kevin's bedroom door was opened this morning and all the lights were turned off. could the impossible actually happen? did he go outside like a normal human being? but he could also be in the bathroom, and minutes later i heard the toilet flushing. he told me he was going to take a shower, which meant if i wanted to use the bathroom i should use it now, but i wasn't about to enter the facility so soon after he vacated, i'm not an animal, and i don't want to breath in another person's stink.
while kevin was taking his shower, i ate a banana for breakfast. i was then in the kitchen punching holes in the bottom of the plastic cups i got from the dollar store yesterday. these i would take to belmont to be used as pots for my seeds.
when kevin was finally finished that's when i used the bathroom. the carpet was wet but not as bad as before. the backsplash countertop behind the tub was completely soaked, i took a few minutes to wipe everything down with a sponge before taking a shower.
i left a bit before noontime, to my parents' place. i know earlier in the week i was debating if i should go or not, but i have a few things i needed to do there, and anything to get out of the house and away from kevin.
first thing i did when i arrived was to swap out the inner tube of the squirrel buster standard with the new replacement tube that finally arrived a few days ago. the replacement tube actually had some damage, when they screwed on the base they used too much force and cracked the plastic housing. not a big deal and i really needed just need the new spring anyway, my old tube is still good to use. after adjusting the tension, i've found the new tube behaves similarly to the old tube, not much has changed. when set at the most sensitive setting, i still need to add 1 oz. of fishing weight to make it sensitive enough to trigger a 3.5 oz. bird hanging from the perch. but adding the fishing weight does make the shroud drop slightly, so the feeding window is a bit smaller. nothing much i can do about it now, even if a new tube the situation isn't completely fixed, i just have to learn to live with it, and be okay with the fact that a certain amount of seeds will still be eaten by grackles smart enough to stick their feet in the feeding out so the shroud doesn't fall completely down.
i had some avocado toast for lunch, along with a few pieces of leftover kielbasa and a chunk of sea bass. i don't think i ever had avocado toast before, it's not bad, especially the way my mother makes it with additional garlic and salt and olive oil mixed with the avocado. i finally saw the gardenia flower, now a bit wilted, but still fragrant if you hold your nose to it. i was in the basement grow room checking on the plants and noticed 2 very active ladybugs running around the surface of the gardenia and jasmine leaves.
in the backyard, the following plants have re-emerged: columbines, lupines, money plants, monkshood, daffodils, scillas, garlics, and peonies. all the columbines and lupines i transplanted in the fall seemed to be survived the rather mild winter.
my mother made nian-gao, which i had to log into my predict app. i had a small piece, while my mother gave half to my sister's friend who loves the stuff.
my sister left for needham to visit our fan-susu our tailor friend, who said he made a bunch of face masks for us to have. when she brought them back, they all looked professional, you couldn't tell they weren't store-bought. they even have an insertable middle pocket for filters. it's the only face masks we have, other than the 3 old N95 facemasks my father found in the garage from when we sanded and painted the house.
while my mother made dinner, i was standing behind her, logging all the ingredients. some i could measure with the scale, while others i could only estimate the portion. there was so much food, i think it's just going to be a big blob in the data survey.