i went to bed last night after watching the premiere episode of remington steele, circa 1982. i woke up to the sound of hard rain beating against the side of the house. i thought maybe it'd let up, but checking the forecast it seems it was about to get even worse. so i called my father for a ride to belmont. the rain had stopped for the time being. trash cans were blown onto their sides, carried further by the runoff. we saw one trash can were the content was basically emptied all over the sidewalk, the owner outside looking frustrated as to how to clean up the mess. the streets were littered with branches, and here and there we saw larger broken branches. a pine branch had snapped off at the center for astrophysics. a much larger sycamore branch shattered into pieces along fresh pond huron avenue, causing cars to have to go around. we're lucky this happened during the winter, when all the leaves have been shed, otherwise there'd be even more downed trees. the wind had even taken down all the wire fencing around the ongoing payson park reconstruction.

did i mention it was unusually warm? temperature in the 50-60's. i went to the backyard to check for damage. a lawn chair had been tossed around and some of the fencing around our raised beds had been blown over. the bitter melon trellis had also partially collapsed. i fixed everything before going inside. minutes later an intense burst of wind gusts blew over the backyard solar panel. we ended up bringing the panel inside temporarily. the winds were howling so loudly, it felt like being out at sea. another bout of strong winds then blew over the barbecue grill. my father and i lifted it back up while i disconnected the propane tank. most of the raised bed fencing were also blown over again, but i decided to wait until the storm had passed.

back inside the house, the sky turned from grey to dark and then the rain started. sideway rain beating against the south side of the house, felt like we were inside a giant car wash. i had some leftover stew for lunch. once the rain had stopped, i went back outside to straight out the raised bed fencing. no sooner did i do that did the rain start again. not as heavy as before, but still a steady burst that made me go back inside.

around 2pm i went down to the basement to water the plants in the grow room. it was still raining outside, but warm enough that i brought out the quarantine pilea and orchid, as well as the gardenia, so they can be rinsed out in the rain, while i later sprayed them with neem oil. i prepared a bucket of Bti-infused water last weekend: it was a little cloudy which is a good sign that there was plenty of Bti. i went outside and filled a bucket with rain water before setting up another Bti-infused water bucket for next week.

my sister made a surprise appearance at the house around 5pm after a doggy playdate with her friend. as soon as esmei got inside, she ran into the kitchen searching for food. we weighed her on a scale to find out she's 31 lbs. because she has all her adult teeth now, there's a good chance she won't grow any bigger and has already reached her maximum size. she is after all part beagle according to her genetic test, and beagles don't get bigger than 30 lbs. at the same time she's also part blue heeler, and those dogs reach 35-50 lbs. my sister left soon afterwards.

for dinner my father stir-fried the haymarket swiss chard i bought on friday ($1). we had swiss chard for the very first time last year. colorful, crunchy, but i'd forgotten that they also taste like beets. these was also this pork stew but the sauce was too sweet and i had to balance it out with something salty.

i returned home around 7:45pm, wheeling the bicycle out of the garage. the rain had stopped hours ago, but the streets were still littered with small branches that didn't get washed away in the deluge. i rode carefully so not to trip over a branch and fall over. somewhere in huron village i came across a dog/child gate somebody had tossed out. i was going to call my sister to see if she wanted to come by and pick it up, but i decided i could carry the gate on the back of my bicycle instead. it fell off a few times, so in the end i just carried the gate in one hand and rode the bike with the other. i rode very carefully as i had no stopping power. i eventually made it to my sister's place and dropped off the gate. i don't know if it even works, but my sister said it was missing the pressure mount spindle rods but those can be purchased elsewhere including from temu.

esmei was sleeping in her pet pen but woke up when she heard me. i gave her some pets before leaving.

i didn't get back home until 8:20pm. first thing i did was to move the motorcycle, as there's street cleaning on my side of the street tomorrow. luckily i already noticed a spot i could stash the bike.

no celtics game tonight but i still followed the other teams. pacers are on a 4-game losing streak, but they also had a tough schedule, facing off against the bucks, timberwolves, and clippers. but they lost those games by 20+ points, so they're definitely regressing after making it to the IST final. lakers lost tonight to the knicks, they're on a 2-game losing streak. celtics face off against the lakers in LA on monday. timberwolves won tonight (beat the heat) so now they're tied with the celtics with a league best 20-5 record. but they've had an easy schedule, facing off against the hornets, spurs, pelicans, grizzlies, and the faltering pacers. minnesota's next slew of opponents are tougher, including the 76ers, lakers, mavericks, thunder, and the knicks.

my hangnail has pretty much healed. enough so that i don't have to wear a bandaid anymore. it only took two days, but i had it wrapped up to keep it from drying and applied antibacterial ointment, which maybe made the recovery a bit faster. new skin has formed over the wound now. it's still sensitive (like when i accidentally grazed it with a fingernail, or a sudden change in temperature), but doesn't hurt like before. the miracle of skin!