my original plan was to ride down to belmont to clean the snow-covered solar panels. but the overnight freeze was just starting to thaw this morning, and it seemed too treacherous a ride to try and attempt. maybe later in the afternoon, after a few more hours of thawing, conditions might change. another reason why i needed to get to belmont was i forgot i left a package of pork ribs in the sunroom. i called my mother at the cafe and she told me see noticed it this morning and put the meat in the fridge. with another snowstorm arriving tomorrow, whatever solar panel cleaning i did today would only be for the next 24 hours. i could clean the panels afterwards, on thursday, when the forecasted temperature is supposed to hit 48 degrees. so basically there was no reason for me to go to belmont today.

in the early afternoon i went to the UPS store to drop off the JJCC JC-8529 transceiver radio my father bought from temu. afterwards i headed to market basket to get some groceries. they had peppered ham for sale at the deli counter, i decided to make sandwiches for lunch and dinner the rest of the week, gave me an excuse to use up the loaf of whole wheat bread i bought last week.

i noticed it was surprisingly warm (if you can call 36° warm) and there was enough snow melting that the roads were mostly safe to ride. so after returning home and dropping off my groceries, i decided to ride to belmont and the clean the solar panels after all. sure, by this time tomorrow they'd be covered in snow again, but clearing the snow today would prevent compaction and the snow that's scheduled to fall tomorrow will most likely all melt since it'll transition to heavy warm rain overnight.

i got to my parents' place by 2:15pm. i brought the ettore angle adaptor, which i tried to return; amazon gave me the refund but told me i could keep the item. i mounted it on the extension pole, perfect fit, but i can't really use it for snow removal. i might attach it to the short extension pole, for removing snow from the car roofs.

of course i also checked on the progress of my seedlings. the tray of the 6 mustard green seeds i'm trying to germinate was a bit dry so i refilled it with water before putting it back on the heated LECA pan. of the 3 already germinated mustard greens in the aeroponic tub, one of them was wilting. not sure why, but i propped it up with some more LECA pellets and poured some nutrient water over the rock wool. as for the other seedlings - mustard greens and chinese celery - they seemed fine, they didn't die overnight from the cold weather. i did turn the net cups as i noticed they were leaning in the direction of the windows. i also opened the blinds a bit more to let in more light.

finally, i refilled the squirrel buster bird feeder. i bought a 5lbs. bag of sunflower seeds for $5 from market basket yesterday, but i still had plenty left over from the last time we went to ocean state job lot. there hasn't been a lot of bird activities, you'd think after a snowstorm they'd be swarming the feeders. i have to remember to clean the bird feeder at some point; last season one of the house finches had a really bad case of avian conjunctivitis.

only then was i able to start cleaning the solar panels, about 2:45pm. it still feels like i haven't figured out a working strategy yet to clean off the snow. past few times i've started on the right of the house, cleaning the rightmost panels, then cleaning the rightmost panels on the sunroom. today i cleaned the rightmost panels, then i moved the ladder to the front of the sunroom so i could pull the snow off of the sunroom panels. the snow have been melting so underneath was a layer of snowmelt which acted like a lubrication, allowing the snow to easily slide off once i give it a little push/pull.

after i finished the sunroom, i moved on to the left side of the house. while collapsing the extension ladder, it suddenly started folding in on itself. i let go of the ladder so i wouldn't get my fingers chopped off, but then the ladder toppled over and hit our 50watt flat solar panel. i thought the panel was destroyed but when i checked it, there was just two marks on the panel, the solar cells underneath the clear plastic seemed fine. working on the left side was pretty easy since most of the snow had already melted. i just needed to pull off the clump of snow below the panels to allow the remaining bits of snow to easily slide off the panels and the roof. i was finished by around 3:15pm, just a half hour later. when i started it was still cloudy, but by the time i finished the sky had cleared up revealing blue sky and sunshine.

i headed back home a short time later. while i was putting away the foam rake, i also cleaned the snow-covered car sitting in the driveway. i got back to cambridge by 3:40pm. this time i remembered to bring back the pork ribs. today was technically supposed to be a run day, but i think i did enough biking to at least have gotten some exercise.

finally back at the house i made a simple sandwich for a late lunch: whole wheat bread, kewpie mayo, peppered ham (6 slices), slice of american cheese. nothing fancy, a very simple sandwich. originally i had more grandiose plans of making pork bone congee or clam chowder, but figured i'd do that next week.

later in the evening i made another ham sandwich along with some jasmine green tea and two slices of navel oranges. i researched extension poles. the longest one we have for cleaning the solar panels is 5m long - which is 16ft. i'd love to get one a bit longer, like maybe 24ft, and therefore do all the cleaning from our platform ladder instead of the extension ladder.

for some reason i thought i might've contracted covid, given my recent light-headedness. i also woke up with a weird sensation in my throat, which could've just been dry mouth, or maybe something worse. anyway, i finally got around to doing a home test. once again, i was both disappointed and relieved to learn i am still negative for the coronavirus. honestly, i think i must be immune, or i get it but my body kills it off before it can spread.