t
o
n
y
a
n
g
'
s
 
w
e
b
l
o
g


i woke up earlier than planned, maybe just anxious about going to the boston marathon. i used the bathoom, i showered, i even make breakfast (the last of my peppered ham sandwich). i also had time to add 2 more lights to my grow closet, as my nigella seeds have germinated a few days ago. i left the house at 11am, bumping into paul outside. handyman brian was supposed to start work today, but called to say he didn't realize his kids didn't have school today so he had to stay home; he won't start until wednesday.

i took my fuji bike into boston. the trip was supposed to take half an hour, but i got there in just 20 minutes. i'm so used to riding my heavier single-gear trek utility bike then when given the chance to ride a lighter bike, i can go much faster. i arrived at my usual spot, at the 40km mark right before kenmore square. i timed it so the men and women elite runners would just about to show up.

giving the new rise in omicron variant cases, i was prepared to wear a mask, but since virtually nobody else was wearing one, i decided to go maskless. there was people around but i tried to keep my distance.

it was a sunny day with temperature just barely in the 50's with a strong breeze. i'd warmed up from the biking, but later put my jacket back on when i started feeling cold. sunny weather is not great for photography, and i found myself facing the sun, which meant the runners would be in shadow.

i was there for 2 hours - from 11:20am to 1:25pm. to be honest, marathons are kind of boring, i probably said this before. watching it by myself, with nobody to cheer for, it wasn't very exciting. i also didn't get a lot of good photo opps. maybe next year i'll go back to heartbreak hill, or the area near boston college. or change it up, instead of being stationary, do more walking around.

i decided to take an alternative route home, across brookline, through coolidge corner, then back to cambridge from allston-brighton. i strapped the gopro to the handlebar so i could take a timewarp video. for some reason i thought all of beacon street would be closed, but only the half going into boston; outbound from the city it was still open, but very little car traffic. i found a few photo opps here, it's actually not a bad place to watch the marathon. riding through coolidge corner, i was jealous of all the people and businesses, a vibrant commercial center, unlike harvard square, which feels like a commercial dead zone.

i finally got back home by 2pm. i stayed long enough to grab my things before i left 10 minutes later, to belmont.

my father was setting up the rain barrels. he had the ones next to the sunroom and the one by the staircase all connected by the time i arrived. we switched out a few hoses after i found some more. we also connected the corner rain barrel by the basement entrance and attached the on-demand pump so it'd be ready to go whenever we start getting water in the barrels.

while attaching the runoff hose to the corner rain barrel by the sunroom, i saw something crawling on the wood mulch. it took me a few seconds to realize it was a baby mouse. my father told me to kill it, but i cupped it in my hand and put it in the southwestern corner of the yard. i don't know if it can survive on its own, but i wasn't going to kill it. i tried looking for the nest but i couldn't find it.

we also planted the remaining baby bokchoi and chinese celery seedlings. we used some leftover soil mixed with some potting mix. we had so much celery seedlings, we also planted some in one of the long elevated planters, as well as 4 large pots. the soil for the pots was a combination of a bag of very wet garden soil and potting mix. in all our planters we added a thin layer of chicken manure, with the hopes that it'll boost production. the chicken manure has to be buried because it has a very strong smell.

my sister dropped off hailey at the house. she didn't say why, and left behind some food and medicine for her. around dinner time we fed hailey and gave her two treats.

a group of grackles have been visiting the bird feeders. with their sharp beaks, they can still get to the sunflower seeds even though their body weight closes the feeder tray. they can also get to the suet, despite being in a cage, once again using their sharp beak. i saw a male house finch. this one didn't have avian conjunctivitis. of the two pairs that visit the feeders, one of them had it, and one of them didn't. maybe this was the one that wasn't infected. if i see two male house finches, that i'll know for sure they both survived the outbreak.

for dinner, my father cooked up the second bundle of asparagus with some leftover bacon and tofu. we also ate our leftover fried breaded pork chops from last night.

i returned home by 7pm. as much as i love riding the lighter fuji bike, it has a very hard seat i'm not used to, that combined with the fact that i already biked into boston and back today, left my with a sore butt.