even though i tried to sleep in late on the only day this week where i didn't have to wake up early, i still woke up at 8:30am. there was street cleaning this morning, on the opposite side of the street. it took me a while to figure out which side before i moved my motorcycle last night. there was one solitary car parked on the opposite side. instead of a ticket, the city road crew employed a leaf blower to blow all the leaves out from underneath the car since they had to clean around it. it's the second year that cambridge has stopped towing cars for street cleaning violations. i kind of wish they'd start again.

i thought i saw a mouse scurrying along the edge of the wall in my living room, running behind a chair. when i went to move the chair, i didn't see a mouse. was it my imagination? i sure hope so. i haven't seen a mouse in the house in probably 20 years. how did it even get in? but there's nothing to eat, and i keep all my perishables in plastic bins or up in cupboards. if it was a mouse, hopefully it found its way out.

i went to market basket around 10:40am to collect a few more things for the cafe tomorrow. i wore a long-sleeved pullover but it was entirely unnecessary as it was already hot by mid-morning. in fact, we'd set a new record high temperature for this day at 85 degrees. it definitely felt like the last hurrah of warm temperature, and after this we'll be back to more seasonable cold weather.

after gathering my things from home, i stopped by the cafe to drop off the supplies. i moved out some food from the freezer to thaw in the fridge. i hung up the boston fern that my father lowered on saturday to water. i restocked the drink fridge.

i made it to belmont around noontime. i had a day of yard work planned, including moving and expanding raised bed zero. but first we needed to mow the lawn. we took down all the barricades i put up while i was growing new grass. while my father was doing that, i was emptying out the garage so we could clean it after discovering what looked to be rat droppings.

with most of the garage's content emptied out onto the driveway, it's amazing how much stuff we had in there. we filled several boxes with things we were going to throw out, and several boxes more with partially emptied old paint cans and motor oil containers that we'll drop off at the hazardous waste recycle day next month. we swept the perimeter of the garage (where most of rat droppings were located) before i vacuumed up the rest. i was going to change out the vacuum filters anyway, so it was okay that i was vacuuming up all sorts of gross stuff. we then put everything back into the garage. i need to spray expanding foam at the two corners by the garage door as there's enough of a gap for critters to get inside. once that's done, the garage should be rodent proof.

cleaning the garage took most of the day. we finally finished by 4pm. there was no time to build a new raised bed frame, but my father did mow the backyard. earlier i'd taken down the automatic sprinkler timer in the front yard. if we need to do any watering, it will be done manually.

i didn't realize esmei was home and let her outside so she could get some exercise. i teased her with some milkweed fluff, she caught them in the air but regretted the decision immediately afterwards as the fluff wasn't much fun once caught. while my father mowed, i disassembled the sawhorse tables we were using for our outdoor houseplants. now that all the houseplants are back indoors, these tables were just taking up space.

my sister kept coming back to the house multiple times. i knew she was coming back because her dog was still in the house. one time she left to go see the doctor. another time to fix her car? and then a third time with my father to home depot to buy gravel.

i replaced the shark vacuum filters with some new ones i bought a few weeks ago. i then vacuumed parts of the house. it always amazed me how much dust gets vacuumed.

around 5pm i made the rounds watering our houseplants, starting with the basement grow room. i used Bti-infused water of course (to kill off any fungus gnats), but i also need to apply some general insecticide at some point as well, to treat for mealybugs and spider mites. it's better to get a head start eradicating those critters instead of waiting for an infestation to take place. even though i don't see any bugs now, they're there, and with no natural predators living indoors during the colder months, it's easily for their population to grow. after i finished with the basement plants, i watered the plants in the sunroom, with include the holiday cactuses and still more pileas.

my father came back from home depot around 5:30pm and starting grilling the lamb chops and asparagus. we kept asking my sister if she wanted any, but she said no. esmei didn't want to leave, and plopped down on the ground. she had to be coaxed with some lamb before she finally left.

the lamb and asparagus and the pico de gallo salad my mother made were all good. the lamb was probably cooked a little bit too long as they were medium done, but i actually prefer my grilled meats medium. while everyone else had 3 lamb chops, i ate 4. there were two left, and honestly i could've ate them as well, they were so good. it felt like summer foods on a day that was warm enough to be summertime.

after dinner i filled up a bucket with rain water and added some mosquito bits for watering next weekend. i also moved the plank table we built a few months ago into the basement grow room, replacing the folding table we'd been using for a few seasons. the plank table is slightly longer and gives a better natural aesthetic to the grow room.

my father told me he fried the TYT 9800 because he powered it with reverse polarity. good news is it can be repaired cheaply, but bad news is it can only be done in taiwan, so he has to wait until the next time he goes back to get it fixed. this unit was actually our second unit, after the first unit was fried in the same exact way. that unit is back at my house, working after my father got it repaired in taiwan. we briefly looked online for a cheap substitute. my father didn't want another quad-band transceiver, but rather wanted an all band SDR transceiver/receiver that can be hooked up to an LCD screen to display a spectrum waterfall. we checked out radioberry pi and malachite SDR radio.

another thing that stopped working is our DIY LiFePO4 battery in the dining room. the battery charges via solar and the voltage is correct when we measure with a multimeter, but the onboard voltage meter, cigarette lighter and USB port don't work anymore. we connected to the BMS which showed everything was normal. my father also checked the wires to make sure none was loose. he finally figured it out: an inline safety fuse (10A 250V) was blown out. we replaced it with a 7A fuse and battery started working again.

i returned home after 8pm. i didn't bother looking for the comet tonight, but i did briefly glance into the night time sky when i was refilling the barrel with rain water.

i opened up the twin comforter tonight, stuffed it inside the twin duvet cover. i'm going to sleep in the guest bedroom to break in the new comforter. it seemed a little flat which may just be because it's been packed in a vacuum sealed bag. it may take a while for it to fluff up.