around 3:45am i heard my upstairs neighbors getting up and using the kitchen. they were returning to san francisco for a few weeks, apparently it was an early morning flight. a few hours later jeff sent me a text with instructions of where to put their key for the house keepers next week. they also left me some blueberries on my backyard deck. with that i have the house all to myself for the next 3 weeks.

of course the reason why i was still up late in the morning was because i had a hard time getting to sleep last night. the outdoor temperature was about the same as the indoor temperature - 81 degrees - but i still had the window open just for that slight breeze, which was better than nothing. it would've been nice to have a small fan but i think the noise would've kept me awake. speaking of noises, the dripping from the upstairs AC kept hitting renee's trash cans, but i was too lazy to go outside and move them, so i just endured the chinese water torture.

once i finally fell asleep, i slept like a rock. i woke up around 9am in a thin film of sweat, to get ready for my run. normally i don't shower before a run (since i'd shower when i got back), but this morning was an exception, i was so sticky and uncomfortable from last night's sleep.

i left for my run at 10am. the episode of hardcore history i was listening to was about nuclear weapons and how they lead up to the cold war. it was already hot - temperature in the 80's - and i questioned if i should've left earlier, but a few degrees wouldn't have made a difference. a lot of people were smarter than me, i saw very little runners. i was already covered in sweat and wiping my face with my shirt before i even got to the river. to be honest, i don't mind the heat. the secret is to give yourself up to it completely, don't fight it. just submit to the fact that you're going to be sweaty and gross and don't worry about it. the heat and humidity is actually kind of comforting, like the air itself is wrapping me up in a warm blanket. plus i still have residual winter memories, i need to keep these hot day memories in the back of my mind for those colder days to come. given the choice, i think i prefer the very hot instead of the very cold.

i was finished with the run in an hour. afterwards (11am) i stopped by the community garden to water my plants. lynn - whom i haven't seen in a while - was there. she'd just finished watering her garden and was collecting some flowers. even though she was in a hurry to leave (said it was too hot, said she needed water), she still had time to chat with me a bit. we talked about her purple tomatoes and she gave me some samples of her anise hyssops, which tasted like a sweet thai basil which i later recognized as licorice. i watered my own plot then left, returning home by 11:30am.

i did a load of laundry while taking a shower. today was hot and sunny enough that i thought it'd be a good day to hang dry my clothes. with my upstairs neighbors gone as well, there won't be any danger of them watering their patio plants and dripping onto my clothes. i was too lazy to make lunch and as the hours dragged, i ended up just having an instant bowl of tonkotsu ramen. after i finished eating i remembered i still had laundry to dry (1:30pm). it would've been easier just to toss all the clothes into the dryer, instead of hang drying them, which took a while getting all the clothes onto hangers. it was so warm inside the house, i watched as clothes were drying before my eyes, before i even had a chance to hang them outside. not only was it hot today, it was also windy, like a natural dryer. the only bad thing was i think i might've accidentally left a piece of paper in one of my pants pockets, so there were little bits of paper on all the clothes.

at 3pm i left for belmont via motorcycle. some packages arrived and i wanted to bring them in, but i also wanted to water the backyard plants.

one of the delivered items was the woozoo fan. i got the large oscillating fan (HE18) for $38. originally i wanted the medium (HE15), but it was more expensive than the large, and i saw the size dimensions for the larger fan, and it was only 12 inches high, about the same height as the old holmes oscillating blizzard fan we currently use for the basement grow room. i figured we could use the woozoo fan as a air circulator for the living room AC, then move it down into the basement come winter. despite being the same height, the woozoo fan is actually wider because it oscillating not at the "neck" (it doesn't even have a neck) but rather the base itself. i brought it down to the basement to make sure it'd fit, before letting it run back upstairs in the living room. though advertised as a vortex fan and an air circulator, it's nowhere as powerful as my recently purchased vornado 630 mid-size air circulator ($55). the woozoo HE18 advertised a maximum air distance of 52ft, while the vornado 630 moves air up to 70ft. however, the woozoo's not as loud (the vornado is quite noisy, definitely not a sleeping fan). the thing i can say about the woozoo fan is it seems very gentle. even at the highest setting, it seems to be gently sweeping. i turned it on in the living room while i worked outside in the backyard and the room seemed cooler than before.

i watered the orchids as well as the backyard plants. the orchids were looking a bit parched, and one of the potted plants had two of its orchid leaves turn yellow, so it was due for a watering. i always add some orchid fertilizer when i water and i use the dunking/soaking method. this heatwave is killing our plants, especially the over-extended squash vines. in the afternoon the leaves droop, only to spring back up in the evening, but i don't know how many more times it can do this before the vines simply whither away. that seemed to have happened to a few vines, particularly the ones with large squash fruits, like the squashes themselves are sucking up all the nutrients. i want to do a foliar spray, but the leaves are in such rough shape, i dont't know if they can even take up the fertilizer. i'm going to try coming early tomorrow morning to do a spray.

i left belmont by 4:20pm, arriving at the cafe at 4:30pm. i was dropping off a cosmetic for my mother. my aunt was there too. they were crazy busy today around noontime, 8 teachers from a nearby conference all decided to come in and order. i saw the video too late otherwise i would've gone down to the cafe to help. on top of that, they received at least 3 online orders in quick succession. after that frenzy burst of activity, the cafe was pretty quiet for the rest of the afternoon.

i left the cafe by 4:45pm, because it looked like it might rain, and i was worried about my clothes drying out on my backyard porch. the doppler radar showed rain, but for whatever reason it all disappeared before it could hit the ground. at most i felt a drop of rain, that was it. i thought maybe the clothes were already dry after 3 hours of hot air blowdrying, so i was surprised that some of them were still wet, depending on the material. all my running shorts were dry (quick-dry material), as well as half the t-shirts. i brought in the dried items so the damp items could have more space to air dry outside.

i went to star market and bought one more bag of bing cherries using the 4th account that i have. i'm planning on going to haymarket tomorrow as well, to collect even more cherries. i'm planning on doing this in the late morning, and hopefully get back to the cafe by noontime in case they need my help again.

i made an italian sub for dinner while watching the latest installment of the jan 6th. hearing. it's the last one of the summer, before they come back again in september. most memorable moments were the trump outtakes, as he tried to sent a message of calm after the insurrection, even though it was obvious that his handlers were making him do it. it felt like trying to get a grumpy child to perform.