i left the house a bit before 10am. i chose to walk because it'd be raining for much of the day, although it was still dry when i stepped out. but quickly soon afterwards a light drizzle started to fall, though i was already prepared with my umbrella. the walk gave me a chance to snap some flower photos along the way.
i got to the cafe by 10:20am. as the first to arrive, it was my job to cook the rice. i had to determine whether today would be a slow or busy day, and cook the amount of rice accordingly. i decided to go with 5 cups, after seeing that we didn't have any frozen leftover rice, but also keeping in mind it's a long weekend for many in the cambridge area (juneteenth on monday), and with the expected downpours, there probably wouldn't be many customers today.
my sister arrived a short time later. when she went down to the basement, she shrieked, said there was water everywhere. that was a bit of an exaggeration: there was water in the basement, but only around the hot water tank. i'd seen this before, when the tank leaks like this, it's time to replace it. my sister actually knew about this issue, and said she wanted to call alewife company to fix it, but that my father wanted to try our chinese HVAC guy xiaowu first. when my father arrived at the cafe, he went down to the basement to take a look. yes, he knew the tank had already been leaking for weeks now, but today was the worst it's been, with enough water to make a puddle. so he called xiaowu, while my sister was chattering on the side, still pestering us to call alewife instead. my father wasn't expecting xiaowu to come until early next week, but he was able to do it tomorrow noontime, despite it being a sunday. all we had to do was get the replacement hot water tank ahead of time.
so something really weird happened at the cafe today. a group of irish contractors - from the company block 1 roofing & masonry (at least from what it said on their pickup truck) - stopped by to get some food. they kept asking for sandwiches even though we don't sell sandwiches, but finally settled on some chicken curry. they went out (to smoke probably), then one of them came back to pick up the order. about 15 minutes later, the same guys came back asking for their curry, but my sister told them the previous guy only ordered one for himself. so they left and went to the nearby chinese restaurant to get some takeout. they then ate in the parking lot, standing next to their truck, before finally leaving. when i went out a bit later, i saw they threw all their trash into the mulch bed. not just like trash in a bag, but they purposely threw the food out of the containers and dumped it onto the ground. why would anyone do that? seems like such an evil and senseless thing to do. my sister said she wanted to call their boss and complain, but chances are the boss was with them. plus when she checked the security video, she noticed one of the guys had taken a coke out from the drink fridge without paying for it. it was a mess to clean up - especially since everything was mixed in with wood mulch. fortunately it was a rainy day, so the rain washed away much of the remaining mess. still, it was pretty strange, a blemish on an otherwise okay day. later i looked up the company, and the better business bureau gave it a rating of D+, which i can totally believe.
so i chose correctly, that it wouldn't be very at all today. we had a few customers in the morning, and then a few more as we were about to close. i helped my father sort through the garlic chives i harvested from my garden yesterday. he said they were actually pretty good, once you sort through all the grass and other non-chive plant matter. it rained for the entire day, sometimes heavy. i sat next to the open door, it felt nice, the cold rain kind of soothing. my father and i finished the last of the aiyu jelly.
i looked up replacement hot water tanks at home depot, found one that would fit in the current space, a rheem gas 40 gallon short tank with a 12 year warranty for $789. home depot's website said they had 8 in stock at watertown. the one that we currently have is a 40 gallon short ruud model, with a warranty of 6 years, but installed in 2011, so way out of warranty. originally we figured we'd get it tomorrow morning, but decided to get it after work, just to get it out of the way.
so not only was the hot water tank leaking, but later in the afternoon i noticed it wasn't even heating up the water anymore. so my father decided to shut off the water supply; the lack of pressure would stop the leak for the time being. it was weird not having hot water at the cafe, i found myself turning on the hot water knob out of habit, even though nothing was coming out. also lack of hot water is a clear violation in the restaurant industry, as dishes can't be fully cleaned with cold water. hopefully it'll all get fixed by tomorrow.
my father and i left around 4:30pm, leaving my sister to close the shop. we stopped off in belmont briefly to drop off some supplies, before switching to the larger honda and heading out to home depot to pick up the replacement hot water tank. we also bought a 4x4x12 piece of pressure-treated wood for our raised bed repairs. everything fit inside the car, much easier with two person to haul it inside. the lumber sat diagonally, i held it with my hands to prevent it from crashing from the windshield if we came to an abrupt stop. when we got back to the house, we put the hand truck in the car as well, since we'd need it to move the water tank.
all this recent rain had turned garden into a lush oasis. the squash have pretty much overtaken the raised beds. i was shocked to discover the on-demand pump uncovered, exposed to the elements. not only that, it was also turned on, but not functioning at the moment. when my father tried turning on the spray hand, nothing was coming out either. a few reasons why the pump might not be working, but we won't be able to check it until tomorrow, when it stops raining. that seaflo series-42 pump has worked well for us, we got it back in june 2020, though it feels much longer. it works perfectly with out rain barrel setup, since it's an on-demand pump, and will automatically turn off when not in use. it works even better with our solar battery setup, since it runs off of 12v, so it's completely self-contained. this is just our 4th season with the pump and so far it's worked great, well enough that i've always wanted to get another one for the front yard.
for dinner my mother cooked some noodles and we mixed it some leftover xuelihong she made yesterday at the cafe. we also had some red roasted pork my father had been slow cooking at the cafe the entire day.
after dinner my father gave me a ride back home. approaching the cafe, i suggested we move hot water tank tonight, saving us from having to do it tomorrow. after we got it into the basement with the use of the handtruck, my father set up the 12v transfer pump with our lithium iron phosphate rechargeable battery station and started draining the water from the old tank. after 15 minutes it was still draining (even though the water intake was turned off), which seemed really weird, so we stopped it, figured let xiaowu handle it tomorrow. and regarding xiaowu, he's notoriously unreliable. if he says he'll be there at noon, don't be surprised if he doesn't come until 5pm. so we're not out of the woods yet.
i finally returned home by 8pm. judging from the smell and the fact that the kitchen blinds was all in a mess, i figured lauryn had been frying again. i've taken a very zen approach to roommates messing up my kitchen. the less i worry about it, the better i feel. i went to use the bathroom followed by a shower. i didn't see lauryn at all the rest of the night, though i heard her taking a shower around 9pm.