another monday, another supply run. complicating the matter was the fact that it was going to snow later today. that's why we started our supply run today slightly earlier than usual. the weather forecast said sometime around noontime would be when it'd snow. my mother didn't believe it, as it was calm earlier this morning, and only now starting to rain.
RD we decided to skip everett costco today, since the only thing we needed there were eggs. instead we'd source our eggs from the restaurant depot (RD), where we can buy them in bulk. it wasn't too crowded at RD, a bunch of empty narrow aisle platform trucks sitting in the parking lot getting soaked in the rain. we got 15 dozen eggs (which should last us a few weeks) along with lids for 10-oz containers and powder-free disposable gloves.
MB from there it was an easy hop to the chelsea flagship market basket (MB). out of all the market baskets i've visited (somerville, burlington, waltham, and chelsea), this one is my favorite. they carry everything and the store has a logical and intuitive layout. i've been there when all 30+ (?) registers were open; today, only a third of that had cashiers, which lets you gauge how not very busy they were (by market basket standard).
88 from the chelsea market basket we tried a new route that took us to the super 88 asian supermarket in malden: 2nd street to broadway (route 99) to main street then medford and commercial. it was slightly longer, but didn't involve driving on the highway, and went through neighborhoods we'd never been to before, passing numerous latin american businesses. not sure if we'll continue using this alternate route, but something to keep in mind if the highway ever gets too congested.
we got to malden super 88 by around 11am. we didn't need to buy very much, just some additional ingredients for my sister's catering (mostly asian produce). she even called while we were there to make sure we got what she needed. super 88 doesn't offer free bags (even the plastic produce bags cost money if you use them for anything other than produce) but they do have a pile of free boxes for customers, which is what we used to hold all the items (2 boxes).
ALDI last stop was medford ALDI, which is starting to become a routine stop in our supply run. here we got baby cucumbers and scallions, ALDI consistently has the lowest produce prices. ALDI also don't do free bags, but i found an empty discarded cardboard box in the aisle that we used as a storage bin. we left medford by around noontime.
we drove to the cafe to drop off the supplies. by that point the rain had turned into sleet, yet my mother still refused to believe it would snow later. we were at the cafe for nearly half an hour unpacking. we finally left and made it to belmont by 1pm.
while my parents were fixing lunch, i inserted my plant seedlings into the net cups. i supported the wet rock wool plug with LECA pellets. i only had 3 mustard green seedlings and 3 chinese celery seedlings. i then turned on the cycle timer. the sprayers aren't drenching the net cups, but there's enough moisture to keep the cups from going dry. 
so now we wait. they say mustard greens and chinese celery are cold season crops, but that doesn't necessary mean they'll thrive in 40 degrees temperature of the sunroom. another limiting factor is the amount of daylight. as for the 6 remaining mustard green seeds that didn't germinate, i ended up setting up a makeshift germination station with a heating pad with the hopes of forcing them to sprout. i believe it've waited 2 weeks now, they're long overdue.
for lunch i had some pan-fried raviolis along with leftover sauerkraut soup. i also had some buffalo wings heated in the toaster oven. later i had some leftover ximilu soup my 2nd aunt had made (i had it cold).
i got my parents to watch the menu. not sure if they liked it, but it passed the time for about 2 hours. i don't think they were as profoundly affected by the film as i was. during that time i pulled open the blinds to reveal an intense snowstorm happening outside. we made the right decision by doing our supply run early, it wouldn't have been fun to be caught up in the snowstorm. i even worried if i'd be able to get home, or whether or not i should go home now, since the storm would only get worse later.
so that was the day. nothing much else to do but stay inside and hunker down from the snowstorm. it'd been a long time since we'd seen this much snowfall. even then, this was a pittance compared to past winters when we'd get accumulation measured in feet. according to the forecast, 2-4" at most.
before dinner i went outside and shoveled the sidewalk and cleaned the car. the storm was a few hours from being over, and it was already starting to wind down. the accumulation from what i can judge looks to be about 2-4", matching the estimate. though it looked powdery, it was wet snow, which is actually easier to remove since it clumps together.
we had a lot of chinese new year leftovers for dinner. after i finished eating, my father gave me a ride back to cambridge. later in the early morning (5am) he promised my sister's godmother he'd drive her to the airport. i was surprised the sidewalk was all shoveled when i got back home. later i heard additional shoveling sound outside that definitely wasn't my upstairs neighbors, so i think maybe a super generous next door neighbor has been doing our sidewalks.
my warranty-replacement 128GB sandisk ultra fit thumb drive arrived today, in a box sitting on my doorstep. the thing is small enough they could've just sent it in a padded envelope and stuff it through my mail slot. i didn't bother opening it, i have enough thumb drives as it is. maybe at some point it'll test it to see if it's speed performance is up to specifications.
tomorrow depending on weather i may ride my bike to belmont to clear the solar panels. it'd be a pyrrhic victory at best since it's due to snow again on wednesday, transitioning to rain that will last into early thursday. still, if i have the time and ability to clean the panels, it's something i should do, if nothing else, at least get some good upper body exercise. plus, i accidentally left some groceries in the sunroom, and i also like to check on the progress of my aeroponic plants.