today was not a day to be outside, as it was raining for most of the day. not just little rain, but a steady shower. but just my luck, today also happened to be the day of my rescheduled gastroenterologist appointment. it wasn't until 1:30pm so i had plenty of time to get ready. i was going to make an english muffin sandwich but discovered all my muffins had gone moldy. instead i used a bagel and put on some chicken salad. while i was at it, i also added some arugula and prosciutto. i used to love that chicken salad but not anymore, i find it too sweet, and the mayonnaise turns my stomach.

i left the house by 12:40pm, wore my waterproof hiking shoes and quick dry hiking pants. i headed towards porter square, but midway through my walk the sidewalk disappeared and i was walking down the wrong way of a busy street. i had to cross the street momentarily to keep safe before crossing again to porter square.

i can't remember the last time i took the subway. i sure as didn't ride it during this whole coronavirus pandemic which started in march. looking back in my blog postings, the last time i rode the subway was all the way back in january, when i took it to go to deer island on an unseasonably warm winter day. so this was just my second time riding the subway all year.

i made a conscious effort not to touch anything: the swing gate entrance, the escalator railing, the subway poles. it was easy since there was hardly anyone. i had the whole car to myself, except a woman sitting all the way at the other end of the cabin, and a man sleeping on a few seats. at harvard square i saw two police officers on the platform as we entered the station. they came into my train cabin and made the sleeping guy get up and off the train. we picked up more people as we headed towards boston, but it never got crowded.

i got off at charles station to go to MGH. i'd been to the hospital a few times already during the past few months, so i knew the procedures. a guard stopped me at the door and asked about my business. after i told him, he asked me to clean my hands with the sanitizing gel and change my face mask. this time around i didn't have to check in again at the main desk, the guard told me i could go straight upstairs.

everything up to that point was smooth sailing. i'd only been to the gastroenterology office once before (or maybe twice), but the layout seemed different. did they move? or did they reshuffle the cubicles so they were all against one side of the wall, makeshift barriers for the expanded waiting room? i told the receptionist who i was here for and the time of my appointment. she checked her computer but couldn't find me. she did some further digging and realized the problem: my appointment - october 13th - was actually for 2021, not 2020. this wasn't my fault, whomever rescheduled my appointment previously made this mistake, causing me to a needless trip down to MGH in the pouring rain no less. at least i got a free face mask out of it. they rescheduled me again, this time for november 11th.

i dutifully made my way back to cambridge. the rain arrived right when i got to the station and i had to run a bit to catch it. naturally that made my glasses fog up in this wet and cold environment, and it took a minute before i could see again. instead of getting off at porter square, i got off at harvard. even though it was a longer walk, i didn't have to walk in the busy streets (the reason why the sidewalk at porter square is closed is because they're repairing it, so who knows how many years that's going to be, the slow pace of union labor).

so basically that was the most exciting thing to happen to me today. i didn't go out the rest of the day. i bumped into renee who reminded me that she needed help moving two air conditioners from her basement in the early evening. i agreed but it wasn't going to be fun as it the rain was now pouring. after i used the bathroom and took a shower, i looked out my living room window and saw that two broken air conditioners were already on the sidewalk. she must've asked my other neighbor neil and his teenage son for help moving the appliances. so that saved me the trouble. she wrote me e-mail afterwards letting me know the AC's were already moved, but said she could still use my help tomorrow to move some junky bicycles from her basement.

today was the start of amazon prime day. to be honest, there wasn't a lot of interesting sales. a lot of amazon devices, and then a slew of off-brand items that amazon now seems to be the major depository for. even those seemed to be fewer than year's past. i had $20 worth of credit for prime purchases. i ended up getting: sandisk 128GB ultra fit usb flash drive ($18.49, but i paid $0), sandisk 128GB extreme microSDXC memory card ($19.99 but i paid $16.13), dental tools ($6.90, not sure why i got these, maybe to do some in-home dentistry since it's probably impossible to go to a dentist these days), white metallic markers (set of 6, $7.98), and 35ft strand of solar frost globes light in warm yellow ($15.99).

when evening came, i was too lazy to cook, so instead i grabbed the tub of cold macaroni salad i got from aldi's yesterday and ate until i was full. i didn't like it either, talk about mayonnaise, this was more than the chicken salad, and i didn't like the sweetness. i had to chase it was a spicy pupusa my sister gave me sunday night. i had some chai tea and the later some sweet green grapes.

surprisingly, there was another football game tonight, between the titans and the bills, two undefeated teams. titans haven't played in 2 weeks when over 2 dozen players contracted the coronavirus and were all in quarantine, throwing portions of the NFL schedule out of whack. but the game was all tennessee, thanks in no small part to two malcolm butler interceptions. this is good news for new england, which will only be one game behind buffalo if the patriots can win their twice postponed game against the broncos next sunday. so as of now, the seahawks, packers, steelers, and the titans are the only undefeated teams. on the flip side, the jets, the giants, and the falcons have yet to win one game. atlanta even fired their coach (who took them to the super bowl) and general manager.