ming's market was surprisingly busy, and the shelves were better stocked compared to last week. i ended up waiting longer in checkout line that i did actually shopping. when i called my mother asking if she needed anything more, she told me my parents were planning on opening up the cafe next week and would do their own supply run. back outside i rubbed some disinfecting gel on my hands before continuing to haymarket.
the most direct way was through downtown crossing again. i noticed a lot of businesses that had their glassfront windows boarded up last week due to the protesting vandalism and looting already had them removed and seemed like they were getting ready to open up again.
with the supply chain still not back to normal due to the coronavirus pandemic, i wasn't too surprised at the slim pickings in haymarket. i ended up leaving with 2 pineapples ($3), a bag of mini sweet peppers ($1), 6 red plums ($1), 3 boxes of strawberries ($2), a bag of clementine oranges ($3), and a pound of longhorn hot peppers ($1.50).
i thought it'd be a quick trip to boston and back but i didn't get home until 2 hours later around 12:30pm. sweet-soaked, i took a shower first before changing into some fresh clothes and riding the motorcycle to belmont with my saddlebags stuffed with groceries. i didn't get to my parents' place until 1pm. i had some egg pancakes for lunch.
my father mentioned something about our aquatic reed plant needing some fertilizer. he was going to use the generic miracle-gro blue fertilizing powder, but i told him i had special aquatic plant fertilizers (that i got for my lotuses). they come in pellet forms and look remarkably like candy. i grabbed two and was tucking one into the dense roots of the reed plant when i noticed something: i used to think the reed was growing out of a 3 gallon bucket but actually it was living inside of a ceramic pot that was inside of the bucket. we needed to free the reed from the pot before replanting it back into the bucket. at first we thought the dense mat of roots from growing from underneath the drainage hole in the pot. then we realized the pot actually had no drainage holes, and the roots were actually growing out of pot, then surrounding it completely. we cut away the roots to free the main plant, but it was densely packed into the pot. there was no way to get the plant out without smashing the pot, which my father ended up having the courtesy using a round beach rock.
once freed, we trimmed a bit more of the excess roots before packing the plant back into the bucket (by that point the reed had split into two separate plants). we also put some mud at the bottom of the bucket, to give the reed some nutrients. the remaining gaps we found pieces of roots and mud we removed earlier and stuffed them into the empty spaces, adding two pond fertilizing pellets along the way. hopefully the reed will grow better now that it's not impossibly root-bound.
while my father watered the garden i did some weeding and trimming of our tomatoes. squatting down, i suddenly felt very dizzy, like the world was spinning. i got up to sort of clear my head and went back to gardening, but the dizziness continued, felt like extreme motion sickness. i went inside to rest, asking my mother for the blood pressure cuff. the first reading my numbers were scary low 100/70. the only thing i could think of was dehydration from biking into boston earlier and not drinking enough water. but i've been dehydrated before and i never got lightheaded, i just got these chills. maybe it was a blood sugar issue, and i drank a glass of orange juice and ate some chocolate. i took another blood pressure reading, this time it was high, 140/100. i went to go lie down on the sofa which helped a lot. after a few minutes i tried standing up and got light-headed again. i wanted to tell my mother if i pass out, to take me to the hospital, but didn't want to worry her, even though she was worried enough, thinking i might be having a stroke or something more serious. after 10 minutes or so i felt good enough to go back outside. i still felt a little dizzy, but not as bad as before, and i gardened for a short bit before coming back inside to rest for good.
it was cloudy and sunny but in the end the sun won out and we had another 50kWh+ production day. tomorrow looks to be a repeat of today.
even going to my parents' place without kevin around is a weird experience. i'm so used to reporting to him, that it seemed abnormal not having to tell him i was leaving, or when i'd be back. i have the freedom now of coming and going whenever i want and not having to inform anyone.