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i had some errands to run before the torrential rainstorm arrived this evening, all taking place in belmont. i skipped lunch - thinking it'd be a quick trip - and took the motorcycle to my parents' place. today seemed like the last warm day for a while - if you can call temperature barely in the 40's warm - and i wanted to wash my motorcycle, regardless if i continue to ride or put it in storage. i didn't want to use the hose (even though it was still on, just protected by a faucet cover) so i did it all with buckets: a bucket of soapy car wash mix, and two buckets of ice cold water collected from the rain barrels. i took off my winter jacket even though it was cold - it was just too cumbersome to work in. i had on my merino wool sweater but it was cool enough that i could see my breath while i worked. after i finished washing and rinsing, i dried the bike and left it in the driveway.

the other thing i had to do was completely disassemble the rain barrels. we'd already shut it down for the season, disconnecting the hoses and bringing in the on-demand pump. but there was still water in the barrels, and the red catch barrels continued to collect rain, it just wasn't distributing it to the storage barrels. i first had to drain the catch barrels, which were all full of water. water, and a layer of ice on the top. while that was happening, i reconnected the down spouts so it'd drain underground. draining the barrels was a challenge, since i couldn't just simply let all the water out; i had to make sure the water was being funneled further away through the use of black sump pump hoses. afterwards i used the catch barrels as storage for the various down spout connectors and hoses.

as for the storage barrels, i drained them into buckets until no water came out, then i tipped them off the cinder blocks and flipped them upside down to drain some more. after that i moved them to the other side of the yard, to be stacked for storage at a later date. i also flipped upside down the 3 red barrels in front of the house behind the bushes. the only barrels i couldn't drain were the two next to the garage. these were early rain barrels, with fairly high drain spouts, so even after they've been drain, there's still too much water left in the barrel for me to lift it out and dump out the water. these will have to be emptied over the weekend, when temperature drops below freezing. i don't think the water inside will freeze solid by then, it just not very comfortable working conditions.

by the time i was finished with the rain barrels it was almost 3:30pm. i probably already decided before i came, but i was going to leave the motorcycle in the garage. yes, the rain will have stopped by saturday, but i was imagining a worst case scenario were the roads were slick with ice once the temperature dropped, making it dangerous to ride. besides, the bike was totally clean now, i didn't want to leave it parked outside just to get dirty again from the rain.

after i stowed the motorcycle in the garage, i went to catch the 73 bus to harvard square. i didn't bring a bag with me, so it felt a little weird just walking around not having to carry anything. the doppler radar showed the rain was about to arrive, maybe an hour or so. the bus arrived a few minutes after i got to the stop.

it took us 14 minutes to get to harvard square. from there i walked home. it actually took me longer to walk home than it did to ride the bus. it was already starting to get a little dusky.

as soon as i got home, i went back out again, this time to star market to pick up some sale items: clementine oranges ($3/bag), pineapple ($1), and bacon ($4/package). i punched in the wrong phone number and had to get the attendant to void my transaction so i could start over.

not having eaten all day, i quickly threw some salad greens into a bowl and squirted some roasted sesame dressing for a quick meal. after that i went back into the kitchen and fixed myself a bagel sandwich.

i started watch the same sky (2017), a germany series about romeo agents during the cold war, who's job was to seduce lonely women for state secrets. i'm almost finished with episode 2. i like the storyline about the romeo agent, but the one about his east german neighbors or the seemingly random arc of a gay science teacher leaves me a bit confused.

my adventures in warranty replacement continues: i have a 128GB sandisk ultra fit flash drive that's been slow to write recently. reading is just fine, but it takes forever to copy files onto the drive. i ran a speed test using the blackmagic design app. the sandisk writes 3.3MB/s and reads 116MB/s. compare that to my new 256GB samsung fit plus which writes 103MB/s and reads 368MB/s. apparently the sandisk flash drive has a 5 year warranty, and i bought it back in 2020, so i'm still covered. i contacted their customer support, told them my drive has a slow write speed. i thought they'd make me run through hoops (like what happened with i replaced my belkin surge protector), but they sent me an e-mail saying they'd replace the drive and asked for my mailing address. all they asked in return was proof of purchase (my amazon invoice) and a photo of the front and back of the drive.

for dinner i heated a pair of stouffer french bread pizza in the oven. i followed the directions but the pizza came out of the oven burnt. i ate it anyway, char and all.

the rest of the evening was spent listening to the patter of rain beating against the windows. even though it's no longer the growing season, all this rain is still good for the plants. i'm not sure if we're still at drought level anymore, i think we've since recovered from our dry summer. i think once again we dodged what could've been a monster snowstorm, had the temperature been colder. makes me think the next storm we get we won't be as lucky. that's why it may have been a smart idea to leave the motorcycle in belmont.