i wanted to take a quick trip to market basket to get a few things. i called my mother to ask if she needed anything, but she convinced me not to go since we're going there anyway tomorrow for a supply run. so i finally left around 11:30am, first to get some gas before stopping at the cafe to swap out the cable modem. a man with an accent approached me at the pump. he seemed very friendly and resembled an older looking michael. he asked my help to work the pump. the thing he didn't realize was there was a toggle by the pump that he needed to flip to choose which grade of gasoline he wanted. later i asked him where he was from that he didn't know how to work the pump. he said in spain the pumps don't work like that, and they select the fuel type from the touchscreen, not a physical toggle switch.
riding down walden street, i saw a pile of discarded kitchen items. i parked on raymond street so i could double back and take a look. i grabbed a krups waffle maker that looked to be in good condition, as well as a large heavy wooden cutting board. the surface was scarred with cut marks, but nothing that a little sanding and mineral oil can't bring back as good as new. the waffle maker i could stuff into my backpack (barely), but i didn't have my bungie netting. even if i did, the wood block was so heavy and large, it would've been difficult to strap onto the motorcycle. so i put it behind a tree, hoping i could tell my sister and we could come back for it if she wanted it.
i text my sister a text with a photo of the cutting board when i got to the cafe. she immediately came over and we drove back to raymond street to retrieve the wood block. it'd only been less than 10 minutes, but during that time, somebody else had taken the cutting board. street treasures go fast! it was for the best, i don't think we had a place for it anyway.
back at the cafe i connected the new SB6190 cable modem and called comcast business. on weekends they use a foreign call center, so my indian agent was named sean. he was polite enough, but i don't think he knew what he was doing. i ended up spending nearly 40 minutes on the phone with him as he tried to register my new cable modem. he never got it to work so i ended up switching to the netgear modem i got a few days ago, with hopes of coming back either tonight or tomorrow to try again.
that meant i didn't get to belmont until almost 1pm, when i was supposed to be there earlier to make pastrami reuben sandwiches for my parents for lunch. my father figured i was at the cafe working on the modems when he couldn't see any of the web cams. my mother made wonton soup for lunch, said we'd have sandwiches for dinner instead.
i got a chance to inspect the krups waffle maker. it sells on amazon for $68. we already have a waffle maker, but it's one of those kitchen appliances that you use a few times before never using again. that was our case, and most likely the case of the previous owner of the krups waffle maker. this one was better, featuring removable plates for easier cleaning. each plates can also make 4 waffles, while our old maker could only make two at a time. no time for waffles this weekend, but we'll definitely try out the waffle maker next weekend.
after lunch we all outside in the backyard getting to dig up the daikon radishes. we could see the radishes poking up from the soil, but had no idea how big they'd be. my mother had the honors, and wearing gloves (the leaves have tiny thorns), she easily pulled up the radishes. they were much bigger than i'd imagined, though most of them had weird shapes, kind of like ginseng roots. my sister brought esmei around that time, and we distracted esmei long enough to harvest the daikon radishes, otherwise she'd try to grab one thinking it was a chew toy. instead esmei was happy playing with an empty plastic milk container. at one point she got the zoomies and all over the yard. my sister tried making esmei wear some halloween costumes she bought. the oxen hat she didn't like at all and tried to take it off as soon as we put it on. the only costume that kind of worked was the dracula cape.
we harvested the dried long beans and blue beans, as well as the hyacinth beans. my mother went back inside while my father and i stayed out and continued working. the weather wasn't too bad, even though the temperature was only in the 50's, it felt warm in the sun. we continued harvesting dried bean pods, while ripping and cutting down all the vines. i also removed all the dead perennials using the japanese hori hori knife, which i've found to be the most useful tool in the garden: it cuts, it digs, it can also weed. i bought it off of ebay for only $6 (nisaku japanese stainless steel 5-inch mini leisure knife), and originally i thought the low price meant it was junk, but it's actually a very well made tool. now you can't buy it for less than $20. i chopped down all the goldenrods, the phloxs, irises & gladiolus leaves, faded ornamental grass, dead peony leaves, dried foxglove flower stalks, and climbing vines. my father took down a segment of the canopy fencing above the rain barrels. i removed all the hanging attachments from the maple tree, to be used next season. we finally went back inside around 3pm. one last thing i noticed today working in the backyard was zero bugs. the cold weather must've killed all the mosquitoes, which is a blessing despite the chillier temperature.
there was an early afternoon patriots same still in progress. the game was roughly tied in the first quarter with drake maye throwing against the jets, but by the time i caught it in the 4th quarter, jacoby brissett was at center. i quickly looked up what happened, apparently maye left the game after suffering what appeared to be a concussion from a helmet-to-helmet hit that was even called by the referees. the crazy part is new england ended up winning, beating aaron rodgers and company, who seem to be floundering even more after they fired their head coach robert saleh two weeks ago, and they haven't won a game since. now the jets and patriots have the same terrible 2-6 record, with the dolphins not far ahead with 2-5. only the bills are decent at 6-2. it's funny, but the only two games new england has won this season have been against the jets.
my mother got a new heating pad for her bed last week. everything seemed okay until she reported she was getting bites overnight, all over her body. so all this week we've been trying to figure out what it could be. the two leading candidates are fleas and bedbugs, with fleas being the far lesser of two evils. the bites don't seem like bedbugs (a relief) because they're more random. but why would a heating pad cause bugs to show up when they never did before? so today i vacuumed underneath her bed, which was super dusty, which could be a potential breeding place for fleas. i then tried testing out the bed with the heat turned on, using my body as bait, to see if i could draw out any potential bugs. i didn't get any bites, nor saw any critters. so the mystery remains. in the meantime my mother has become very paranoid and afraid to sleep in the bed, or use the heating pad.
i finally made pastrami reuben sandwiches for dinner. my father helped me butter the bread. instead of heating the sandwiches in a pan on the stovetop, i toasted them in the air fryer oven. my father heated his sandwich in the pan, which wasn't hot enough to melt the swiss cheese. the sandwiches were oily because of the butter. my mother only finished half her sandwich, saving the rest for later.
my father and i discovered a new radio gadget: the retevis RT97 full duplex UHF/VHF repeater ($400). apparently it's been around for a while, since we saw a youtube video about it dated 5 years ago. if money was no object, we'd buy it to realize the dream of wireless VHF communication from my house (20ft elevation surrounded by dense 3-story condos) to my parents' place in belmont (52ft elevation) using the cafe as an intermediary (36ft). i also gave my father an audio file of his HAM radio call sign in morse code form, since he doesn't like saying his callsign when antenna testing. unfortunately for some reason the surecom simplex repeater (SR-112) doesn't hear the morse code audio and won't repeat/transmit the audio.
i returned home around 8pm. the temperature by then had dropped down into the mid-40's. it was chilly but it wasn't too bad, though my legs felt cold through the thin khaki fabric of my pants.
after a shower i watched the cowboys-49ers game in the background. i found my RTL-SDR dongle and ordered a simple dipole antenna kit for it (to arrive on tuesday). i did some research on broad band discone antennas and how to properly ground a roof mounted antenna. i watched some head massage videos, which is my latest interest.