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learning from yesterday's mistake, i used my handlebar mitts when i rode the motorcycle to belmont. they're so warm, i could probably ride bare-handed and still have my hands stay toasty warm.

after some noodles for lunch, my father and i were outside doing the last of our garden winterization. we drained all the rain barrels and tipped them upside down. we opened up another bag of chicken manure and distributed it throughout the backyard: a quarter amount in the raised bed zero (RB0), some around the eastern shade garden hostas, some around the grapevines, some along the southern bed where we grew our long and hyacinth beans, around the hop bines, some in the makeshift trellis by the quince bush, and finally the rest in the garlic chives bed. we covered up the chicken manure with shredded leaves as mulch but also to keep it from smelling.

for the past few weeks i noticed the screw securing my clutch lever to the handlebar was coming loose. i kept screwing it back down, but every time i pull the clutch, the screw would slowly work its way out. i finally discovered today that the reason was because it was missing the cap nut holding the screw in place. i measured the diameter of the screw (6mm) but also verified the missing part by finding the OEM part listing.

in the late afternoon i drove down to the watertown home depot to get a replacement. the employee working the checkout made a joke, "do you want me to double bag it for you?" he asked. "it's okay, unless you have a tiny tiny bag," i said, but then immediately regretted it because he was a small person, i didn't want him to think i was making a joke at his expense. but i don't think he was offended. while i was at home depot, i also noticed they converted their outdoor garden supply section into a christmas tree shop.

i put on the cap nut when i got back. for some reason this 6mm stainless steel cap nut is taller than the original cap nut. it's not a big deal because it's underneath the handlebars and no one will ever see it, but the little bit of OCD in me thinks i should've searched for a shorter cap nut.

i ordered the gopro hero9 black action bundle from costco for $340 (originally $390, $360 after taxes). i've been researching action cameras for weeks, wanting to upgrade my dbpower EX7000 pro 4K action camera which i bought during 2019 black friday for just $20. i use the EX7000 mostly for time lapses, but it only supports 1080p timelapse videos. i like how wide the lens is (170°) but the image quality can be a little muddy. how much better can an action that costs 18x as much really be? my mother gave me her blessing after i told her i could return it if it wasn't any good. i'm most excited about creating timewarp videos and using the scheduled recording to shoot sunsets and sunrises. the one thing i don't like about the hero9 is the lens doesn't seem wide enough. i think you can bump it up to 155°F but that's with an additional $100 max lens mod attachment. another camera i was looking at was the akaso brave 7 for $160. but in some side-by-side comparison videos, the gopro has better image quality compared to the akaso.

i had noodles again for dinner. i got back to cambridge a bit before 7:30pm. after a shower, i settled in to watch some monday night football between the seahawks (3-7) and the washington football team (4-6), a contest between two losing teams. i'm not even sure what's happening to seattle, they lost their mojo in a big way. if i had to pick, i'd root for WFT, i enjoy watching scrappy QB taylor heinicke defy expectations. despite what would appear to be a very lowkey contest, it was actually a pretty exciting game, and was only decided in the final seconds, when the seahawks nearly tied the game after a touchdown but missed the 2 point conversion. even then, it looked like seattle was successful with the on-side kick, but an obscure positional penalty negated that. washington won, 17-15, and are still in the hunt for an expanded playoff spot in this new 17-game regular season.

today was cyber monday but i didn't buy anything order than the gopro hero9. i did spend the rest of the night ordering a few things off of amazon: garden hose caps (for our rain barrels), ballhead clamp mount (for the action camera), a 6ft surge protector (for the kitchen), and an 12W LED grow light bulb (to replace the 2ft grow light i'm currently using on my plant stand, which i'll need to take back once i start grow seedlings in my grow closet at the end of winter).