my parents were not expecting me to get there so early, they were still eating breakfast at the time. i ate a leftover whopper. while they got ready to go, i went to the basement and started moving out the jasmines and gardenia and a few lemon verbana. i mixed up half a gallon of neem oil solution in the sprayer and showered the plants. i was expecting to find any pests - i did it as a preemptive measure and also to wash the dusts off the leaves - but i actually did find some mealybugs. not a lot - perhaps the systemic granules were working - but it was a good thing i did spray them with neem oil.
we were finally ready to go by noontime.
we stopped by the burlington michael's on the way to binbin's house, so my mother could buy some yarn so she could start knitting new hats to replenish all the ones she sold this weekend. what was a big surprise was most of the customers weren't wearing masks, and even a few employees were maskless as well. no wonder case counts in MA are spiking. you don't see this in the city - where there are city mask mandates - but out in the suburbs - even in MA - where we have one of the highest vaccination rates - it's a viral party. my mother left with $65 worth of yarn. even yarn prices seem to be going up. now that ac moore is gone and michael's is the only crafts chain store in the area, there's even less discounting.
i wrote a letter to binbin's neighbor thomas, letting him know that binbin and her family were coming back next week, and slipped it underneath his door. it was cold inside the house - temperature in the 50's - and we turned up the heat just to test it was still working. 
i also went down to the basement and turned their hot water back on, and went through the house readjusting the timers. my father was busy cleaning the fridge; we'd unplugged it to save electricity (nobody was using it anyway), but we discovered there was a hidden shelf that had some frozen treats - long ago melted - and eaten by mice. once the fridge was cleaned, we plugged it back in. my parents plan on coming again next week to stock the fridge with food so binbin can have something to eat when they get back.
originally we'd planned on going to the waltham costco and market basket, but that was on the other side of town. instead we decided to go to the nearby burlington market basket, and forgo costco until the weekend. but my mother thought about it and there was nothing they really needed for the cafe, so after getting some gas for the car, we simply returned home, getting back by 2pm.
the morning sun had turned to afternoon clouds. it was still very warm though, but the with sun out, there was no point in leaving the plants outside, 
so we started bringing them back in again. once inside, my father did a soil drench with Bti-infused water.
i helped my mother buy an LED neck reading light. i also researched an air purifier for the cafe (400 sq.ft coverage at least) and later bought the honeywell HPA300 HEPA air purifier in black for $170. i helped my godmother by two children fitness bands for her grandkids.
once sunset approached, i went out into the backyard and set up the gopro to take another timelapse. instead of 1 sec, i set it to 5 sec interval this time around, which works much better. i saw the crescent moon and shiny venus nearby. tonight jupiter and saturn were also supposed to be visible, but before it could get dark enough, clouds rolled in, obscuring the sky completely.
we had pan-fried breaded pork chops for dinner with some noodles. i kept waiting for my father macbook pro to arrive, until it finally got here around 6pm. it seemed to be professional packaged (extra strength bubble wrap), and must've cost the seller some money, even though it was free, so he most likely ate the cost, which meant the computer was probably even cheaper than the $400 we paid for it. even though it wasn't mentioned in the ad, it also came with the charger.
i wanted to inspect the macbook pro immediately because i was afraid it might be a scam, given how cheap it was. similar MBP sell on ebay auctions for $600-800, and here we scored one for half that price. i noticed some of the photos in original ad didn't match up, that it was two different MBP, one a 2014, the other a 2015, which made me suspicious.
when we finally turned on the computer that was the moment of truth. the original owner put a note with the password. the login thumbnail was a man wearing what looked to be a catholic priest chasuble (not sure if that was just a joke). 
opening the "about this mac" dialog box, it said it was a mid-2015 15" retina macbook pro 2.5GHz 16/500GB, the holy grail of used macbooks. i couldn't believe our luck. what's even weirder is the battery only has 1 cycle, not sure how that's even possible, unless the original user kept it connected to the power supply the whole time. and the computer itself was in near mint condition, a few light scratches at the bottom of the laptop, but a flawless screen. my father suggested i should take this computer and he inherit by late 2013 MBP, but i like mine just fine, plus it has a 1TB hard drive. while packing up to leave, i almost accidentally took my father's computer because it looked identical to mine.
i finally left by 7pm, to avoid the rainstorm that was arriving within the next hour or two, but also to get home so i could watch the patriots-bills game on monday night football. the temperature was still in the upper 50's, 
felt downright balmy. i strapped on my old action camera - DBPOWER EX7000 PRO - to my chest harness to shoot a timelapse video as i ride home, so i could compare the footage with the gopro. i was a really good ride, behind a bus for most of the time. unfortunately when i got back home, i noticed the camera had an error (it actually turned off) and what little video it managed to shoot was corrupt. i'll try again another time. it weird, but i don't think i've ever shot a time lapse using my old camera while riding a motorcycle. it seemed like such a given, surprising i never did it before.
patriots won the game using just a run offense (mac jones only threw the ball 3 times total) while the offense stifled the bills. weather was also a factor, it was so windy, any kind of throwing or kicking was liable to miss. that's why patriots went for a 2-point conversion after scoring their first and only touchdown of the game off of a damien harris run. it was low-scoring and painful to watch at times, but all buffalo needed was a touchdown to gain the lead, but that was easier said than done, with the weather and new england defense working against the the bills. this victory makes me think this patriots team is a legit contender come playoff. i dare not even dream how far they might get!