everything was going along okay until the pharmacist told me my insurance doesn't cover flu shot, just the covid booster. i would've though the exact opposite. they give out flu shots for free at public clinics, so i was surprised this very basic vaccine wasn't covered. instead of trying to figure it out (there were people in line waiting behind me), i told them i'd only get the covid booster. the pharmacist did tell me that i could try going to my primary care doctor, they'd give me a flu shot (covered by insurance). i quickly filled out some paperwork that basically asked me if i had any existing covid symptoms and whether i was allergic to anything, before heading off to the waiting area.
a woman came out from the back, with red walgreens bandaids on each arm. "what vaccine did you get?" i asked her. "i got both flu and covid," she said proudly. but getting one on each arm? that seemed a little reckless. these vaccines cause localized pain for a day or two, when she sleeps tonight she's not going to be able to roll over. the person who gave me my shot was the blonde girl with glasses, my favorite walgreens pharmacist. she told me they've been giving out vaccines non-stop this week, patients keep on coming in. she has the morning shift, but another pharmacist takes over in the afternoon. i got my red walgreens bandaid and left.
i headed out to market basket to get a few things: distilled water, cabbage, tea bags, baby cucumbers, white vinegar, mixed nuts. i checked out their prices on toothpaste, as i'm in the market once my colgate renewal gum protection toothpaste runs out. i didn't know this, but apparently toothpaste have an expiration date of usually 2 years. after that, the fluoride loses its effectiveness. whether that's real or not (or just toothpaste marketing to get people to buy more toothpaste) i'm not sure.
i got back home by 10am. i used the bathroom and took a shower. i checked the pH of my aquarium again: looks to be around 6.7pH. i did increase the bubbles so it's 1 bubble every 2 seconds, and i also set the agitator on the filter to high, to stir the aquarium water a bit more. i headed off for the cafe by 10:50am. my right arm was already started to feeling a bit sore.
there was a crisis at the cafe when i arrived. for some reason uber eats stopped printing out order tickets. it was still receiving orders (thank goodness), just no tickets, so my father had to handwrite the tickets. i could see it was connected to our star micronics TSP143IIIW wifi printer, but when i try to do a test print it would show me an "error connecting to printer" message after a few minutes of waiting. when i try to get it to search for printers, it sort of just hangs there for a long time. everything was working perfectly fine yesterday, not sure what today.
it could be one of many things: the uber eats app; the android tablet (lenovo TB-8506F); the thermal printer (star micronics TSP143IIIW); or the wifi itself. so i went down the list. the uber eats app is pretty basic, not too many settings to adjust. i noticed the app had been recently uploaded on 9/11, but it was still working fine days afterwards. i already tried doing some test prints, but nothing came out. next i reset the tablet, but the problem still persisted. i checked the printer: square POS could still print off of it no problem, just not the uber eats tablet. finally, i reset the router. when it came back online after a few minutes, the problem still wasn't fixed.
after 3 uber eats orders came in (the last one being a big one), i had no choice but to call uber eats technical support. the technical support agent i spoke with was cordial, but i could tell he had no idea what the problem was. he told me to call star micronics and ask them to troubleshoot: if they can't solve it, i can call back uber eats with a case number, in which case they'll send me a tablet loaded with the uber eats app free of charge.
i forgot that star micronics is a japanese company until i called the 1-800 number and saw japanese characters (スター精密株式会社) on the caller id. the technical support person i spoke with was pretty knowledgeable, and had a calm demeanor which i liked. i walked him through the problem. he seemed to know right away what was causing it. the culprit? the uber eats app. apparently uber eats has been rolling out versions of their app that no longer supports wifi printing, only bluetooth printing. seems a weird thing to do, and sort of without warning. i asked if i could roll back the app to a previous person, the tech support said maybe, but he didn't know the details. he told me to contact uber eats and ask them if there's a way to bypass the limitation. not sure how it came up, but i mentioned something about we already had a bluetooth star micronic printer (TSP100III). that got his attention. he said i could connect the uber eats app to the bluetooth printer. i didn't realize this was possible, because when we tried it in the past, the tablet would seize control of the printer so no other tablet can connect to it. he had an answer for that: this only works for windows/androids/mac. it doesn't work with ios. that means no ipads, which was what we used last time. ios doesn't play nice, and don't like sharing connection bluetooth devices. android devices on the other hand - like our other online order tablets - android does play nice, no problem sharing. so i thanked the tech person for the tip and went to go fix the issue.
he told me that to see the bluetooth printer, i first had to pair it with the android tablet via the settings app under bluetooth devices. it was able to see the printer so i added TSP100III. then back in the uber eats restaurant app, i went to settings and let it search for available printers. it took a while but eventually it was able to see both the wifi printer and the bluetooth printer. i chose the bluetooth printer. i hit the "test print" button and it printed fine.
now the good thing is all our delivery orders print off of one printer (bluetooth), while the wifi printer only prints out square POS orders (online, in-person, self-pickup).
my mother made some more fish ball rice noodles for lunch. because i was busy calling tech support, by the time i ate my noodles with already lukewarm.
my sister made a cameo. she was in the parking lot with a large dog. i didn't say anything to her, but was angry that she already got a new dog. later i learned it's her friend's dog. after that she just disappeared again. on the one hand it's been so peaceful working at the cafe without my sister's constant sniping and criticisms, but on the other hand without her help i end up having to work every single day. i told my mother they should leave the cafe to me because obviously my sister has no head for business and has the responsibility of a child.
business tapered off in the afternoon. my parents released me from my indenturetude so i may bike down to chinatown to get some supplies. i went home first to grab my bike helmet (not too important) and my gopro camera before heading off into boston.
the new bike lanes on recently repaved hampshire street made for quick travels. i went to c-mart first, the parking lot nearly empty. i got most of my stuff here, saving a few things that i thought would be cheaper at ming's market, where i went next. nothing irks me more than seeing something i bought at one supermarket sold for cheaper at another. sometimes the difference is just a few cents, while other times it could be a dollar or more.
it was nearly 4pm when i left chinatown. i headed home via the longfellow bridge, getting to it using the fiedler footbridge and the frances appleton bridge, which is now my preferred way for getting back to cambridge from boston. i got back home by 4:30pm.
i tested my aquarium water pH once again, which hovered around 6.7pH. it still might take a day or two before my glass CO2 checker arrives from temu. one that happens, i can make my own DIY CO2 indicator solution to go into the checker. the psi gauge on the CO2 tank now reads 325 psi.
i was hungry, so i ate some hummus with baby carrots. like yesterday, i fell asleep on the couch around 7pm, waking up an hour later. my body ached all over, not sure if it's the covid booster or just the side effect of dozing off on the couch. i threw a frozen chicken alfredo meal in the oven and left it to cook an hour before eating around 9pm. i ate while watching the latest episode of ahsoka, where we saw both grand admiral thrawn and ezra bridger.