i got back home an hour later. i showered, then warmed up a spicy jamaican patty in the microwave for lunch. i watched the latest news about the maine shooting. the number of deaths was lowered 16 with about 20 injuries. i was relieved, but then caught myself for being happy that less people were murdered, when none of them should've died in the first place.
at 12:30pm i met up with bruce. we drove to fresh pond and walked around the place. the most interesting thing was actually visiting the community garden when we first arrived, seeing all the flowers and vegetables people were still growing. the fresh pond community garden is actually a great spot, all raised beds, with all-day sunshine. one of the most interesting flowers we saw was a type of yellow marigold with with dark reddish orange stripes.
whenever we came across a public fountain bruce would stop for a drink. my mother called at one point, asking me to head to the cafe afterwards, they were having issues with workman's compensation insurance violation and a state agent actually came to the cafe to issue a work stop order and a fine of $100/day. bruce and i checked out the lotus pond though the lotuses were all done for the season.
we returned home a little bit after 2pm. i grabbed me things and took the motorcycle to the cafe. so this was my first time learning about the workman's compensation law in massachusetts. apparently if you have a business with employees, you are required by law to have workman's compensation insurance. without it, the department of industrial accidents can legally shut you down and fine you for every day you stay open without insurance. this has never been a problem for the 30+ years the cafe has been opened. so why now? the problem was when the agent showed up and asked my father if he had any employees, he said just my mother. upon hearing that, he asked if the cafe had workman's comp insurance, which was no. the agent did tell my father that if he added my mother as co-owner of the cafe, then there wouldn't be a violation, as owners aren't required to have workman's comp.
so while my mother and sister manned the cafe, i went with my father to city hall to amend our food establishment license, adding my mother's name. the people working at the office seemed incredulous that the state would be doing such a thing, it's not a requirement for the city of cambridge. they amended the license (free of charge) and we returned to the cafe. i sent copies of the amended license along with the stop work order notice to the DIA investigation e-mail address. i then called them. the agent i got - luis - told me he would check with his manager, and that he'd call me back with the status. he added if i didn't hear back from him, to call him back at 4:30pm.
i wanted to return some items to home depot but it was already getting late (i didn't want to be stuck in traffic), so i returned home instead. i went to star market to get some canned soup. by the time i came back, it was 4:30pm, so i called DIA again. luis said he checked with his manager, and that we send them the wrong thing. they didn't want an amended food establishment permit. what they needed with a new notarized business certificate with both my parents' names on it. if they can get that, then they'll close the case (plus or minus some additional penalties probably). so we need to do that early tomorrow morning.
if it's not one thing it's something else. hopefully we can get it taken care of tomorrow and not have to worry about it anymore. it's still really weird that it's never been an issue before, so why is the state now cracking now on small businesses?
for dinner instead of finishing my gyudon leftovers (i'm saving that for tomorrow), i had a canned soup instead. campbell's chunky soup has a new thai-style chicken soup i wanted to try. it was okay, hints of tom yum and maybe a bit of coconut milk. still, if you want thai soup, it's better to just make thai soup instead of trying some approximation. i ate while watching the sixers-bucks game. i was rooting for milwaukee to lose but they ended up winning though barely, 118-117.
i noticed my house no longer has that mildew smell i noticed more than a week ago. i think having the heat on and lowering the humidity managed to fix the problem. also my bathtub drain has stopped clogging since li left. i think his body wash was clogging my drain. unfortunately i'm starting to notice that the house is getting cluttered again. i'm trying to follow the rule where i never go into a room without bringing something that belonged there.