i left home depot around 10:15am but there was ongoing road construction on school street and i had to take a huge detour to get back to belmont, riding all the way down to watertown center. it took nearly 20 minutes before i got to my parents' place.
i was in belmont to check out the models of broken used dehumidifiers in the basement (i need the info to fill out the appliance-turn-in rebate form). i ended up hauling two broken units upstairs and then loaded it up into the car for tomorrow.
the second thing i came to do was to water the garden, especially the newly planted seeds in raised beds 1 and 2. it may be a bit late to start fall seedlings, but if fall stays warm into early winter, i could harvest a bumper crop of fresh greens, including mustards, arugulas, cilantro, and radish leaves - all cool weather crops.
i arrived at the cafe around 11:30am for my friday shift. today was busy, i basically worked non-stop until we closed at 6:30pm. my 2nd aunt showed up in the afternoon so she was able to help out. my other aunt showed up prior to that, and asked to see esmei. my sister brought her over and my aunt was saying how cute and soft the new dog was. earlier this morning when my sister was walking esmei, she put her nose on a newly painted fire hydrant and got some blue paint on her snout. i don't think my 2nd aunt has any strong opinions about esmei, she's not really a big animal person.
i made a fresh batch of tea eggs today after just making a batch on wednesday. i simmered for 2 hours so they'd be ready to serve. my aunt tried a tea egg earlier and said it needed stronger flavor. that's something i've actually noticed, comparing my spice packet with the commercial one. my spices don't smell as strong when cooked, even though the ingredients are grounded (they do smell stronger as dry ingredients though). next batch of spice packets i'll be using fresh ingredients, so maybe that'll make a difference. otherwise i just might have to increase the amount from 10g to 15-20g.
today my father and i removed the intermatic timer box so i could check to see whether the hole for the wires was 1/2" or 3/4" (1/2"). we ended up removing the whole thing, and installing the new electrical box just to see if it'd fit. those holes i thought were for the screws? turns out they're not. the actual screw holes seem to require some knocking out. so the drywall anchors i got were in fact too small and i need to get some heavier duty anchors with proper screws. so we installed the new timer switch as well (to test), with all the wires sticking out, 100% not in accordance with any sort of electrical wiring code.
we powered up the timer switch and i read the instruction manual to figure out how to set it up. it's fairly intuitive after the first time. you set the time and date, and your zone (north, central, south). then you select the various timer presets: evening to midnight, on time, off time, sunset on, sunrise off, and extra programs. i ended up picking evening to midnight. when i clicked on that option, the display showed me the sunset time: 6:22pm. that was actually the wrong time, but the program allows you to adjust that with an offset, so i set the time to 6:06pm.
when 6:06pm rolled around, the outdoor lights turned on according to the timer schedule. now we'll just wait and see if the lights will turn on tomorrow night at 6:04pm, which is the correct sunset time.
i got back by 7pm. no sooner did i get back before my sister called me, said the outdoor lights were all turned off. i was going to wait and fix it tomorrow, but it bugged me enough that i returned to the cafe, this time via bicycle. everyone had gone home already. the lights were indeed all off. nothing seemed to be amiss with the timer light switch, but when i saw it i knew right away what was wrong. the switch sits right behind the door between the front and back of the cafe. since it's still a work-in-progress, the while thing is sticking out of the wall a few inches more than its actual final position. what probably happened was somebody opened the door, the back of the door hit the switch, turning off the lights off. all i had to do was press the switch to turn it back on.
problem solved, i returned home, getting back a bit before 8pm. having not eaten the whole day (it's kind of ironic that i can be working with food all day but not eat anything), i set about making the last of my pita pockets (the last because i don't have anymore chicken left). i ate while watching the news. the latest in the gaza war is israel telling more than 1 million palestines to move south within 24 hours. this is so the israeli military can claim the moral high ground when they begin their invasion of gaza. "we gave them fair warning," they can say, all the time inflicting massive civilian casualties. how long will nations tolerate israel's desire for revenge before opinions start to change?