it was hot today - 78 degrees by the time i left - but a bit of humidity as well. it wasn't too bad, given the choice, i would rather run in hot weather than cold weather. in another week or so it'll be cold again, and we'll be dreaming about this stretch of hot weather. along the riverbanks were swaths of fragrant sweet autumn clematis. i read these late season flowering perennials are invasive, but they smell so pretty, it still might be worth growing them. because of labor day, trash pickup in the neighborhood i normally run through was today instead of monday. i ran across two more discarded HDTV's that i later learned were just computer monitors - so i didn't take them.
i got home by 11:20am, took a quick shower, and was out the door by 11:35am. last night i contacted a craig's list posting regard a free brand-new front derailleur. i didn't get a reply this morning so i figured they already gave it away, but later got an e-mail saying they'd leave the bike part outside the house, along with the address in allston. as i was heading to the cafe i didn't have time to pick it up just yet, but told them i'd be there by 2pm. i also packed some grocery bags as i planned on leaving for chinatown after my allston detour.
my parents were surprised to see me, they said it wasn't busy at all. but it was still early. pushing into lunchtime, we started getting a stream of customers, orders after orders. they probably could've handled it on their own, but a lot easier with help. at one point i remembered we had a tv now so i turned on the news to catch some weather forecast.
by 1pm it wasn't so busy that my parents said i could go. but i stayed around a little longer, in case it got busy. when my 2nd aunt showed up at 1:30pm, i could safely leave as she can help out. but i ended up helping her call eversource to ask about unusually high usage on her electricity meter, and wanted them to check it to see if it wasn't accidentally wired to common areas in the apartment building. unfortunately the wait time was an hour, a lot of people were calling today since the eversource office was closed yesterday. i'll try again later in the week.
i left the cafe by 1:40pm. i forgot i was farther away from allston, so it took a bit of riding to get to my destination, hopedale street, just past the allston public library. just as mentioned in the e-mail, the derailleur was in a brown paper bag with my name on it. i left a thank you post-it.
from there i got onto cambridge street and rode onto soldier's field road, following the charles river into boston. it was hot, but intermittently travels underneath cooling shades of trees was a welcomed relief.
it took me half an hour to get to c-mart. i could've gotten everything from here, but i held off on a few produce items (red carrots, baby bokchoi) as ming's market is usually cheaper. at ming's market i got a few more items. they did not in fact have the cheaper prices today. i ended up getting the bok choi with the white stalks (apparently that's regular bokchoi; shanghai bokchoi is all green). i did however find aiziwei-brand spicy chili sauce ($3.79), i ended up getting 2 jars. when i called my mother asking if she needed anything else, she was rambling about a big online order, which freaked me out, because no way could i ride back in time to help out. but it was actually a large order for tomorrow, a single order that makes what we'd normally made in a day on average.
i finally left chinatown by 3:15pm. i went home via the fiedler footbridge (the second time i was crossing it today) then over the longfellow bridge. it was a 30 minute ride. i got back home completely sweat-soaked, took a quick shower, changed into some dry clothes. i then went to market basket to get some ingredients for making a burrito bowl for tonight's dinner. but the most important thing was to get another watermelon, can't get enough, and as long as market basket continues to sell them for $5.99, i'll keep buying.
coming back i checked out a food dehydrator somebody had tossed out. there were a few cracks and it looked a bit dirty, so i didn't take it, a rare time when i was able to resist the urge to pick up more "street treasures."
i had a chance to closely inspect my new front derailleur. it looked like a genuine shimano part. it's a shimano altus FD-M310-6 front derailleur, for 3x7 and 3x8 gearing. now the only thing i'm missing before i can do a complete overhaul on my bike are a set of new shifting cables and housings.
i did a water change in my aquarium. no, actually, i just washed the filter because i noticed it'd stopped running, and i topped off the water, about a 2 gallon worth had already evaporated since the last time i did any tank cleaning. i did add a bit of fertilizer for the plants. my dream of doing a CO2 tank will have to wait.
i didn't start making dinner until 9pm. i was following this burrito bowl recipe. not too hard, the only complicated things were mixing the salsa (tomato + onion + cilantro + vinegar + salt + sugar + lime juice) and then seasoning the chicken before grilling in a pan (olive oil + paprinka + cumin + salt + ground pepper). i cooked a cup of long grain white rice in the rice cooker. i had canned black beans and corn, which i kept in the fridge to keep them cold. i cut up a bowl of romaine lettuce. i sliced a quarter of an avocado. i added 2 large dollops of sour cream. i sprinkled some sharp cheddar cheese. i mixed everything before eating. it was actually pretty good. the dish was cold, despite the chicken and rice being hot. the sour cream is like the glue that fuses everything together, otherwise it'd be too dry and crumbly. i have enough leftover to eat for the rest of the week. the chicken was okay, but the seasoning was just so-so. it'd taste so much better actually grilled over a barbecue. maybe next time i'll try using my smokeless foreman grill. or work in some barbecue sauce for a smokier flavor.
while i was making dinner i was also doing a load of laundry. the dryer finally finished after dinner and i spent time folding all my hot (temperature) clothes.