so it took 2-1/2 days (60 hours) for my lotus seeds to germinate. currently just two, which would be enough, but i think the other two remaining seeds could potentially germinate as well. so maybe one trick i learned is to throw out bubbling seeds because they're rotten. healthy lotus seeds do not bubble.

i biked down to the community garden in the late morning with a box of chinese asters and a cypress vine seedling. i wasn't planning to, but i ended up planting all the seedlings. now i sit back and wait and see if slugs and/or other critters will eat the seedlings. while digging in the soil near the vertical path, i uncovered some termites in the dirt. it won't harm the garden, but if i was a neighbor i would want to know. the bitter melons have a strong climbing instinct: without any help from me, both seedlings have already found the trellis and will be climbing this week. they're also growing fast, much faster than the bitter melons at my parents' place (maybe because the ones in my garden have more sun). i spotted some three-lined cucumber beetles on my in-ground ground cherry plant. i quickly squashed them. that brought back memories of cucumber beetles feeding on nightshade, of which ground cherries belong in the same family. i also saw cucumber beetles on my grow bag ground cherry, which i also promptly destroyed.

it's hot enough that i've busted out my 40 oz. takeya insulated stainless steel water bottle. i filled it up with ice water, this will be my drink of choice for the rest of the summer.

in the afternoon i biked down to the cafe to go with my sister to home depot to buy mulch for her and playground sand for the cantilevered umbrella base. while we were there, my sister noticed that 50 lbs. of quickrete all-purpose sand was cheaper ($3.78) than 50 lbs. of premium play sand, so naturally i opted for the cheaper option.

back at the cafe, we tested the umbrella with the sand weights, works great, the stand has no chance of tipping, the umbrella blowing away in strong winds, that's a different story. my sister also made me a trial version of the tiger sugar boba ice tea. it was good, maybe could be even sweater, and use whole milk instead of skim milk for a richer flavor. i finally returned home by 3:30pm.

i walked down to walgreens to pick up my prescriptions. only two of them were available, i had to renew my irbesartan prescription with my doctor. the pharmacist kept asking me if i'd gotten the covid vaccine, or if i knew any family or friends who needed one. turns out, they have 5 doses of pfizer vaccine that needs to be administered today before they expire by 8:30pm tonight. remember when getting a vaccine was a matter of blind luck and securing an appointment was like winning the lottery? now they can't even give the vaccine away! coming back, i stopped by the dollar store to grab some snacks.

around 6:30pm i went back to the garden to meet up with annie marie, who was giving me some solomon's seal plants. i got there early, and there was a lot of people in the gardens, including helen and david. when anne marie finally showed up, she said i could dig out what i wanted from a turnover plot, including some ferns and a big bundle of phlox of indeterminate colors. mark - who was there watering his garden with his son - saw what i was up to and wanted to score some free plants as well. we told him he could come back tomorrow morning and dig some up himself. not only did i dig up my own plants, but also additional ferns and solomon's seals for others. by the end i was soaked, sweat running down my face. i finally left by 7:30pm, leaving behind the plants so i can come back for them tomorrow morning (since i walked here). i also got a bonus wild ginger plant which i planted in a clay pot as soon as i got back home.

instead of making a wrap, i continued eating the leftover barbecued drumsticks for dinner.

while performing a water change on the lotus seeds, i accidentally knocked the jar violently in the sink. that was actually strong enough to dislodge one of the green sprouts from the seed. fortunately, the two other unopened seeds from this morning seem to be germinating as well, so i still may have 3 lotus plants, even though i'd be happy with just one.

mercari finally contacted me, told me my seller finally shipped off my used asus tablet order (from arizona). when i clicked on the USPS tracking number though, it said only the shipping label was created (late sunday night no less), but the post office was still awaiting the item. hopefully by tomorrow USPS will update the shipping info.

around 9pm the rain that was promised finally started to fall. there were also brief periods of intense lightning and thundering. the soft rain actually lasted for a few hours, enough to possibly give boston 0.3 inches of rainfall. i hope that's enough to fill our rain barrels, my father will find out tomorrow morning.