by the time i got back home (10am), lauryn had already left for the office. i had a free day and was in no hurry, so after using the bathroom and taking a shower, i worked on some retroactive blog postings and commented on a few more of alex's travel photos. i finally left by 11:30am.
my mother had gone out for a walk. my father boiled some chinese dumplings while i was outside in the backyard removing more squash bug eggs. these eggs must've been laid just this morning, because i spent most of yesterday removing nearly all of them. i also caught about half a dozen adult squash bugs, drowned them in a bowl of water.
after i finished eating the dumplings, i was back outside searching for more squash bug eggs. my father erected a makeshift trellis that bridges RB3 to RB4. we'll probably need to get a few more green garden stakes for stability.
my parents left for their annual physical around 1:40pm. by coincidence they were scheduled consecutively, so they wouldn't be back until 5pm. after weeding the front lawn (a futile attempt, since there's too much weed to just pull them out by hand), i mowed the grass. i also disassembled the sprinkler, we haven't used it in weeks since it's been raining so much. after that i mowed the backyard. i ran over some chicken wire that was hidden in the tall grass and it managed to jam the mower blade. i thought the mower was broken for good, but after clearing the obstruction, the mower continued to work. it was hot and humid, and after i finished, i just sat in the shade, drinking a cold can of seltzer, admiring my handiwork.
elsewhere in the garden: the peppers i planted in RB4 have produced some long screw peppers. i hadn't noticed because the peppers are green and sort of blend in the background. now we just have to see if they're hot or not, as there's conflicting report regarding its spiciness; i got some reflective tape from temu and tied a few to the grapevines, to discourage birds from eating the grapes. i think it's a deterrent for dumber birds, but for birds like robins - which seem fearless around humans - i don't think the flashing tape bothers in. in fact, i saw a robin hanging out in the grapevines after i put up the tapes, completely unfazed. we've never used reflective tape before so only time will tell if they work; the magenta colored orchid has finally bloomed. they're not as numerous with a total of 6 flower buds, but they're flashier than simply white; i turned the compost, which included fresh grass clippings. i had to add some grass to our enclosed compost bin. fortunately that one was filled with shredded dead leaves, so adding fresh grass clippings is perfect for making rich compost; i found some crown-tipped coral mushrooms growing underneath the pussy willow tree. apparently they're edible but i didn't collect them.
my mother called me around 4:20pm, said they were still at the doctor's office, but asked me to start grilling a 5 lbs. bag of buffalo wings from the freezer so they'd be ready by the time they came back. i was supposed to clean the barbecue today and replace some corroded parts, but never got around to it. i ended up still using the old burners, even though they had cracks in them and heated unevenly. by the time my parents came home around 5pm, the wings were nearly done, just some low temperature barbecuing.
my mother came out briefly to inspect the garden. once again she cursed the gardenia for not blooming. she checked out some immature bitter melons and more mature buttercup squashes. she got my father to harvest some blue beans, only half a dozen pods, barely enough for a single serving.
the wings were grilled to perfection. i was afraid they still might be raw on the inside, but they were just the right amount of tender, with enough grill marks on the outside that wasn't charred.
my father has been running the car fridge off of the LiFePo4 battery since late saturday afternoon. today the fridge finally stopped, even though the battery supposedly has plenty more juice. not sure what happened, the BMS stepped in to cut the power. so my father is recharging the battery and rerunning the test.
my mother reheated the leftover sour fish stew from last night for dinner, as well as making a garlic chive tofu stirfry. i didn't eat one bite of the stirfry, as the stew itself had plenty of ingredients in it already. i ate while drinking some suanmeitang, having already finished 4 cans of seltzer today (honestly, i was so thirsty and hot, i could've easily just finished a whole 12-pack).
i left around 7:30pm. the sky had been hazy all day, i didn't hear anything about canadian wildfires, but i can't imagine it could be anything else. i stopped to take a photo of the magenta sun, tried not to look at it directly because i didn't want to burn out my eyes even though it was so unusual.
i managed to find a parking spot on my street despite street cleaning tomorrow. inside the house there was no cooking smell, thankfully. i used the bathroom then showered. i went out briefly to buy a powerball ticket, the jackpot tonight at $900 million. later when they finally drew the numbers, i had exactly zero numbers matched. negative luck is still a type of luck, right?