all out of avocados, i made a simple lunch of a toasted english muffin with a few pieces of ham and a squirt of mustard. when i went into the kitchen i was shocked to see kevin using my cast iron dutch oven to cook his lunch. i have never used that dutch oven to cook anything else other than no-knead bread. it's a difficult piece of cookware to use, takes a long time to come to temperature, and liable to accidentally burn yourself. not to mention a pain to clean as well, heavy, can only use water, must be dried immediately, then a layer of oil applied all over the surface. but to his credit, kevin did clean the dutch oven immediately after he finished using it. while he ate in his bedroom with the door closed, i went back into the kitchen to oil up the dutch oven. he has used every single one of my cooking pots, even the ones i try to hide because i don't want anyone to use them.
i started playing around with my raspberry pi again. according to the system log, the last time the pi 3 was plugged in was back in september, although i can't be sure if it's september 2019 or even earlier. i want to get back to my coding tinkering roots again, and i have a backlog of pi/arduino projects to work on now i have even more free time than ever. it's been a while, i wasn't even sure if the ssh key on my macbook pro still worked to remoting access the pi 3. i also couldn't remember if i set up individual ports on the router for each of my pi devices (i did). the one pi 3 (the original) sitting in my living room has a 433MHz transceiver attached to it so i could control my remote light switches in the house; i was happy that still worked. i then installed an ssh client on my pixel 3XL so i could control the lights remotely by phone. i updated all the packages. i made sure fail2ban was still running (it was). tomorrow if i get to it i'll check all my other pi devices, see what i have installed on them.
the weather today was actually pretty warm, temperature almost in the 60's. i said i wasn't going to go to market basket until next week, but weatherwise today was the perfect day to go, especially if i'm to stand outside waiting in line for possibly hours. so after calling up my parents to ask them if they needed anything (they were resigned that i would be going sooner or later), i biked down to market basket. i haven't been back since april 1st, when it was so crowded i vowed never to come back since it seemed too dangerous. that was actually the last day of the crowds because the very next day market basket instituted a limited customer occupancy for all its stores.
along the way i saw some people in masks carrying market basket bags. i wanted to ask them how conditions were like at the store, but people nowadays are so wary of talking with strangers (coronavirus fears) that i decided against it. i would find out for myself soon enough. there was hardly any bikes at the bike stand, so i thought maybe i lucked out and came during a time when it wasn't busy. but when is market basket ever not busy? i followed the line until i was all the way on the other side of the parking lot, nearly out the entrance, out to the sidewalk. but i wasn't complaining, and i don't think anyone else in line was complaining either, people understood this was a necessary inconvenience in order to make everyone - customers and employees - safe.
i was a little overdressed, i wore my fleece hooded sweatshirt with a vest over that, and i could feel myself warming up in the sun. but better to be warm than cold. we used the parking lines to figure out how far apart to stand, and as we got closer to the store, they put tape against the wall showing people how far apart they should be standing. the line stretched down one of the parking lot to the store, then it looped back on itself. there was about 60 customers ahead of me, but the line moved fairly quickly. it made for some interesting people watching. some people were either buried or chatting into their phone. a saw one rather stylish asian girl crocheting a scarf while she waited in line. a masked chinese couple was chatting loudly and giggling. i saw a few customers without masks, but for the most part everyone wore them. the ones who didn't have masks were always young.
as we moved closer to the store i saw there was a sign that said the maximum customer occupancy was 75. i ended up waiting about 35+ minutes, but it didn't feel that long. there was but one entrance for both coming and going. a woman stood outside, waving people in as soon as somebody came out of the store.
i normally shop using just my 2 grocery bags, but decided to push a cart because i was planning on getting a lot of stuff. once inside, the store was very empty and calm. there were arrows on the floor telling people which directions to go, but a few customers (young and old) either ignored the signs or simply didn't see them. fortunately i come to market basket enough times that i have a fairly good map of the store, so i never had to double back. coronavirus shopping is different than regular shopping in that i don't spend time debating whether i should get something. if i have an inkling i might want it, i get it. also prices isn't as much a consideration, i was just happy they were well-stocked, compared to some of the other super markets i've visited.
market basket had everything: eggs, cheese, bread, canned goods, instant noodles, meats, frozen vegetables, frozen foods. they even had toilet paper, several different brands, not just some off-brand or the store brand. i was happy to find my market basket premium which is the toilet paper i use. they had 8-packs, i was going to buy 2, but noticed there was a sign limiting customers to just one. in fact, you would't know it from the well-stock aisles that we were in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic. the only thing they didn't have was flour, there wasn't even space for it on the shelves, it's as if they simply decided not to carry any. the only flour they did have was some weird gluten-free flour.
another weird thing was because there were so few customers inside the store and traffic was funneled into being one way, that i kept seeing the same people i saw standing outside for nearly half an hour. it also felt kind of special after lining up for so long outside to be one of the 75 customers allowed in the store, like i was a VIP inside an elite club.
i noticed when i went to go pay that they'd installed plexiglass shielding for the cashiers, something they didn't have when i came 4 weeks ago. i ended up getting $80 worth of groceries, 4x more than what i'd usually spend on a typical weekly grocery run. back outside, i pushed the cart to my bicycle on the other side of the store to load up my rear baskets. i used some bungie cords to secure the paper towels and slung a grocery bag full of eggs over my shoulder as i slowly rode home.
so i got to market basket at 3pm, waited in line for 35+ minutes, then finished my shopping in about 20 minutes, to get home by 4pm. overall it wasn't a bad experience. i was expecting it to be much worse, particularly the wait line for the lines. but even with the line snaking out the parking lot into the sidewalk, it was still only just a 35+ minute wait, and it never felt that long. people were also well-behaved, most everyone observed the social distancing rule, nobody cut the line, nobody was acting obnoxious. i would definitely come back again. i was most impressed with how well-stocked it was. it felt like every other market basket visit, minus the long line outside and everyone wearing masks. now the only other place i need to go is an asian supermarket. that will be my next adventure.
still hungry after only having that simple english muffin ham sandwich for lunch, i toasted some naan bread and searched it with some leftover easter ham for my afternoon snack. i ate while watching another episode of counterpart. later, instead of chips, i snacked on some glazed pecans.
my sister dropped off her godmother at the airport to return to taiwan. she said the airport was completely empty. if that's the case, how come it was so hard to buy a ticket? i think simply because a lot of flights had been cancelled due to lack of passengers. even the planes that are still flying, they're mostly empty. that was the case when my 2nd aunt came back from california a few weeks ago, must be a surreal time to fly.
kevin kept to his room for much of the day, with the door closed and the lights off, which made me think he was taking a nap. i'm always on the lookout for signs of him descending into depression or madness, given how he hasn't set foot outside since he started working from home on march 16th, this being the 6th week of home quarantine. he's only gone out for groceries and each time seems like a traumatic experience for him. i just wonder with the slow pace of the pandemic that whether or not he'll eventually decide to forgo his PhD studies and go back to china for good. so i'm a bit more sensitive to his plight, because if he leaves, that means 1-1/2 years of lost rental income at my grand uncle's place, where he's moving into next once the current tenants leave.
we set another production record today with 52.38kWh, although the graph line doesn't look nearly as good as the previous record, with a big dip around 2:45pm. despite that, there was an overall production increase such that even with the dip we still set a new record for 2020.
instead of having more pasta (i'll have that tomorrow), i made some hot dogs for dinner, gave me a chance to use up some of my homemade sauerkraut.
i watched the NFL draft, with the patriots at the 23 spot. i waited all night, until almost 11pm, when it was announced the belichick had traded new england's first round pick to the chargers in exchange for 2 second round picks. i waited for nothing!
i didn't see much of kevin in the evening. he microwaved some leftovers for dinner, then retreated to his room, where it was dark for much of the time. he got up around midnight and went to the bathroom for half an hour. i heard the shower running but it was just a trickle, not sure what he was doing in there. he went back to his room where the lights were on for the rest of the evening, maybe he was making up for lost work today.