i went down to the basement to once again look for my bag of microwave parts but i still couldn't find them. i left the house around 11am, spent some time mounting the clamp mounts to my motorcycle handlebar and having the carbon fiber selfie sticker cantilevered so it was filming me at an angle, the gopro clamped to the stick with a third clamp. it look really awkward and the vibration from the bike started to rotate the stick so i had to adjust the camera few times while riding.
i went to get some gasoline before stopping briefly at the cafe to put the tea eggs in the fridge. i noticed my sister's car wasn't in the parking lot so she wasn't back yet, still AWOL after she put hailey to sleep on thursday.
first thing i did when i made it to belmont was water the patched spots on the front lawn. none of it had been watered since tuesday, and the dirt was starting to look dry. the key to successful grass growing is to keep it constantly wet for a few weeks, until the grass seeds start to germinate. i was still using the town's water, my father hadn't hooked up the solar-battery-operated wifi-DC-switch-enabled transfer pump yet. after that i watered the few patched areas in the backyard lawn.
my mother made some rice noodles out of leftovers for me to have for lunch, while my father fried some eggs and bacon.
my father had already split the output from the 100W solar panel mounted above the basement entrance, so it was simultaneously charging the 35Ah sealed lead acid battery in the basement (driving the backyard on-demand pump) and the 100Ah lithium iron phosphate battery in the bedroom. in the basement we also finally found our missing pair of 20A CMG-brand PWM solar controllers (for lead acid batteries only).
i brought my set of security bits and went about opening up the broken panasonic microwave so i could check to see if the door switch was dead. the switches themselves are difficult to remove from the plastic microwave chassis, but my father said we could take their continuity readings without having to remove them. that's when i discovered the switches were actually okay. that's both disappointing and a relief. disappointing because it meant there was something more serious with the microwave, maybe a busted inverter ($200 replacement part), maybe a broken mangetron ($80 replacement part), or perhaps the control circuit board needed replacing ($20 used from ebay). it may not be worth trying to fix it. but i was also relieved, because it meant i didn't need to find my loose microwave parts after all. i'll run some more diagnostic tests on the microwave tomorrow, maybe figure out what's actually broken, see if it can be fixed or not worth the cost.
at 1pm we left for burlington. binbin invited us to their house, jason's parents had been in town for nearly a month (i think) and we still haven't visited them yet. we hadn't seen his parents since before the pandemic, so 2020 and earlier. we first made a stop at h-mart because my mother wanted to buy a case of asian pears as a gift. however asian pears aren't quite in season yet (i didn't see any there), but they were selling boxes of korean melons ($20) so we got that instead. did i mention the supermarket was packed? so much so my father couldn't find parking so he just waited for us outside in the car. it took us a long time to check out since all the aisles were crowded. this just shows that the area could use another large asian supermarket, there's definitely an eager customer base dying for more selection. a 99 ranch opening up somewhere close by would be a godsend.
as it was still early, we next to the nearby burlington market basket (not as crowded) to deposit several bags of aluminum cans and glass bottles. we left with over $4 worth of deposit tickets, to be used at a future visit to market basket.
we finally got to binbin's place close to 2pm. my aunt and matthew were already there. anderson was showing matthew an inexhaustible collection of magic tricks, mostly with cards or rubber bands. we met jason's parents, they looked the same. his mother got some mosquito bites on her legs that coincided with an allergic reaction to shellfish which made the wounds look quite serious, but because they don't have US health insurance, she couldn't go see a doctor.
a bit later we all gathered around the dining table for an early dinner. younger brother lucas changed into his halloween costume (autobot bumblebee) and wore the yellow body suit the rest of the day, hoping to attract more than his brother, who continued to try impressing us with his card and rubberband tricks. for dessert, binbin treated us to some specialty coffee drinks, after picking up some new skills briefly working at starbucks. my father and jason's father talked tea, and his father brought out a few different flavors for us to try. we finally left around 6pm.
back in belmont, i watered the lawn a second time using town water. my father went inside the house and brought out the spare battery and transfer pump and started hooking the two together through the wifi DC switch. it was something we'd never done before, but once everything was connected, we turned on the switch remotely via the phone app and the pump started humming to life. the pressure is not as great as faucet pressure, but still good enough, especially if we're just hand-watering every morning and evening. it's a 200GH (3.3gpm) transfer/utility pump, and from past experience, that's not enough pressure to maintain a sprinkler.
after watering the back lawn, we went inside the house. we were trying to figure out how to attach our 150A wattmeter so it sits in-between the solar panel and the controller. i prefer using terminal blocks, but my father said the wires can occasionally come loose. i suggested using wago wire connectors, but my father prefers the 2 pin t-type connectors used in cars and ham radio equipments. the problem with the t-types is they come in either female or male connectors. something like an anderson power pole, connectors are all identical.
i didn't leave belmont until around 8:45pm, getting back to cambridge by 9pm. originally tomorrow i'd wanted to visit the saugus walmart to get an onn google tv streaming box ($20) for the cafe HDTV. but i looked at the map and it's not so easy to get to. instead tomorrow we're just going to do a waltham market basket supply run. costco is closed on labor day.