when i woke up and checked my e-mail, there was something from dreamhost. they determined there was nothing wrong on their end, but they noticed there was an unusual ssh_dispatch_run_fatal error, which would point the finger at comcast/xfinity. dealing without comcast is like getting your teeth pulled. so i did some troubleshooting of my own. i tried connecting directly to the cablemodem, bypassing the router in case that was causing the problem; i wasn't able to upload. i tried changing my ip number; still couldn't upload. i switched on ipv6 on my router; still had ftp issues. i did find out that if i log into my VPN and ftp, that will work fine. so worst case scenario, i can just do that.
i decided to contact xfinity/comcast, maybe get lucky and track down one of their IT specialist, if they even exist. i was using the online chat and the first thing they always make you do is remotely reset the cablemodem from their end. so i did that out of habit, thought nothing of it. but afterwards i tried ftp'ing again, and it started working. i was able to upload the entire content of a folder without it ever stalling. the upload files were also all good, no corruptions. so is the problem fixed? only time will tell. but something seemed to have fixed the problem, at the very least temporarily.
the only thing i had planned today was to ride down to haymarket/chinatown. i hadn't been there in nearly a month. for lunch i heated up some pizza rolls in the toaster oven. the big news today was the announcement that tom brady and gisele were officially divorced after 13 years of marriage. after leaving the patriots, tommy terrific hasn't been the same. he's expanded his snake oil TB12 method merchandise, got into crypto and NFT's, became more of a diva, less of a humble family man that a lot of people used to think he was. image tarnished? definitely. still, he brought a lot of happy new england football memories, i feel for the guy.
my mother called me around 12:30pm, said they needed ground boneless pork butt. i took the motorcycle to save time. daytime temperature today was the lower 50's. i didn't think that'd be that cold (it was in the 60's yesterday and felt pretty pleasant) until i stepped out. winter is a'knocking! while i was at the supermarket i also got some baby spinach, carrots, and mini cucumbers.
i brought everything to the cafe by 1:15pm. i was going to turn right onto garden street when i saw the detour. i'd heard reports that they were going to turn garden street into a one way from huron to concord, but i didn't think it'd really happen, especially since construction was supposed to happen on monday and it hadn't yet. but they'd already repainted the lines on the road (a lane for parking, 2 bike lanes, 1 car lane) and were changing the traffic light.
my taiwanese aunt was at the cafe along with my 2nd aunt. i'd asked my mother earlier if my aunts wanted to come with me to haymarket. but they seemed happy just hanging out at the cafe, knitting with all the newfound yarn. i ended up staying for about an hour because it was so busy. my parents were also making beef noodle soup and frying salt & pepper chicken cutlets, so there was a lot of things happening in the kitchen. i already knew it was going to be busy because before i even arrived today, there had already been 9 online orders.
i left by 2:15pm, right when my arlington aunt was arriving. i went home, dropped off the motorcycle, then switched to the bicycle to head into boston.
it was cold at first, especially my hands. but by the time i got into boston, i was already heating up and flapping the inside of my jacket to ventilate. i arrived at c-mart by 3:15pm. besides hospitals, chinese supermarkets seem to be the last places that people still mostly wear masks. i had nothing really particular in mind i needed to get, and my mother didn't ask me to get anything. i got some watermelon seeds, salted spicy radishes, five spice tofu (for my mother), dried ginger, and dumpling sauce. i left 20 minutes later. i noticed the woman ahead of me was getting a free chinese calendar with her purchase. i asked the cashier how much i needed to buy in order to get one: $100.
next i went to haymarket. unlike the last time i came, it was slim pickings today. a lot more fishmongers though, but the produce selection was limited. i got some long horn peppers, some jalapenos, and some clementine oranges. i left boston by 4:10pm.
i got back home by 4:30pm. i stripped off all my sweat-soaked clothes. i was going to take a shower, but decided to get dressed again and go down to the basement first and get some paint/caulk supplies for the bathroom. there two spots in the bathroom that needs a touchup: in the corner near the toilet are two dark areas in the molding that could use some more white paint; and the bathtub needs some recaulking. i painted first. the corner dark spot i could sort of fix, but the dark spot around the exposed piping is actually shadow, so it couldn't be painted over to fix. as for the caulking, i'm planning on doing it tomorrow. i'm also debating whether to use new caulk or old caulk, the old caulk taking much longer to dry and cure.
all day long i could hear jeff moving things into their car. later in the evening he asked me if i needed some groceries, and brought down some eggs, lemons, limes, unused wedge of parmesan, and two desserts from the poke shop (pineapple upside down cake and hawaiian cake).
for dinner i cobbled together various foods i foraged around the house: a can of sweet corn, an apple cider donut, a dozen pizza rolls, some apple juice, and an asian pear. 
while i was in the kitchen i noticed my tetra had died, its body stuck to the water filter. i scooped it out of the tank and gave it a water burial in the toilet. i turned off the heat and added more water to the aquarium, just regular tap water. now that i don't have any fish, i can start experimenting with CO2 injections and algae removers. i may also get some aquarium shrimps, which was an idea suggested by my taiwanese aunt, who keeps fish herself.