today was also lauryn's last day living at my place. she's moving to the apartment above my sister's place, a much larger and brighter bedroom, with two other astrophysicist roommates, and just a 5 minute walk to her office, so basically an upgrade, even if she's only here in cambridge for less than a month. when she left for the office one last time today (at 10am), i jokingly told her, "it's your last time walking to the office from here." she told me she'd be back today at 4:30pm to move out her things. my sister was going to give her a ride and lauryn would leave the house key with my sister.
normally when lauryn leaves for the office, that's my cue to revisit the bathroom. but i was afraid to do that because i didn't want to miss the fedex delivery man. i waited and waited, until it was noontime, with no fedex truck in sight. i did see a delivery truck pull up to the curb and got ready to accept the package before i realized it was just a USPS truck.
i finally couldn't wait any longer. who knew when it'd arrive, and it was getting super busy at the cafe. so a bit after 12pm i fast biked to the cafe. along the way i saw a fedex truck on linnaean street. that must be the truck going to my house. when i got to the cafe the busy stretch was mostly over. my parents told me it wasn't busy anymore, and told me to go back home and wait for the package, especially since i already saw the fedex truck within blocks of my house.
so i raced back home. thankfully the fedex truck was still on linnaean, so i was able to beat it and get home to wait. again i waited and waited, with no fedex truck in sight. finally i couldn't take anymore of it. it's not the end of the world if i can't accept the package, it'll either be left at the closest fedex depot, or they'll try delivering it again on monday. so i raced back to the cafe around 1pm. along the way i saw that same fedex truck still parked on linnaean, with the driver just sitting inside. i pulled up and asked him if he was delivering anything to my address. he said no, but i didn't believe him, i think he was probably on his lunch break and couldn't be bothered to check his manifest.
at the cafe we were prepping for tomorrow, another possible repeat of last saturday when we had droves of new taiwanese customers who came to order based on a good facebook group review. my mother was already using the tea eggs i prepared on wednesday, so i made a new batch just in case.
starting at 1pm there was another busy period. fortunately i was there to help out, and my sister even showed up when she passed by and saw we were busy. i got a text from fedex, telling me the package would be delayed, and wouldn't be delivered until monday, before 12pm. so 4 hours of waiting at home this morning was basically a complete waste of time.
my parents had already harvested two large buttercup squashes, one from the ground, one hanging off the vine. the first one they already ate, said it was very sweet. they also collected about a dozen blue bean pods, enough to eat. later they tried one of the canned baked beans we got from market basket on monday. B&M "country style" was just too sweet, it'd probably be easier and more delicious to make our own baked beans.
around 3:45pm my sister called from the upstairs apartment. she said the toilet was broken. so my father and i went over to take a look. i consider myself an expert when it comes to toilet repairs, and i've basically fixed everything before, other than installing a brand new toilet bowl (which i think i can probably do myself as well). just one look and i had a pretty good idea what was wrong. the tank wouldn't refill, which usually means the fill valve is broken. i've replaced my fair share of fill valves, so it'd be an easy fix. but first we made sure that was the problem, by turning off the water and removing the water supply connector from the tank. then i turned the water back on to check there isn't a blockage in the supply line. the water came out with plenty of pressure, which confirmed the fill valve was broken. i went to the cafe to get some pliers and then came back to remove the fill valve, putting a small plastic bucket underneath to catch the remaining water from the tank.
originally i thought of going to the watertown home depot to get a replacement fill valve, but it was already 4pm, and traffic would be murder, it'd probably be closer to 5pm before i got back. but then i remembered that there's an tags hardware in porter square. their stuff might be more expensive, but it was the closest place to get the part.
i went back to the cafe to get the company credit card before riding down to porter square. there was traffic, but i blew by them on my bike, whether weaving between the cars, going down one way streets, or occasionally hoping on the sidewalks. it took me 6 minutes to get to tags. there were an assortment of toilet fill valves, but i went with the fluidmaster performax for $19 before taxes (exact same thing at home depot would only cost $15).
i got back to the apartment by 4:20pm, the whole trip to the hardware store and back only took 15 minutes. it took me another 5 minutes to fix the toilet, only because i couldn't find a knife or scissors to cut the bowl inlet tube. otherwise, it would've taken me less than a minute to install the toilet flush valve. with everything connected, the toilet was now working properly, the tank filling up in about 10-15 seconds. they do need to replacement the toilet seat though: not because it's dirty, but because it's been worn down to the bare wood. but that's something we can get at home depot.
i visited hailey before i leaving, and picked up a rubber plant (Ficus elastica) somebody had tossed out onto the curb. i returned to the cafe, triumphant with another fixed toilet victory under my belt.
with the cafe close to closing, my parents cooked up the blue beans in a simple pork stew with some tofu. long beans really do best when they're slow simmered for a long time in a stew, as they're good in absorbing flavors, otherwise the beans themselves have a bland taste. my sister returned from helping lauryn move to the upstairs apartment. because my sister didn't have any good pillows, lauryn took one of mine. she also borrowed my blow dryer since the apartment doesn't have one either.
after i finished eating, i left around 6:15pm. back at the house, i saw that lauryn had left me a present: box of jasmine tea. i'll put that to good use once the weather turns colder and i begin drinking hot teas again. the guest bedroom door was closed, i didn't bother going in and check. i'll need to wash the sheet anyway at some point, and do some vacuuming, but i'll save that for another day.
it takes some time to adjust to single living again (though much faster than living with a roommate). but now i can use the bathroom without closing the door, and sit around the house in my underwear without offending anyone.