today was the start of the historically cold weather. temperature was at 20°F and that was the daytime high as the thermometer will continue to drop into negative digits. i spent a good chunk of the morning searching for my brown wool scarf. i could've sworn i saw it the other day, but now it seemed to have disappeared. i decided to go without it, figuring i'd just up my jacket so the collar sort of sat below my face. instead of my black parka-style puffy jacket which has become my goto jacket this winter, i upgraded to the warmest jacket i own, the columbia 3-in-1 interchange.
i left by 10am. inside my jacket i wore a wool sweater. i had wool mittens on my hands, a pair of wool thermal underwear underneath a pair of flannel-lined pants, and a wool hat underneath my bike helmet. i could've pulled the jacket hood over the helmet but that would've made it too bulky so i didn't do that. dressed as i was, i actually felt pretty warm, especially when riding the bike in the sun.
besides the cold temperature, it was also windy today, strong enough that it almost blew me over a few times. pedaling the bike always warms me up, and i could actually feel myself sweating underneath the jacket.
i made it to MGH in about 20 minutes. i went to wang 6 where i usually see my primary care doctor and checked in. i took off my jacket along with my sweater so it'd be easier to administer the shot. a nurse didn't see me until 10:45am. it went quick, but the hepatitis vaccine is an intramuscular injection, which is the deepest, so it hurt more than your typical shot. at first i didn't feel anything, but then when the needle was fully injected, it felt like i got stabbed. the nurse gave me a bandaid and told me to come back in a month for the 2nd injection (a total of 3).
from the wang building i made my way to the yawkey center where i had my ultrasound appointment. i was there early 10:50am - but the digital bulletin board informed me that the wait time for ultrasound was 30+ minutes. the receptionist put a hospital bracelet on my wrist. i found an empty seat and settled in for a long wait. like at the wang office, i took off both my jacket and sweater (it was pleasantly warm inside the hospital).
the imaging center on the 6th floor is a somber place. i've been here a few times for all sorts of scans, like CAT scan, or x-rays. but a lot of people also come here for cancer screening, and i saw a lot of couples coming in as emotional support.
i was surprised when a technician came out and called my name after just 5 minutes of waiting. i followed him inside to a dimly-lit examination room where the fibroscan machine was already set up. i've had the fibroscan before, so i was ready for it. it's basically a glorified ultrasound, with a lot more buttons and switches. i laid on the exam table and the technician uncovered my belly, draping towels above and below, while he probed my liver region with a warm jelly-slick ultrasound wand. i remember a distinctive thumping noise at my last fibroscan, but this one was silent, besides the frequent clicking of a button to capture an image.
the technician was actually kind of excited that i knew something about the fibroscan. i looked up a lot of it from last time, and my gastroenterologist explained a lot more to me as well. after he finished scanning the first time, he asked me to roll over so he could do it again, to try and get another set of images. so my body was turned one direction, where my head was facing the other way so i could see the fibroscan screen. i couldn't make any sense of what i was seeing, various greyscale blobs, and occasionally hole which was either a duct, a vessel, or maybe a gland. after the technician finished, i wiped off the petroleum jelly from my stomach with the towels and left.
it wasn't yet 11:30am when i left MGH. returning to my bike, i could feel the sting of the cold on my bare hands, as i unlocked my ride and secured my helmet. i briefly toyed with the idea of going to haymarket and/or chinatown (it was friday after all), but today was not a good day to be wandering around outside. so i returned home, got back by 11:50am.
instead of making lunch, after i finished watching the noontime news broadcast, i went to star market to get a few things on sale this week. while walking there, i spotted something on the ground. it took me a second to realize it was the two-layer glove that i'd lost. it was frozen in a clump, but i picked it up and brought it back to the house before returning to the supermarket.
i bumped into victor, we chatted while i was gathering some sumo oranges. he told me he was going to europe for 2 weeks in march. besides oranges, i also got some boneless chicken thighs, once more on sale. when i went to ring up my purchases, it gave me the wrong price for the thighs, said they were tenders, and two packages would cost me nearly $30. i had an attendant come help me at the self check-out station. apparently another customer had also bought some chicken breasts on sale and got the wrong price as well. it took a while, but i finally got the sale price.
back at the house i soaked my frozen glove (along with the matching pair) in some hot water mixed with oxiclean. while that was going on, i finally made lunch. learning from yesterday's mistake, i made my scrambled eggs first before cooking the kielbasa sausages. this time there was no burnt smell in the house.
one of the things i ordered from temu was a coin collection booklet. i went to my bedroom to gather my coin collection. that's when i realized that at some point i bought two smaller coin collection booklets and had already sorted most of my coins. the ones remaining were larger coins that didn't fit in the smaller pockets. the new coin booklet had both large and small pockets, so i filled up a few of the pages.
i spent the rest of the day monitoring the outdoor temperature. it stayed at 20 degrees for much of the day, but once evening rolled again, the temperature started to drop. at one point my mother called me, said it'd be too cold tomorrow morning for me to ride the bike to the cafe, so instead my sister would come and pick me up. i told her i'd see what the weather was like tomorrow, and only call my sister if i needed a ride, otherwise i'd take the bike. i kind of want to experience this extreme cold. it's not often the temperature gets this low. besides, it's only for these next 2 days, by sunday the temperature will be back to 47 degrees.
i heated up some frozen soft pretzels as a snack. they'd been the freezer too long, and even though i warmed them up in the oven, they were still sort of cold, and some spots were also soggy. it wasn't the best of pretzels. i remember when my sister used to buy my professional-made soft pretzels, i should ask her where she got them. these frozen ones just aren't the same.
for some reason i remember reading that the outdoor sensor of my acurite home weather station can only go down to 11°F when using alkaline batteries. for low temperature readings, they require lithium batteries. so i was surprised when the weather station continued monitoring the temperature drop outside, even after it went into negative digits. i checked again on the acurite website, it doesn't say the sensor won't work with regular batteries. it just recommended lithium batteries for temperatures below -4°F. but the sensor is capable of registering temperatures down to -40°F.
for dinner i made my korean ramen. this time i added some of the bean sprouts i germinated for additional nutrients. they weren't anything pretty to look like, but edible all the same. instead of my usual pickled mustard greens, i used a package of fuling-brand mustard greens. this is special because i visited fuling, it was the next nearest town next to changshou when i lived in chongqing. apparently this is one of the things they're famous for. i thought it was a bit on the sweet side, not spicy enough. i still prefer my usual brand.
i took some photos using a tripod of ice crystals forming on the single-pane window of my front door. i wonder if there's a way to purposely grow crystals on panes of glass. i'd love to try it one of these days, if the weather continues to be this cold.
i didn't go to bed until 3am (finishing this blog post). by that point, the outdoor temperature had dropped down to -8°F. i honestly can't remember the last time it was this cold. especially this winter, where most days have been above the normal average temperature. it felt downright spring-like. so it's nice to be reminded every once in a while that it's still winter after all, and it's supposed to be cold rather than warm.