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i woke up at 8am to get ready to go with my mother to her podiatrist appointment in davis square. she was supposed to get here at 9am but left early and it was my father who called me around 8:50am to tell me she already left the cafe. i met her outside as she drove to davis square.

my mother paid the $45 copayment to see the specialist, about a discoloration in one of her toenails. i was there as a translator, in case there was something my mother didn't understand or wanted to relay. the doctor took one look and said it wasn't anything to be concerned with. discolored nails are relatively common. what would be concerning if the discoloration was also on the skin, but in my mother's case it was only on her nail. the doctor could do a biopsy which would involve numbing the toe and punching a hole into the nail bed, taking some skin tissue sample as well. the only problem is the nail bed becomes permanently damaged and the nail doesn't grow back as normal, so typically they avoid nail biopsy unless absolutely necessary.

the thing to do now is just to monitor the toenail, make sure the discoloration doesn't spread, or doesn't start showing up on the skin (in that case it's most likely skin cancer). my mother also told the doctor about other pains in her feet. one of the pain came from swelling, and the doctor told her she could remedy that by wearing compression socks (the doctor showed us she was actually wearing a pair herself). my mother also complained about pain in one of her big toe, which was due to an ingrown nail. the doctor helped her trim it back and my mother felt immediate relief afterwards (although she would've preferred the doctor to trim even more).

we left soon after that. the meter had already ran out but luckily we didn't get ticketed (we were off by 10 minutes). i did the driving back to my house. while my switched to the driver's seat, i went home to grab the boneless chicken thighs i bought from market basket yesterday and gave them to her before she left.

i went down to the community garden to water my plants before it got super hot. it was 10:30am and the temperature was already sweltering, air so humid i understood what people mean when they say "soupy." i watered and quickly returned home to take a shower to rinse off all that outdoor stickiness.

for lunch i made an ham-egg-cheese english muffin sandwich with a cold glass of whole milk matcha latte. i watched the news while eating then later watched the latest episode of loki i downloaded earlier.

in the late afternoon i took a quick trip to star market to get some newman's lemonade on sale (never had it before). when i got back and turned on the news, i heard that boston officially reached 100 degrees today, the first time in nearly a decade (the last time was back in july 2011, julie and i went to the harbor islands).

also on the news was the approach of some serious weather, a line of heavy thunderstorms passing over all of massachusetts from west to east. complicating matters was the fact that the somerville fireworks show was tonight. would the show still go on?

i waited by the window, still watching the sky darken with ominous clouds. when the storm did come, it was brief, just a band, the trees swayed, trash was being blown around in the streets, then a strong downpour that lasted just minutes. after that the sky started to clear up again.

it's the end of the month and we managed to have the highest production for june with 1218kWh. 2021 has been a pretty good year solarwise, we also had the most production for the month of march and april.

there would be additional bands of storms crossing the boston area. i kept periodically checking the doppler radar. the fireworks was at 9:45pm.

instead of a salad (i was neither in the mood nor did i have the time), i made a quick dinner from the maruchan spicy miso gold ramen that i bought a while back. i never had it before, i was curious about the taste. like before, i added a raw egg, some kewpie mayo, and some minced garlic to make a savory broth. the final result didn't look very appetizing (i had some scallions but they were all expired) and it tasted okay at best. there was a strong processed flavors taste, the same taste i get from the maruchan instant cup of noodles. the additional ingredients disguised it bit but i could stay taste it. if i were to recommend an instant noodle, i'd say go with nongshim's shin ramyun instead, the more premium black version (with bone broth) if you can find it.

when i looked outside around 9pm, it was pouring rain. there was no way there'd be fireworks. i kept updating the somerville city website and twitter page but there were no updates as to the status of the fireworks. i finally found the answer on the somerville subreddit. apparently they shot off all the fireworks around 8:30pm, an hour early, figuring it'd be too rainy to do it later, and didn't want to postpone it either. so i missed the show! i wasn't planning on going there perse, my original plan was to find an empty park and watch the fireworks from my drone. fortunately there are a few other chances to see fireworks this 4th of july weekend. the question is will the weather cooperate though, since it's going to be pretty rainy for the next few days.

it was for the best, i didn't really want to go anyway, especially since game 6 between the suns-clippers was on tv. chris paul was on fire, singlehandedly willed his team to victory. the phoenix suns will be going to the NBA finals, first time in 24 years. the last time was 1993, and i remember that vividly because i was in taiwan at the time, watching suns-vs-bulls on television at my cousin's house. because of the time difference, the games were broadcasted live in the mornings.