i was out in the backyard of my parents' place flying the drone when my parents returned from a baifu (AKA foodpak) supply run. i asked if the tent city was still there (foodpak is located at the epicenter of methadone mile) as there's been a lot of news coverage of tent removal. the city just moved the tents from the main drag, but in the side streets the tents were as dense as before, except now there's a bigger police presence. so much for cleaning up the area.

my parents got these vietnamese glutinous rice spring rolls with taro fillings. my mother fried them in a wok. i thought they were going to be sweet (sugar was one of the main ingredients) but they turned out to be savory and actually pretty good. we ate them with some thai sweet chili sauce.

after lunch my mother went out for a walk while my father and i put up the light filtering honeycomb cellular shade in her bedroom. i've only ever used venetian blinds, so this was something new for me. originally my mother wasn't sure if she wanted them, thinking they'd be cheaper online. i paid $33 for a 29 x 48 in. cordless cellular shade in snow drift; when i checked online, they were all more expensive, so this was the cheapest option. after drilling the 3 metal brackets to the inside of the window frame, we snapped the shade into place. this was a light filtering shade, so it allowed light to come yet still provided privacy. apparently these will also act as a window insulation.

next my father and i went outside to dig up the western bed and add an entire bag of chicken manure. i measured the area, the newly expanded western bed (not including the raspberry patch) is approximately 50 sq.ft. or the size of two of our raised beds. since we used half a bag of chicken manure of each of our raised beds, it stands to reason we'd use an entire bag here. besides, we still had 5 more bags. my father's strategy was to dig two rows of trenches and bury the chicken manure, after which we'd cover the whole bed in shredded leaves that i made using the lawnmower. that helped to cover up any manure smell.

i spent the rest of the day working in the grow room. i planted my one surviving lotus in glass container half filled with mud, and half filled with water. i relocated the webcam so it was above the metal shelving unit. i sprayed the orchids with neem oil. my father moved the fudingzhu osmanthus into the basement because it was too dry upstairs and the plant looked dry. we watered the gardenia with mosquito-bit infused rain water, followed by a soil drench with diluted acid-loving miracle-gro fertilizer.

after dinner i returned home. i didn't check the temperature, but it's probably around 40 degrees, cold. judging from how dark it was, my upstairs neighbors still haven't returned from where ever they went.

i was signed up to attend a harvard-sponsored panel discussion on zoom at 8pm titled, "Cross-Strait Relations One Year After Biden's Election." i only had time to use the bathroom before it started. it was a little boring, i had it in the background while i was watching monday night football on the tv (rams-vs-49ers, san francisco won 31-10) at the same time streaming the celtics-cavaliers game on my computer.