i spotted an adjustable metal shelving unit somebody had tossed out onto the sidewalk at the intersection of concord and madison street while riding my motorcycle to my parents' place in the late morning. i parked the motorcycle on manassas and walked over to check it out. it was about 2ft in length, and only had two shelves, one of which looked a bit beat up, but it was still usable. i could use it as a plant stand, or some other purposes. i couldn't carry it on my motorcycle so i decided to carry it down to my sister's place which was a few blocks away, and then come back to my motorcycle.

that's when my mother called me. she said they (including my sister and esmei) were all going down to the cambridge cemetery to pay respect at my grand uncle's grave. she told me to head over there now. i told her i was in the middle of transporting a found shelving unit, and would probably take another 30 minutes before i could meet up with them. they were close by and stopped to see if the shelving unit could fit inside the car but it was impossible. so while they headed to the cemetery, i carried the shelf to my sister's place, got back to the bike, and went to the cemetery as well.

motorcycles are forbidden inside of cemeteries, at least at the mt.auburn cemetery, so i was ready to park by the entrance then walk in. but my sister was waiting for me, my parents heading to the grave site on foot. when we got there they were just about to arrive. they brought two bouquets of silk flowers to place by the grave. these too are forbidden at mt.auburn cemetery (only real flowers can be placed, because they compost them when they fade) but seem okay here as we saw other silk flowers. dogs are also forbidden in cemeteries, so esmei stayed in the car, crying to be let out.

afterwards my sister gave me a ride back to the entrance while my parents decided to walk back home, a distance that would take them an hour according to google maps.

i got a chance to see the new solar panels my parents' new neighbors across the street installed. the original house had a great room for solar panels. but the new owners did a bunch of haphazard renovations and one of the things was installing dormer windows on the roof. the new panels were installed on top of the dormers and some on the garage roof. a total of 17 panels. the slope on the dormers are such that when it snows the panels will be covered and won't fall off on its own. seems like solar panels installed for the sake of installation with no realistic planning. but i'm happy to see yet another neighbor going solar, half of the houses on my parents' street have already installed panels, it's probably one of the most solarized street in belmont.

while playing with esmei in the backyard, my mother called my sister asking for a ride, as my parents decided to get some thai chicken & rice for lunch to bring back home.

i thought my sister was going to leave esmei here overnight (at least that's what she said last weekend), so i was confused when she said she was taking esmei to the decordova museum in lincoln again. i thought they'd be back until i asked my mother and she said the overnight thing wasn't going to happen.

i did something i haven't done in a while: watch a patriots game. they were playing in the bills in buffalo, in a game that they were sure to lose. but new england scored a surprise touchback touchdown right at the start of the game, so maybe this was that rare game where the underdog patriots beat the playoff-bound bills. it actually looked promising, with patriots going into halftime with a score of 14-20, down only by 6. in the second half, buffalo could only score a touchdown, but unfortunately new england could only score one as well, and they needed two to win. final score 21-27. patriots face off against the jets next weekend - final game of the season - two terrible teams.

i helped my father order another quansheng UV-K5(8) radio after seeing them for sale on aliexpress for just $15. it's due to arrive in just 2 weeks from china.

my mother made rice noodle soup for dinner. i returned home afterwards, around 7pm, eager to get back to watch the celtics-spurs game in san antonio. celtics completely dominated the 5-26 spurs. they were up by so much that just the bench guys played in the 4th quarter, allowing the starters to rest. final score was 134-101.

last night i loaded the onstream apk onto my android phone (for the corresponding hdtoday streaming site). it worked well, i was able to watch an episode of marvel's what if before going to bed. today i loaded the android tv version of the apk onto my xioami streaming box. it works even better, streaming shows at 1080p.

in the late evening i thought i heard some unusual dripping sounds coming from the basement. afraid the pipes might've burst, i grabbed a flashlight and went downstairs to check. everything was normal, nothing out of the ordinary. when i came back up, i heard screaming and what sounded like gunfire. confused and concerned at first, i realized the clock had just turned to midnight, 2024. that's how i celebrated new year's eve: making sure my basement was going to be flodded.