when it got too loud, i went downstairs (armed with an umbrella, braving the pouring rain) to discover a plumber replacing my neighbors' hot water heater. it would've been kind of nice if they told me in advance, but that's just the kind of inconsideration i can normally expect from them. to make matters worse, my neighbors weren't even home. when i texted them about it, they weren't apologetic at all, just said, "oh, that's sean the plumber," like they assumed i'd know who he was.
the plumber ended up taking a long time, and when i went back downstairs after an hour to see what was going on, he was still draining the tank. turns out his transfer pump broke, and the only way he could drain the tank was to borrow the condensation pump on my furnace. in order to do that, he actually punched a hole in the pump so he could fit a hose. when i asked him about it, he said it wasn't a big deal to have a gaping hole in the condensation pump. i don't think condensation pumps are designed to pump 50 gallons worth of hot water through a small vinyl tubing with a diameter smaller than a dime. anyway, so i went back upstairs to my house, and spent the rest of the day just listening to the plumbing work happening in basement. the plumber was finally finished by 5pm.
after the plumber left, i went downstairs to confirm that he did in fact just leave a gaping hole in my condensation pump. it doesn't look damaged, but later i went online and bought a properly sized (1-3/16") cap for the hole for about $1.40. honestly, this is something my neighbors should be taking care of, but they're so handy-incapable, i wouldn't leave it to them to take care of any household maintenance activities.
the rain continued today, with brief intermittent periods of sun, but also periods of very dark and windy weather that nearly turned day into night. the rain finally stopped by around 3:30pm. i should've gone out and taken a look, because i heard reports of rainbow activity. during the rain it was also unusually warm for this time of the year, temperature in the upper 50's. for lunch i had a bit of salad then made a deluxe bagel sandwich. for dinner my usual luxury korean ramen, using kimchi-flavored ramen this time, which gave the soup a more sour taste, but wasn't bad. i got two christmas cards in the mail: one from alex and one from andrew. alex asked me if i got his card last night but i said no (even though it'd already arrived); he'd only sent it out last wednesday, so it got here in about 8 days, which is pretty fast coming all the way from tokyo.
i finished watching the first half of the same sky (3 episodes), and it's starting to become clearer why the story followed so many characters, since they're all interconnected. i don't want to give anything away, but the second half involves a certain incest theme which makes me question if i should continue watching it. the glass onion is out on netflix anyway, i'll probably watch that tonight before going to bed.
WWY told me tonight that she also has covid, after she told me sunday night that her mother got it. her symptoms are headache, cough, lower back pain, and can't stand or sit. i don't know how accurate this is, but she said 90% of her coworkers also have covid, and in her father's countryside hometown of honghu 80% have it. she said they still have to work from home even when they're sick, and if they went to hospital and missed work, the missing days would get deducted from their paycheck.