it all started this morning when i decided to wash the rug from my foyer. caked in salt and mud, vacuuming wasn't going to work, it needed a deep wash to get rid of all the grime. i got that rug from marshalls a few years back after an extensive search. it's so old that the rubber backing underneath has started flaking off and turning into powder. so i had to wash carefully, to prevent more peeling. it'd be a lot easier just to get a new rug, but it's got sentimental value. after shaking the run outside to get rid of the dirt, i soaked it in the bath tub with some hot water and a scoop of oxiclean powder. the water was coming out black. after draining, i rinsed it again in hot water, the water was now dark brown. i kept repeating until the water came out relatively clear. i think hug up the rug in the backyard to dry. it'll probably take at least 2 days, i'm not in any hurry.

while i was in on my backyard porch, i hung my remote temperature sensor in a new place. the place i had it before was underneath my upstair's neighbors barbecue grill, but they moved it so now the sensor was exposed to the element. i found a brass screw in the basement and gave it a proper hanging spot. i also fixed the weather sealing of my door, the sticky tape had lost its stickiness the weather strips were falling off.

i also decided to move some living room furniture. i decided to move forward by sofa by 6 inches so there could be enough space in the back for a console table. this clearing some living room furniture (tullsta chair, coffee table, side table) so i could then move the rug, before finally moving the sofa. i vacuumed the rug while i was at it, and later vacuumed the rest of the house as well.

the long beans have uprighted themselves but they're growing too tall and thin due to the lack of sunlight. i moved them into the grow closet for the time being. but i received some good news today. barrina got in touch with me, said USPS lost my package but they would refund my money. then amazon sent me e-mail, said the white barrina grow lights i bought have finally been shipped and will arrive on sunday.

i was finally finished by 1pm. made myself a matcha latte and vegged out in the living room, trying to think of what else i could do. i finished watching crash (1996), the david cronenberg film about people who are turned on by car crashes. it's such an unapologetically weird movie, but it makes me want to rewatch some more cronenberg films.

i left the house at 3pm to visit the alewife brook reservation. it took me about 20 minutes to bike the nearly 3 miles to get there, along the belmont-cambridge (fitchburg) bike trail. it was surprisingly cold today, temperature in the upper 30's at most, cold enough to warrant gloves and a hat. i wasn't expecting to see too many people but people are still in pandemic mode, working from home, finding the time to go out for walks.

part of me was there for the nature, but a part of me was also there to find a place to fly the drone. my destination wasn't so much the reservation, but rather what was beyond that, the royal belmont luxury apartments. i've never seen it before in person, only on google satellite view. it looked like a monstrosity, clearing away a vast tract of silver maple forest to make room for the apartment complex.

once the coast was clear, i quickly pulled the drone from my bag and launched it into the air. even though i couldn't see the royal belmont, it was just a bit beyond the reservation, not so far i'd lose even a bar of RC signal. the royal belmont is weird in that technically it's in belmont, but there's no way to get to it unless you get onto the highway. who would want to live there? my personal theory was it was designed to cater to rich chinese nationals who could rent an apartment and thereby allow their children to attend belmont public school. however with the pandemic, i'm guessing a lot of these chinese families broke their lease and returned home, and the building owners are having a hard time finding new tenants. there's even a big "lease available" sign on the side of the building; you know a luxury apartment complex has problems when it has to try this hard to find tenants. judging from all the empty parking spots (granted, it was a weekday, probably many people were at work, but still, taking that into account there still seemed to be a lot of empty spaces), i wonder how much of the apartments are currently empty.

as for naturing, a lot of pussy willow catkins of various shapes and sizes, and red-colored early spring flowers on trees, of which kind i don't know. i saw a white-throated sparrow (a little kid helped me confirm the identification), mallards, canada geese, grackles, cardinals, robins, and red-winged blackbirds. coming to alewife i saw a grizzled great blue heron stalking the shoreline.

i returned home by 4:30pm. i bumped into my upstairs neighbors as they were returning home. i had some cheese and crackers as a late afternoon snack.

for dinner it was more burgers and salad. i'm all burgered out, i don't think i can eat another burger anytime soon. i froze the remaining hamburger buns. i had some hot chocolate (with milk) and a can of seltzer, later some mandarin oranges.