today was the first day of the next 50 days where i'll be helping out at the cafe, give and take the 2 days a week where the cafe is closed, so essentially the next 7 weeks. i woke up in the early morning to track my mother's whereabouts as she left for logan airport, then followed her plane on the flight radar map as she flew to san francisco, then later to taipei.

i biked to the cafe around 11am (dropping off my community garden annual dues along the way). my father said everything went according to plan this morning, or at the very least my mother and my 2nd aunt managed to get on the plane. my father made some taro oatmeal porridge with some tofu which i had for breakfast-lunch as we waited for customers. given that the weather today was sunny and temperature in the 50's, i figured it'd be busy, but it turned out to the exact opposite again. i think the problem was the weather, it was brutally windy for some reason, and if you were standing in the shadows, it felt bitterly cold.

my sister was at the cafe as well, helping out intermittently, so between the 3 of us we had all contingencies covered. today i learned how to make ice cubes using the basement ice maker, and i adjusted the cafe heating schedule now that we slightly modified the opening times for spring.

before i knew it, it was already 2pm, which is the time i'm normally allowed to leave since typically the busiest time tapered off by that point. i biked to my parents' house where i planted all the wando peas i had soaking in water overnight.

there were also plenty of spring signs in the backup: lilacs and quince both leafing out, daffodils continue to grow, peony buds, as well as the sprouting garlics. i had my drone but because it was so windy, i decided not to fly it. i left by 3:20pm.

when i came back home, i walked to walgreens to pick up my amlodipine prescription. typically my insurance will cover the full cost of my blood pressure medications, but i had to pay $1 this time around (not much, but still). later i realized they gave me a 90 days supply instead of the usual 30 days. coming back, i stopped by the dollar tree to get some plastic cups for my indoor grow room. it should really be called dollar twenty five tree since most items have gone up in price. i heard this was happening but finally experienced it for myself.

i tried calling my mother because i knew she'd landed in san francisco in the late afternoon but i was too late because it seemed she'd turned off her phone again. i spoke with my father who said he managed to get in touch with her, she said the flight to san francisco was completely packed, not sure about the flight to taiwan though (UA871). she's due to arrive 6pm taipei time, which is 6am tomorrow morning US time. from there she still had to clear customs and taiwanese pandemic protocol, which will supposedly add another 1-1/2 hours before they can leave the airport.

for dinner i finished the rest of bruce's purple cabbage slaw along with some more sausage kale lentil soup.