i finally left by 12:15pm. my mother made some simple chicken noodles for lunch, i was the only one eating since my parents had already ate.
afterwards my father and i were outside doing yardwork for the rest of the day while my mother was indoors watching her shows on the imac and knitting. we first started with some mowing, it takes just a week for the grass to get long enough that it needed a mulching mow. we won't be able to collect any grass for the compost until mid-june, when the crabgrass preventer had enough time to break down completely.
after the mow, we tackled a long neglected but very important project: dig a new moat around the bamboo grove. i tried to dig down to 2ft, but more likely i only went down 1ft. i didn't find any rhizomes, but did see a few strays on the other side of the moat. one clump was right next to the fence post, too difficult to dig, so i sprayed it with round up. digging the moat was dirty work, and my shoes and jeans were covered in dirt. a robin came by to investigate, looking for worms. we probably need to dig a bit deeper, to make sure no rhizomes are escaping.
afterwards we cleaned a few bamboo poles we cut down. my father used a knife to slice off the side branches at an angle. he went inside afterwards, while i stayed out to water the plants. later i came back to move all the cold-sensitive plants (pileas, prayer plants) into the sunroom.
my father made the suggestion that i could grow aeroponic water spinach in the sunroom. i was thinking about what else to grow in the aeroponic tub. water spinach was a possible candidate, but it requires 75-95 degrees temperature, so i thought i'd have to wait until later in the summer, and possibly grow them outside for heat and sunlight. but the sunroom gets plenty hot these days. once all our houseplants are living outside for the season, i'll bring up the aeroponic tub from the basement and set up a grow. in the meantime, i soaked some rock wool plugs in rain water and dropped a single water spinach seed into each one.
because the temporary tenant said he'd come by my place after 6pm, we had dinner early. even then we didn't eat until 5:30pm, so i had to eat quick before returning to cambridge. my mother cooked some fermented long beans from almost a year ago. it had that weird medical smell that i don't like, but most of the beans was still crispy. my mother chopped them up and cooked a stirfry with ground beef. they also heated some white fish in the toaster oven but i found it too fishy and only had a few bites.
my parents had both finished with dinner while i was still eating. i didn't leave until 5:55pm. along the way back to my place, i kept my eyes open for any potential chinese astrophysicists walking towards the direction of my house (i didn't see any). when i finally got back, i got a text from the new tenant - XP - that he was going to be late, around 8pm now. wish he told me sooner, so i didn't have to rush dinner and hurry back home.
it gave me two hours to kill. i ended up walking down to the community garden to check on my plants. maureen and molly were there. the eggplants, some tomatoes, and bitter melons, suffered cold damage on the old leaves. i may end up planting a few more bitter melon seeds, i don't think my two plants are doing very well (unlike the ones i belmont, which are thriving). the two squashes are doing fine despite the cold, a few spots of cold damage on the lower leaves is all. the lone hyacinth bean has yellowish-green leaves, instead of the dark green leaves it typically has; i expect that to change once it started growing. i uncurled its tendril and wrapped it around the torn plastic netting. i thought about watering, but with the temperature dropping into the 40's tonight, i didn't want to chill the plants anymore. maureen came by and asked what i was going to do with my chive flowers. i said just admire them. so then said one of the gardeners wanted some chives and asked if i could donate some. this is the second time maureen has asked for plants from my garden. no, actually, the first time, since she invited herself to my nigella seeds last season.
i returned home and waited for the tenant to show. in the meantime i managed to take a shower. there was also some drama with my 2nd aunt. apparently she didn't send my big aunt and my niece her itinerary info, she they didn't know when she'd be arriving in new york city. my 2nd aunt also for some reason turned off her phone, so there was no way for me to track her whereabouts, and more importantly, no way to get in touch with her. fortunately the flixbus website has bus tracking, but there was two different routes and arrival time for the same bus number, one arriving at 7:10pm, one arriving at 7:40pm. there was nothing to do but wait for the bus to arrive, sooner or later. at 7:50pm tangtang send me a text that my 2nd aunt had arrived.
XP didn't arrive until 8:15pm, taking an uber. i showed him to his room and left him to get settled, along with the all important wifi password. later in the evening he came out when he saw my watching the nuggets-lakers game. lakers had a sizable lead going into halftime. we chatted about places we've traveled in china. i was particularly interested to hear about his visit to chongqing, which he went just last year. while this was happening, the lakers lead started to dwindle until suddenly it was the nuggets with the lead. XP went to take a shower; when he came back, there was only 2 minutes left in the game and the lakers were down. los angeles had a chance to either tie or win with just 4 seconds to go, but denver managed to stop lebron james from dunking the ball before time expired. the nuggets completed their sweep of the lakers.
nobody is ridiculing the lakers over getting swept. most of these games have been close: 6 points, 5 points, 11 points, 2 points. the lakers were also the 7th seed facing the 1st seed nuggets. the celtics-heat series have been different. the first two loses were relatively close - 7 points, 6 points - but boston lost at home. the celtics were also the 2nd seed facing the 8th seed heat. but that 3rd game last night, boston lost by 26 points, and the team seemed to have quit. at this point, i'd be happy for them not to get swept. winning 4 consecutive games to advance to the finals is not going to happen, but if they can beat the heat tomorrow night in a commanding fashion, i'll be happy, and it'd be something they can use to build on for next season.