i left the house by 10am, taking my light fuji bike, pumping up both tires even though miraculously neither of them were flat despite having not riden it in a long time. i did some math last night, if the men elite start off at 8:30am, they should be around audubon circle - where i normally watch the marathon - by 10:30am. it'd take me about 25 minutes to get there. in actuality, it took me just 19 minutes. i saw some wheelchair runners before the men made their appearance by 10:40am.
normally i watch from the top of the hill, but that area seemed to be sectioned off, cement jersey barriers and tall walls, along with a ground of cops congregating in that area. i watched from a spot a little bit further down. i was hoping to bump into julie but i didn't see her and didn't bother to text to see if she was in the neighborhood. i brought my mask but most people weren't wearing them. people for the most part socially distanced themselves, and we were outdoor anyway, so i didn't bother wearing it.
the elite men was followed by the elite women. they staggered the release of the general runners for the very first time, so instead of a torrent of runners like normal, it was more of a trickle. a trio of young people stood next to me. one of them - jordan - asked if i was willing to take photos of their friends who were running the marathon. i didn't mind, gave me a mission instead of just randomly taking photos of runners (which i was doing as well, but at least i had a purpose). jordan texted me her contact info and asked if i could send some photos to her. they left after their friends ran by, this was their third stop, i assumed they'd try to get down to copley square at the finish line. i thought about crossing the bridge to get to fenway, but there was a security check and for whatever reason the line was very long.
i ended up staying until 12:30pm before heading home. i saw a drone in the sky before i left, that was something i wanted to do but i didn't want to get in trouble. from the looks of it, it's probably a DJI mini. it was actually pretty easy to get back since a lot of traffic had been diverted due to the marathon, so there were very little cars. the lack of cars tricked me into taking the cambridge rotary after the BU bridge - which is more for motorized vehicles, not bicycles. 
i realized my mistake and found myself riding on memorial drive for a stretch before i got onto the sidewalk. i cut through harvard square to get back home by around 1pm.
i wrapped more paper towels around the sewer drain, to see where else it was leaking. it didn't take long for the new paper towels to start soaking up the liquids. i'm so sick and tired of looking at the exposed plumbing, and even worse, seeing seepage that's raw sewage from upstairs. it's like living next to an open sewer. it's gotten to the point where i tried to avoid the bathroom if i can help it.
i packed up my things and rode the motorcycle to belmont. my parents had just gotten back from the cafe - my father was busy cleaning out the grease trap. my mother made some noodles for a late lunch, served with some boiled pork vertebra.
yesterday's big project was setting up the basement plant shelves; today's project was digging up the siberian irises and dividing them. we hardly got any flowers this season, the irises were due for a refresh. that whole western perennial bed is a real mess, ideally it'd be great to dig up everything and replant them. while i dug up clumps of irises, my father was trimming off the older tubers and cutting the leaves. we ended up replanting 30 of the bigger iris rhizomes, but we still have a whole bucket full of the smaller rhizomes. there are more iris beds that need dividing, we're leaving that for next weekend. next weekend also looks like we'll be moving all our outdoor houseplants into the basement, as the nightly temperatures will dip into the 40's.
i decided to do some drone flying in the late afternoon, after noticing some trees (sugar maples, ash) already changing into their fall colors (red, yellow respectively). i flew straight up into the sky, 3x the allowable limit, just to see how far i can get. from that height i can see the harbor islands and the atlantic ocean. a lot of trees are still green though, we're not yet at peak foliage season. that's one of my dream shots with the dream, to take amazing fall foliage photos from the sky.
i went in the basement to inspect the few plants we have there. i'm worried that the orchids still might have mealybugs and then spread it to the other plants, so i sprayed them again with neem oil extract.
around 5:30pm my father grilled the lamb steaks they got at costco yesterday. there are many ways to cook it, but we just threw it onto the barbecue on high heat and applied heavy seasoning: cumin, hot pepper flakes, ground pepper, salt. i cut the fat edges so the lamb wouldn't curl up once cooked. about 4 minutes of searing on each side, or until they develop a fine crust. these were cooked much better than last time, but i think it's because all the pieces are uniformly thin (last time some of the lamb were very thick and they didn't cook all the way through). the final lamb had a rare-medium doneness.
sunset is a bit after 6pm these days. after dinner i went outside to fly the drone one last time, to see if i could see fenway park from the sky. i couldn't make out the stadium, but it was obvious where it was, because it was brightest thing on the boston skyline. the phone was acting a little weird thing, said i was at half signal strength even though the drone was just directly overhead. is there more radio interference at nights? i also made the rookie mistake of thinking a star was actually my drone. it confused me when it didn't seem to move in the sky even though i could see it moving on the screen. luckily i found my bearing i accidentally landed the drone into a tree.
my parents already ate their boba popsicles while i was outside. my mother said i could have one but i took one of the boxes so i could have them at home. when she went to costco yesterday they were back in stock. i returned home so i could catch the red sox game starting at 7pm.
there was no time for showering as i immediately started watching the game as soon as i got home. in the 3rd inning the red sox scored 5 runs, and it seemed all but a foregone conclusion that they'd win the game. but tampa bay - with the best record in baseball - chipped away at the lead until they finally tied the game in the 8th inning. but just like last night, red sox managed to get a game winning hit, winning the division series, knocking out the rays which i'd picked to be the world series champions this year.
maureen texted me tonight, said she got her birthday present of paint markers which should've arrived yesterday. i haven't spoken with her since early september, when we abruptly stopped writing each other. me sending her a little gift was a way to reconnect.
my father bought a package of three duracell flashlights from costco on sunday. he gave me one which i tossed into my motorcycle saddlebag. when i went home yesterday i don't remember seeing it, so i looked again tonight, but i couldn't find it. then i had an unpleasant thought: could the flashlight have fallen out of my saddlebag? there's a gap at the bottom of one of the bags. i've always wanted to sew it back shut but never got around to it. i never had anything fall out but there's always a risk. so maybe the flashlight managed to fall out while i was transferring the bags. or hopefully it's still in belmont. whatever the case may be, i found my sewing kit and sewed up the seam, so this won't happen again.