i slept in late, didn't get up until after 10am. i got ready, my father was scheduled to arrive at 11am to pick me up to run some errands. we went to harbor freight to get a pair of replacement handtruck wheels ($6/each) on sale this weekend. i also grabbed one of two icon pliers wrenches that were finally available ($40), the knipex pliers wrench knockoffs. next was ocean state job lot next door. my father was in search of travel-sized shaving cream, while i was looking for garden-suitable tubtrugs. neither of us found what we were searching for, instead we left with some pecan for my mother. then we went to nearby aldi's, in search of baby cucumbers and scallions. they were just restocking the produce, and neither items were available yet. we left empty-handed. final stop was back in somerville, to market basket. we're rarely there on the weekends, and the whole staff were people i'd never seen before, new trainees, many of them young enough to be high school aged. i looked in the jam aisle for orange marmalade but didn't see any. i was just curious how much it cost and what commercial marmalade looks like.
we got to cafe by 12:40pm to unload supplies before heading to belmont, getting there by 1pm. the car was heavy with the smell of rubber from the handtruck wheels. i left them outside to air out.
the big news today was the rain, which fell throughout the day, sometimes light, sometimes heavy. first thing we did when we got to belmont was to check all our rain barrel connections. several were leaking, draining precious rain water we'd just collected. they were all fixed with washer replacements. one of the storage barrels seemed to be leaking from the embedded spigot, which needs to be caulked.
my mother made noodles with some leftover sour bamboo shoots stew we had from yesterday. the rest of the day the tv was on with various NBA playoff games playing. i went out a few times to check the rain barrels, make sure they were no more leaks, and that rain water was being equally distributed amongst the barrels. later i helped my father apply a tempered glass screen protector on his pixel 6 phone. everything went well until i realized the screen was on slightly crooked. i was able to try and realign the protector, but my father said not to bother. besides, protectors break so often, i'll probably end up replacing it in a few more months.
for dinner my mother made various smoked pork with long horn peppers along with a radish omelette, plus leftover sour bamboo stew. before we started eating she said she wasn't going to cook tomorrow and decided we'd be having burger king instead.
after dinner my father gave me a ride back to cambridge. it was still raining.
i settled in to watch the celtics-hawks game after i took a shower. i also decided to finally replace my macbook pro battery. i bought it back in june 2022, so it's taken me nearly a year to finally getting around to installing it. because i waited so long, i was afraid the battery had already been completely drained, and wouldn't be able to hold a charge anymore. because i'd replace the battery before, it was easier to remove it a second time around, and i didn't need to strip the computer down to the chassis. besides the special pentalobe screwdriver (which conveniently came with the replacement battery), i also needed a credit card to scrap the double-sided tape securing the battery pack. it was all pretty easy, the one tricky part was when i accidentally dropped a screw and took a while to find, finally spotting it on my seat. the battery also wasn't aligned with two screw holes, and i had to force it into place.
i held my breath when i finally restarted the computer. it took a few seconds but the macbook pro finally booted up with the familiar apple logo. when the desktop came up, i saw there was still 7% left in the battery. i shut down the computer and started calibrating the battery, which apparently is something you're told to do when you install a new macbook battery.
first, you charge up the battery to 100%. then you leave it charged for another 2+ hours (can use the computer during that time), before disconnecting it from the charger and let it run on battery power alone to drain the battery. once the computer shuts down automatically, you leave it unplugged for 5 more hours to make sure the battery is 100% drained. then you recharge the battery back to 100% (can use the computer while that's happening), and then you're all set.
i started with step on, charging the battery. it took 2-1/2 hours to fully charge. that's actually a good sign, because the battery i had before (my whole reason for replacing it) took something like half an hour to fully charge, which is a clear sign the battery capacity has been depleted. it's weird because that replacement battery i bought in 2020, so it was only 2 years old before it started failing. hopefully this new one can last a bit longer.
the macbook pro finished charging at midnight. after that i charged it for 2 more hours while i worked on the computer. i had tinker tailor soldier spy on tv (amazon prime streaming), one of my favorite spy movies. i've seen it bunch of times, every time i notice something new, yet still enough questions to watch the movie all over again.
after 2 hours, i pulled the charging cable and ran off of battery power alone. i'm going to leave it on overnight, hopefully by morning it's completely drained. i'll then leave it like that for 5 more hours before recharging it back up.
and yes, the celtics beat the hawks, that was no surprise. now boston is up 3-1, with a decisive series ending game happening on tuesday night.