first thing i did this morning was to write a note to my next door neighbors. i'd never met them before, but but several months now they've left their kitchen light on all night. the windows of my two bedrooms face their kitchen, and it's so bright i can't get a good night's sleep. it's so bright i could read a book just from their kitchen light. i finally had enough last night. in the past they keep the lights on but they always turned it off (sometimes as late as 3am). but recently not only do they keep the kitchen light on all night, but they now never turn it off. anyway, wrote the note, explained the situation, asked if they could turn off the kitchen lights at night. we'll see what happens.

i went down to the community garden around 10am to replace the plastic green netting with some new white string netting i got from temu. the one that i bought was 6x15ft and costs just $1.28. it was too long so i cut it in half, which was enough to cover my pair of trellises. it worked out pretty well, especially since the metal u-posts i have in the garden has little prongs to secure wire fencing but works just as well for string netting. i also left half a dozen bitter melon seeds for david, who forgot to save some from last season.

i left the garden by 11am. i went home, gathered my things, and left for belmont, first getting some gas at the mass ave speedway (first fuel fillup this season), before stopping at the cafe. my father told me another pepper got mowed down in RB4, in the exact same spot that the previous two eggplants were also dispatched by some unknown critter.

when i arrived in belmont by 11:40am, i saw for myself what my father was talking about. he thought it was a slug, but it didn't eat anything, just snipped the stem. i personally think it's a chipmunk, but why it'd always hit the same spot is a mystery, maybe it has a burrow there. but i looked around and didn't see any holes.

from belmont i rode to the waltham ocean state job lot. last time i was there they were still in the middle of renovations, but i haven't been back since, though i heard from my father that the new store is now massive. i got there around noontime. besides the expansion, they also changed the overall layout of the store: now you come in from the left side and check out on the right. two things i needed to get: a male hose mender ($3.50) and a large plant pot. hose mender i found right away, but it took me a long time to decide which pot i wanted. terracotta or porcelain? tall or short or wide? i ended up going with the standard terracotta pot for $9. i did a quick browse of the new store. it was large enough that i found myself getting lost. i checked out by 12:30pm and went back to belmont with the pot strapped to the back of my motorcycle.

i fixed the leaking hose end. i cut off the old male end, grab the new one, coated it with hand sanitizer (for lubrication), before inserting it in the hose. the hose repair i got came with a large metal clamp to secure the male end. no matter how tightly i clamped it together, i couldn't get it to bite tight enough that it wouldn't leak. after two failed attempts, i ended up securing the male hose end with a hose clamp. not the most elegant solution, but it works. i also managed to gorge my finger with the screwdriver when it slipped out of my hand.

next i mixed a solution of fungicide to spray the grapes: 1.2 tbsp (18ml) of immunox liquid + 0.75 tbsp (2.25 tsp) of captan powder + 1/2 gallon of rain water. the last time i sprayed was 2 weeks ago so it was overdue. so many tiny grape flower buds, no flowers yet. we barely had any flowers last season because my father decided to trim the grapes a second time after we already trimmed it the end of the winter. he ended up removing all the new growth that would produce grapes. this year we made sure not to prune a second time. because we barely had any grapes last season, i'm hoping that maybe it broke the fungus cycle since diseases like black rot incubate inside of mummy grapes.

hailey was home but every time got her into the sunroom so she could go outside, she seemed afraid to walk down the stairs and go back inside the house.

with gardening work out of the way, i decided to fly my drone from the backyard a little bit. in the horizon i noticed some haze with is smoke from nova scotia forest fires.

my sister also came home during that time, ready to pack up her things (including her dog) and move back to cambridge, after she spent nearly a week living at my parents' place. while i was about to leave, i saw the temu package on the doorstep and ended up staying a bit longer to check out the haul.

one of the things we purchased was a universal sink stopper. it fit the sink perfectly, but the silicone ring washer (3 sizes) doesn't seem to fit the sink drain well enough so that it still leaks. we also bought 2 pairs of knockoff crocs. the more expensive one ($10) was more comfortable and had a thicker sole.

returning home, i stopped briefly at the cafe again. the temu purchase also included some magnetic hooks which i placed on various metal appliances.

instead of going home, i stopped at the community garden. a lot of people were there, including ann (whom i saw this morning), david, gretchen, and jen. david thanked me for the half dozen bitter melon seeds i left him this morning. ann was planting her bitter melon seedlings and asked me if they were in good locations. i dropped off the terracotta pot, filled it with some leftover potting soil. that wasn't nearly enough, so i got some garden compost, put it at the bottom, before filling back up the pot with potting soil. into this i planted the goat horn peppers. from belmont i brought a hyacinth seedling. i thought i planted two, but i currently only have one, so i decided to add another one, especially since we have extras in belmont. after i finished watering i finally left around 4:50pm.

when i finally returned home, i saw a note in my foyer. it was from my next door neighbor. he apologized profusely, said he hadn't been home in weeks and was subletting the apartment, and the subletter left all the lights on. he said he'd talk with the subletter and let him know. problem solved!

the new tenant arrives tomorrow night. my sister said she was going to go pick her up from the subway station, because it's not safe to way the 10 minutes from there to my house. i asked how old was this girl who was staying at my place, she said 21 years old. i sense deep-seated issues if a college student can't walk to my place just because it's not the daytime anymore.

anyway, i was supposed to clean this memorial day weekend, but i was busy with other stuff. today was my last full day to clean and i didn't do it until later. the fact that i already did a lot of cleaning when PX came to stay here for 2 days meant i didn't have much to do. i washed the bedsheets and gave her new pillows. i need to make space in the fridge and cupboards, move some clutter down into the basement, and put my winter clothes in storage while taking out my summer clothes (the guest bedroom closet is where i normally keep my unused clothes). a lot of this stuff i'm going to put off until tomorrow morning, or possibly tomorrow afternoon if i can leave the cafe early if it's not busy (wasn't busy today).

for dinner i had a choice from several leftover barbecue items. i ended up reheating two blue cheese burgers. could you believe it was my meal of the day? since i didn't have breakfast or lunch. i wasn't hungry because i was snacking when i got home, finished a bag of shrimp chips.

also today i avoided all sports news, just so i wouldn't have to be reminded of celtics historical game 7 loss last night.

i did some thinking, and i think what's been killing my seedlings is a cutworm. it makes sense, since the plant was left intact, just severed at the stem, despite putting plastic collars around all my seedlings yesterday.