instead i mixed up some oxiclean solution in a spray bottle and went outside to clean the algae off of the shingles facing the alleyway and a bit in front of the house. oxiclean is an effective and gentle algae remover, will not harm any plants or damage the wood. apparently it's so effective no scrubbing is necessary but i scrubbed anyway when i later rinsed off the shingles with the hose. the resulting clean was so much better, yet another thing my upstairs neighbors will never know about when they come back eventually.
i went and got some gas for the motorcycle before going to the cafe. i saw my father arrive minutes before me. i cooked 6 cups of rice. today was a hot day (the last of the year most likely) and i put out all the tables and chairs in our back deck. my sister didn't show up until almost 11am even though she's supposed to open. my 2nd aunt came a short time later. my father would only be staying until 3:30pm, before taking my mother to brookline to get a haircut.
i brought my bag of hyacinth beans, which my father sorted. there was a big edible pile, a smaller pile of possible seed candidates, and a final pile of rotten pods. most were plump and were in various shades of speckled purple. a fully ripened hyacinth bean seed is black and white. i'm not sure if these other beans will ripen as well, but i put them in a cardboard box so they can dry naturally.
it wasn't busy at a first, though we did get a few early uber eats delivery orders. because of the nice weather, there could be a change people would be taking advantage of the outdoors, and it'd be a slow day. however when noontime came around that's when the customers started showing up. it was busy for a good 1-1/2 hrs stretch. fortunately a lot of readymade stuff, not too many things we had to cook on demand (like pad thai or fried rice). at one point both the front and back of the cafe were full of customers. it felt like plate spinning but i didn't mind, since we had more than enough people working today.
once we started in on the batch of tea eggs i made just yesterday, i had to make another new batch. i also noticed my taiwanese paocai was down to just 2 containers. i made them less than 2 weeks ago, thinking i made enough to last a month, but looks like i'll need to make more next week.
i did go to see esmei one time, to let her out so she can pee. she didn't though, instead spending her time gnawing on a pine log. i ended up carrying her back inside the house.
my mother walked to the cafe around 3:30pm, right before my parents were about to leave. we didn't have too many customers after that, and started cleaning up so we could leave right at 4pm closing time.
they paved the new huron avenue cycle track and just a small stretch of the road. they probably won't pave the rest until tuesday, since it's going to be raining sunday and monday.
i didn't go into the backyard, saving that for tomorrow. all the houseplants will need to be moved this weekend, as a hard frost is most definitely coming next week, and any plants left outside will whither away and die from the freeze. i still have a problem believing it, but next week will already be november. we may also need to disconnect some garden hoses to keep our rain barrel irrigation system from getting damaged.
i went down to the basement to check on the midea cube dehumidifier. it was flashing a tank full error and not running at all. i noticed the pump icon wasn't on (weird, considering i engaged it from the app), so i turned off the machine and turned it back home before re-engaging the pump by pressing the fill level button for 3 seconds. i didn't hear anything, but i noticed the pump outlet was sputtering. i turned off the dehumidifier and reconnected the tubing. i then turned it on again, and heard the sounds of water gurgling out from the outlet hose in the sink. it worked! it doesn't pump very fast but just a slow and steady trickle. eventually it stopped. it didn't completely drain the tank, only halfway. looking through the window in the tank, it looked like it was still nearly full. i remember reading an online comment that said the pump only engages when the tank is full, and only drains halfway. i think the first time i got the "full tank" warning, the pump was actually working, but i noticed it was still using electricity. so will it send me a full tank alert every few days even though the pump is supposed to automatically drain the tank? that would be a little annoying. still, it looks like the dehumidifier is working, so we don't have to return it after all.
i went around the house looking for things to snack before my parents got home. my mother called, said they were getting thai chicken rice takeout, asked what i wanted. when they came back they also bought a bag of fried chicken bones for $5. it's one of the items on their menu we saw. apparently they have a lot of chicken bones left over from their chicken recipes, so they decided to fry them and sell them cheap. yes they're bones, but there's also a good amount of leftover meat. each "bone" is fried to perfection (double fried?), though there's no spices in the breading, so it can be a bit bland without some kind of sauce (it does come with thai sweet chili sauce). it's actually pretty good, and i was tempted to eat it all.
i returned home a bit after 7pm. harvard square was holding an illuminated block party, and i biked down there around 8pm to check it out. it was mostly young people there, i felt very out of place. i took some photos before riding back home by 8:30pm.
i was shocked to learn that matthew perry died today at age 54. something happened while he was alone in his hot tub and they found him drowned to death. of course most people know him as a member of friends. i wasn't a big fan of the show (it premiered when i was college), but i did watch it, even though i can't remember a single episode. out of the cast, i think he was my favorite. i would've preferred that david schwinner - whiney ross - had died instead, as he was my least favorite. i also always remember my former coworker jen who told me she sat next to perry on a plane one time, before his big break on friends.