before i did that though, i first had to cook some ham, which was about to go bad. i made two bagel sandwiches: one for lunch, one for dinner.
i then went down to the community garden to water and plant the last of my seedlings (hyacinth bean, bitter melons, buttercup squash). i was hoping to find some leftover trellis netting, but i think i've used it all up, and what i have now will have to do for now. on a whim i bought some 10-gallon grow bags last night, i still have enough space to add another grow bag or two.
from the garden i biked directly to belmont around 11am. originally i was going to take the bus. the thinking was i'd drop off the motorcycle at the mechanic, then take the bus back to cambridge before riding back to belmont again. that plan was too complicated, so instead i opted to take the bus from arlington to belmont (with a transfer at harvard square).
when i got to belmont, i pumped up the rear tire of the motorcycle (so it can roll) and moved it out of the garage and onto the driveway. i then called progressive. the agent i spoke to initiated the roadside assistant. i received a text, which directed me to a page looking to match me with a nearby provider. it took a few minutes and i was afraid it wasn't working. but when a tow company was found, progressive sent me another text with info about the provider: pro-tech towing with an ETA of 90-120 minutes.
with nearly 2 hours to kill before the tow truck arrives, i had time to do some errands. i removed the front lawn faucet assembly, so i could take it to the plumbing equipment store and find a matching rubber bonnet washer. the patch of newly-sown front lawn has grown out, but it's still looking sparse. it's still cool enough to grow grass, so i went back and overseeded some bare spots, using a cultivating claw to drive some of the grass seeds into the soil. i received another text, this time with an updated ETA: 11-41 minutes. i continued working on the lawn until i saw the tow truck arriving around noontime.
it wasn't a tow truck but rather a flatbed semi-truck. the guy lowered the bed so it was on an inclined while i drove the motorcycle to the top. he then elevated the bed so it was flat again before tying down the bike with ratchet straps. it was kind of a joy watching him work, he really knew what he was doing. before i could ask, he asked me if i was coming too, and i said yes. i brought my helmet in the off chance that greater boston motorsports might be able to fix the flat while i waited.
i'd never been in a semi-truck before, let alone ride in one. it was kind of cool to be up so high. at first i didn't say anything to do the driver, but when we hit a pot hole that rocked the semi-truck violently, that's when we started talking. the driver was named rudy. at a stop sign he looked back briefly to make sure the motorcycle hadn't tipped over. so apparently his company does towing all over the area. the farthest he's ever towed was boston to philly, and another time he towed a rivian truck from upper new york to chelsea, where the only rivian northeast service center is located. he told me they're busy all the time: summers from cars overheating, winters from cars dying because of the cold.
we arrived at GBM by 12:24pm. i felt like a superstar arriving via flatbed semi-truck. after release the motorcycle from the straps, i got on the bike and wheeled it down backwards after rudy lowered the bed. i thanked him before he left. i would've tipped but i didn't have any spare change.
when i went inside the GBM service center, they asked me if i made an appointment. i said no, but the guy i called earlier remembered me and agreed to fix it. to my surprise, they said they could have it done within an hour, if i was willing to wait. so that's what i did. i took a 10 minute walk uphill to the nearby dunkin's donuts to get a medium ice tea, before walking back to GBM and waiting outside. luckily it was a really nice day, sipping my drink, surfing the web on my phone.
after an hour i went inside to ask about the status. "he's right in the middle of fixing the tire," the service guy told me. it wasn't until another hour before they were finally done. the cost? $140: $35 for the replacement tube, $80 for labor, $5 tire disposal fee, and $15 more for the annual inspection sticker. they didn't say what the cause of the flat was, and i assumed they removed the foreign object from the tire itself. it made me wonder if i could've repaired the tire on my own. but motorcycles are not like bicycles, it's better to have a professional do it, make sure it's done correctly and safely.
i finally left GBM by 2:40pm. they adjusted the rear brake so now it's on a hair trigger for stopping. i'm so used to riding with soft brakes that it took a little while to get used to. i stopped by my parents' place to grab the faucet assembly, before riding out to FW webb company to get a bonnet washer. the guy i spoke with was the same guy who installed the washer for me last time and who sold me the graphite packing. he said they didn't carry any rubber bonnet washers, and said to just use the graphite packing. he did go in the back and found a piece of cylindrical packing which he gave me for me, but i also bought some more graphite packing as well since i already ran out.
i got back to belmont by 3:15pm. i installed the graphite packing and turned on the water. it still dribbled a little bit of water from the stem, but it was better than before, when water was basically spraying everywhere when the faucet was turned on. with the water on, i finished overseeding the lawn, followed by a thin layer of peat moss, before watering it for 15 minutes. while that was happening, i manually watered the larger section of the front lawn, the part we didn't reseed, but in hindsight should've, since half of it is thick dead thatch. it's going to take time to get the lawn back to presentable shape. some more rain would definitely help, the next scheduled forecast seems to be saturday night, with about 0.5-1.0" of rain possible. i also put the sprinkler on a twice-watering-daily schedule again.
i sprayed the grapevines with fungicide again: 1.2 tbsp (18ml) of immunox liquid + 0.75 tbsp (2.25 tsp) of captan powder + 1/2 gallon of rain water. grape flower buds have started to form but none have blossomed yet. spraying before and after bloom is key to preventing various grape diseases, as the grapes are more vulnerable during that time.
i went in the basement to water the pileas, prayer plants, and orchids. i originally wanted to move them to the sunroom, but in order to save time, i'll do that next weekend. i might not have mentioned it, but the basement gardenia i put on both vegetative and flowering lights, in the hopes of generating my flower buds. i might take it outside next weekend to give it a preventative spray (to kill any more spider mites), but otherwise the gardenia will live in the basement. after it finished flowering (sometime around june), i'll move it outside to give it a prune and where it can grow more leaves.
i cut the flower stalks from the rhubarb, after learning that they prevent the plants from making new leaves. i saw rhubarb stalks for sale at market basket yesterday, $3.99/lbs., so they can be pricey!
finally i watered all the plants. the rain barrels are close to running empty, i barely had any pressure.
i left belmont by 5:30pm. fortunately i was going against traffic so there was no congestion.
once i got home, i walked down to the community garden to water again. i made plastic cup collars for the two squash plants and the one hyacinth beans, just to keep rabbits from biting through the stalks. i finally returned home by 6pm. only then did i eat my lunch bagel sandwich.
apparently i was still hungry as later in the evening i ate the other bagel sandwich will watching the lakers-nuggets game. the final score was 132-126, denver won, but los angeles came within 3 points in the final minutes, after trailing by as much as 20 points. even though the lakers lost, they still must feel good knowing that they nearly stole the game even after such a bad performance.