking with some girl. instead of scrambled eggs and kielbasa, i had a bowl of salad for lunch. i ran out of russian dressing so used italian dressing instead, just as good.

i watched the start of the senate impeachment trial - which i'd later learn was just the prelude, the debate before the trial itself which actually begins tomorrow.

today we surpassed the year-to-date production from 2019: 357.75kWh last year (up to january 21st), 371.52kWh this year (2020), for an increase of 103.85% (13.78kWh extra). with today's production, we now only need to average 17.8kWh of electricity per day to break january 2019's record. we didn't break 30kWh+ today, which was surprising, given how sunny and clear it was for the first half of the day. but by noontime it started to get cloudy, with more clouds as the afternoon progressed, which managed to clip our generation. tomorrow is another sunny day, i'm hoping we can achieve maximum production.

spinach ham quiche(6 slices)

pie crust
flour (coating dish)

onion, chopped
10 oz. frozen spinach
8oz. diced ham
fresh ground pepper
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 cup white wine

15 oz. ricotta cheese
8 oz. mozzarella
2 oz. parmesan
2 oz. gorgonzola blue cheese

3 eggs

defrost frozen spinach in the morning. prebake oven 350°F; cook onion, spinach, ham, and spices then mix into cheese & egg blend. spoon into pie crust, bake for 40 minutes.

i started making my quiche around 5:30pm, hoping to get it in the oven by 6pm so it'd be ready to eat by 7pm. this time i added some white wine to the recipe, i couldn't really taste it, more for show. kevin came home right when the quiche was cooling. i told him yesterday i'd be making quiche, i told him he could have as much as he wanted, he ended up only eating a single slice.

i told kevin i might've seen him today, which he confirmed. he was going with a coworker to porter exchange (he called it lesley university) to have lunch at one of the japanese shops there. so i wonder if he even did any work today, going to the office around noontime, taking a long 2 hour long.