i woke up early - 7:30am - figuring i'd need time to eat breakfast. that's when i realize i usually skip breakfast, so i had an hour and a half of waiting before my work began. i did have some time to go outside and water my front garden.
no surprise, most people didn't answer when i knocked on their door on a saturday morning. i pity the enumerators who are knocking on doors tomorrow morning though (sunday). as the morning grew later, i started to get more responses. i was sent to a few addresses marked for somerville when they were in fact boston addresses. i found a proxy who was setting up a musical event in front of his house; he helped me clear 2 cases that were proxy eligible. i went back to the kind old lady who gave me a jade plant who served as my proxy for her next door neighbors, summering on the vineyards. finally, i managed a direct interview at a different address after i already attempted 3 proxies and saw the tenant coming out of his house after i knocked on his door earlier with no response. he was brazilian and spoke very little english, but we both knew enough spanish to communicate and i managed to get his basic info. at one point in the late morning, just when my shift was about to be over, the sky turned dark and it rained some fat drops for about 10 minutes before stopping. by noontime i still had 10 cases left, but of the 17 addresses i attempted, i managed to close 8. always be closing!
i got back home to use the bathroom before riding my bike to cambridge common for another informal census gathering. i saw my supervisor waiting there alone, once again i was the first to arrive. later 3 more enumerators showed up, with S being the only one from our thursday outdoor meeting. i didn't think there'd be a lot to discuss but the meeting last 1-1/2 hours, as each of us had questions to ask, or gripes or recommendations to share. i taught everyone how to use the keyboard shortcut function in the iphone, something i only learned recently from a reddit posting, and one that i just applied yesterday when i had to enumerate 18 luxury apartment listings.
so not bad for a saturday morning, i managed to score 4-1/2 more hours of census work, and overtime at that.
after i returned home again, i took a quick shower before gathering up my things and rode the motorcycle to belmont. i got there around 2pm. my parents went to my mother's acupuncture appointment in framingham this morning and went to the waltham costco afterwards. when i arrived they had already made some sweet and spicy garlic drumsticks in the air fryer. they were okay, more sweet than spicy. i think they'd taste better barbecued on the grill for that smoky flavor.
i never once set foot in the backyard, that's how much interest i've lost in gardening. only later in the early evening did i ask my father if he's noticed any woodchuck attacks. he said some of the squash leaves have been chewed, but not at a rate that was alarming, so mades me think it's not woodchuck, because a woodchuck would completely defoliate the squash grove in a matter of days, more likely rabbits. if i had to choose a poison, i rather have rabbits than woodchucks.
after dinner i returned home to cambridge. tonight would be the only night where i can sleep and not have to worry about waking up the next day to work. after a shower, i ate a sweet saturn peach and had a pomegranate popsicle, while enjoying ice cold water from my insulated 40 oz. thermos. i had a basketball game in the background (lakers vs. trailblazers) but i wasn't paying attention. i manually backed up some files and ran time machine on my computer.