i rode down to the cafe around 10:30am to borrow the car so i could pick up the mulch from home depot. my mother showed me the gash wound on her finger, sustained while trying to wash my sister's razor-sharp mini quiche tins.
i went to belmont first, to grab the hand truck, since i'd need it to move the mulch. first i had to swap out the wheels with the new 4.10/3.50-4 (10") wheels we got from harbor freight over the weekend. these harbor freight replacement wheels were slightly smaller, with less material (rubber) than the original wheels, and didn't have a 90° bent valve stem. it was simple to replace, i just had to straighten the cotter pins, remove pin from the axle, and put on the new wheel, before rebending the pin. i also noticed that these new wheels were rated for 300 lbs. while the old ones were 500 lbs. the old wheels are still good: one of them still works, and other one with the leak just needs to get the inner tube replaced.
i loaded the hand truck into the car along with some mulching tools and headed to home depot by 11:30am. first order of business was to return 4 rolls of chicken wire we purchased on 3 separate occasions. the returns department seems to be perpetually understaffed, and there was just a single guy working there. an old lady returning a bunch of stuff was taking up a lot of time, while the return line gradually grew longer. when it was finally my turn, the guy asked why i was returning. i told him i bought too much, and it was to prevent rabbits from eating up my garden. "you don't like rabbits?" he asked. "i hate rabbits," i told him, completely serious.
after the return, i went back outside and grabbed a flatbed truck so i could pick up the mulch from the garden department. i decided to get 10 bags of black wood mulch, which came out to about $33 for 20 cu.ft (approximately 0.75 cu.yd). is that cheaper than buying mulch in bulk? i don't know. i never bought bulk mulch before, would like to one of these days (a quick check of hillside garden supply in belmont shows the cheapest mulch is black or dark pine spruce at $47/cu.yd., so definitely more expensive). i loaded the bags onto the flatbed truck and slowly pushed it through the garden department (thankfully there wasn't a lot of people). i remember i also needed to get cup hooks so i left the flatbed truck and went to the screws and fasteners department to get the hooks and come back.
i arrived at the cafe around noontime. my godmother was there, hadn't seen her for 3 months since she went to taiwan and when she came back she was sick so wasn't able to visit the cafe until now. my father helped me unload the mulch. so the areas i had to cover were the few sidewalk trees followed by the parking lot perimeter. i first dug up the sidewalk areas, tilling the soil to remove any weeds. i'd already mulched the trees last spring, so there was already some old mulch. to each "verge" i added a bag of mulch. the 6 remaining bags i spread around the parking lot perimeter. there was a light sprinkle while i worked. i was finally done around 2pm.
my original plan was to return to belmont to do some garden work (like finish making the raised bed fences), but i'd already done so much today, and i still had things to do at home. so instead i biked home and left soon afterwards for market basket to get some groceries.
i was a few blocks away before i noticed something weird with the bicycle. i can always feel it when i have a flat tire, the ride gets softer then wobbly as i quickly lose traction. i pulled to check the rear wheel and sure enough, most of the air had gone out. so i ended up wheeling the bike home so i could fix the flat.
it took me about 30 minutes to fix the flat. i was surprised to see that the inner tube had been patched two other times, all in 2021 (i write the date on the patches so i know when i made them). the tire surprisingly easy to remove with a tire lever, i didn't even have to pry. i marked the location of the tube with the tire and the wheel rim, so i can reassemble everything later to their exact location, and to locate the source of the puncture on the tire itself.
once i got the inner tube removed, i took it into the bathtub to submerge it and find the leak. it took a while but it was obvious when i found it. just a small slit, but enough to leak all the air. i roughed up the area around the hole before applying some rubber cement then a rubber patch. i then went back outside to put back in the inner tube. i located where the puncture was to the spot on the tire. i found the hole in the tire but didn't see any foreign object until i ran my finger across the hole and felt something hard. usually pliers and an awl, i ended up digging out a sliver of glass. it's important to remove the source of puncture from the tire otherwise it'll just repuncture the inner tube. once the glass was removed, i reassembled the wheel and installed it back onto the bike before inflating the tube. it seemed okay, no more leaks, so flat fixed.
i didn't even realize but this was actually my second time today doing tire repairs.
i left for market basket again around 3pm. the rear wheel seemed okay, almost better than before since i fully inflated it, felt like a new bike. i got a bunch of groceries, including some icelandic skyr, which supposed is like an even thicker version of greek yogurt. they came in various flavors, i got one of each to try them out ($1 each). i also got 2 packs of polar seltzers. usually i wait for a sale, but i saw a woman loading up her shopping cart with several packs of seltzers, which inspired me to go ahead and get some as well instead of waiting for a sale. i got pomegranate which is my favorite standby but also tried their new strawberry watermelon as well.
riding home, two of the oui french yogurt i got for my mother fell out of my grocery bag, smashing onto the pavement. surprisingly the glass cups didn't shatter, and i stopped the bike to retrieve the yogurts.
i tried one of the skyr for a late lunch, the strawberry and lingonberry one. supposedly no sugar was added but the yogurt still tasted sweet. i didn't think there'd be any sugar but there was 10g to give it some sweetness. it was definitely as thick as greek yogurt, but i couldn't tell if it was thicker. with so much proteins per serving (15g), i felt full afterwards.
my mother called when i got home, asked if i'd already went to market basket. it wasn't because she needed groceries, it was to see if i could go pick up her prescription from the pharmacy. she said i could do it tomorrow morning when i got to haymarket. and that was my plan, until i realized i could simply do it today, saving me the trouble of having to do it tomorrow.
so i got back on my bike and rode to harvard vanguard. i sort of know the pharmacist there, who told me my mother shares a similar name with a character from avatar (the animation). every time i go she asks if i'd seen the show yet, and every time i tell her no. while leaving the pharmacy, my sister called me, asking if i could go pick up medication for hailey from the veterinarian. so i detoured and went to the vet and picked up that prescription. each of these places still required customers to wear masks, which is a rarity nowadays, and most places have been maskless for quite a while.
i came home for good by 4:30pm. i watered my grow closet plants and then had more yogurt in the form of greek tzatziki i made over 2 weeks ago but never got around to eating. i had it with some pita bread. i was surprised it was still good, but being that greek yogurt is naturally sour, it'd be hard to figure out if it's gone bad by taste alone.
i ended up making one last ham egg avocado bagel sandwich for dinner. this time i added a slice of american cheese for some additional decadence, along with the everything bagel seasoning and drizzle of sriracha. it's a pretty good sandwich if i may say so myself, but kind of a mess to eat, as it drips pieces of avocado, or egg, or sriracha, or melted cheese.
i timed dinner to coincide with the start of the celtics-hawks game at 8:30pm. it was the only NBA playoff game of the night. the celtics finally managed to beat the hawks, but it was a close game, and even down to the final seconds, atlanta still had a chance to tie or possibly win. why the celtics made the game so close is still a mystery. and how come derrick white sat out for most of the second half? our team's 3rd best player should be on the floor. instead coach mazzulla kept in marcus smart, who kept shooting desperation three's that didn't go in. eventually they did go in, but more of a law of averages than actually being an efficient 3-point shooter. feels like the celtics won simply because they had more talent, despite having poor strategies throughout the game. now we wait until monday for the 76ers-celtics series. boston has home court advantage throughout the entirety of the playoffs now that the bucks have been eliminated.