i only went to c-mart, picked up mostly things for the cafe, only bought some watermelon seeds for myself. they sold orri oranges at $2.98/lbs. i bought half a dozen gold nugget oranges for $1.88/lbs., which were labeled as "ugly tangerine" in the store sign.
i cut through downtown crossing to get to haymarket. my front brakes failed while riding downhill into post office square. i was lucky i didn't crash, and had to stop flintstone-style using my feet as brakes. the noodle popped out of the cage, i simply put it back in for it to work again. the front brakes have been broken for a few weeks now: one of the brake arms won't engage, so it stops by pressing the other arm into the bike rim and having the rim touch the stuck brake arm. i really need to see if i can repair the brakes or just buy new ones. it's too dangerous to be riding around with broken brakes!
no ojai pixies at haymarket, nor any gold nuggets. in the past i've even been able to find some orri oranges here, but no such luck this year. i did buy 10 minneola oranges for $2. also in my haul: 2 bags of darling clementines for $5, 1 lbs. of long horn peppers for $2, 10 lemons for $2, 1 lbs. of orange habanero peppers for $2.
i headed back to cambridge a bit after 11am. i got home by 11:30am, changed out of my sweat-soaked t-shirt, then switched to my motorcycle, bringing my chinatown and haymarket haul with me.
my mother said i could have the day off today to clean my house, and that she and my father could run the cafe just fine. but i went and helped anyway, ended up staying 4 hours before i finally left. originally i was going to go to belmont afterwards to do some watering, but it was already almost 4pm, so i went to the community garden instead.
i tried the minneola oranges. i had them in the past, remembered they weren't that great, and rather tart. these ones i got weren't any better. yes, easy to peel and juicy, but that tartness is kind of a deal breaker.
during a lull in the afternoon, i had some leftover rice noodle soup for lunch. how come whenever i'm working at the cafe, i'm the only person who's super busy non-stop? i cooked some black noodles, cooked some dumplings, cut up a yellow radish, made some fresh green tea, emptied a new bag of rice into the rice bucket, and washed the non-stop convoy of dirty dishes.
there was nobody in the community garden when i got there around 3:30pm. all my plants seemed okay with the exception of one of the long horn peppers in the grow bag, it looked a little wilty, which is a bad sign. fortunately i have plenty of spare pepper plants in belmont i can transplant in case that one dies. while watering i bumped into david for the first time this season. he asked if i was doing any travel, as he himself just recently spent a month in italy. instead of hanging out with italians, he mostly hung out with the migrants, like sri lankans, and ate inexpensive sri lankan food. david noticed i was wearing a helmet and asked what i was riding. i'm surprised he'd never seen my motorcycle before, but to be fair, most often when i come to the garden it's either via walking or bicycling, rarely it's by motorcycle. he seemed very impressed, i forgot to ask him if he rides himself.
returning home, i saw renee getting into a different car. "did you get a new car?" i asked her. apparently she bought a new toyota corolla hybrid back in january. i could've sworn i saw her old subaru hatchback just last week. she sold her old car to a group of young adults for $1000. she had to go all the way to norfolk to get her new car, as the nearest dealership here had an inventory wait time of 6-8 months.
my liba-brand shower curtains arrived today. when i checked the material, it still felt a little thin despite being 8 gauge instead of 2 gauge. i thought about returning them and buying som 10 gauge curtains, but decided to try one and see how it performed. last night i showered with the temu lightweight curtains. they actually weren't bad, just a bit more crinkly when i close the curtains. this new 10 gauge curtain, because of its heavier weight, draped down like real curtains, instead of bunchy up. it actually was pretty good, so i've decided to keep them after all. these curtains have a soft texture to them, maybe it's a soap scum resistant feature, or how they achieve the frosted look. i kind of wish they were more transparent; even though these are frosted, they look more like an opaque white. they're also a bit plain, a bit too utilitarian. once these get dirty, i'll replace them with something that has a pattern.
i watched the latest episode (4) of silo. the show's so good, it's hard waiting another week for a new episode. the show's based on a series of books, and i know i can always read them to find out what happens next, but i don't want to spoil the series. maybe once season 1 is over i might pick up the book to find out what happens in season 2. with the ongoing writers' strike, who knows when that will be.
game 2 between the heat and celtics was tonight. i boiled up frozen homemade chinese dumplings for dinner. celtics played well, but the heat played better. even though celtics had the lead for parts of the game, it never felt safe, and the heat always managed to go on a streak to regain the lead. when the game finally ended and boston lost, it wasn't a surprise. now the celtics are down a 0-2 hole going to miami for game 3 on sunday. i'm preparing myself emotionally for the worst to happen.