when i got to my parents' house, the sun was shining on the freshly mowed front lawn. for a moment at least, we had the most perfect front lawn of all our neighbors. not bad for a lawn that i reseeded some bare patches in early fall. i also overseeded, with the hopes of adding some thickness to the grass. all those weeks of watering also helped, even though i stopped eventually despite the fact that we were undergoing a drought.
my parents went for a walk earlier and brought back some bagel sandwiches. i had one for lunch.
i presented my bidet toilet seat research to my father. i showed him not only can we get one from amazon, but wayfair and home depot as well. the advantage with home depot is it'd be easy to return if we don't like the seat. i narrowed down to potential candidates: smartbidet SB-1000WR ($224) or the brondell swash EM617 ($279). while both seats have the same functions, i'm leaning towards the brondell as it has a more intuitive remote user interface. finally, i told my father that if they like their current biobidet USPA 6800U, we can buy a one new from ebay for just $200.
my father and i went outside to work on the lawn. he mowed the grass this morning just to remove all the dead leaves. that's been our strategy for many years now: instead of raking and throwing out the leaves, we mow and bag the shredded leaves to be used as compost material. there was still a large amount of dead leaves underneath the maple tree. while i raked, my father mowed. i saw something amazing in our enclosed compost bin: earlier this summer it was still half leaves and half grass clippings. not sure what happened over the past months, but now it's been completely reduced to compost dirt.
after we cleaned up the lawn, it was time to fertilize. i use scotts fall lawn winterguard with a drop spreader. we started with the front lawn but probably used too much because we only half 1/3 a bag left and still needed to do cover the much larger backyard. but i walked quickly with the drop spreader and by some lawn maintenance miracle we were able to fertilize all of the backyard minus the area directly underneath the maple tree (where no grass grows anyway).
while my father went back inside to rest, i was outside with a can of loctite spray foam. earlier we saw a mouse scurrying in a dark corner of the yard. that got my really paranoid that mice might try to make a home inside the garage. so i sprayed the corners below the garage door where there were gaps big enough for a mice to get through. the white foam reminded me of sticky gooey melted marshmallow. the nature of expanding foam is that once you open a can, you basically have to use it all up because it's all going to cure quickly afterwards. the direction said not to get any on your skin but i still managed to get some on my hands while i was cleaning the spray nozzle.
i also sprayed the gap around the perimeter of the water pipes going into the kitchen sink. that area is where mice would occasionally get inside the house. i'm not sure if the spray foam will keep the mice out because they could still possibly squeeze through the cracks in the flimsy wall panel, but the foam spray is definitely an improvement. anyway, we haven't had any signs of mice in weeks now, not since i cleaned out the under sink cabinets and put up electronic mouse traps.
when i went to wash the foam off my hands, it wouldn't come off. not dish soap, not alcohol, not even acetone, could remove the foam. fortunately it's just my right hand. i did manage to wash it to a point where it wasn't sticky anymore, but the foam residue still remains on my hand. next time, wear gloves! insulating spray foam is no joke!
as the foam in the garage cured, it also expanded a little bit, to the point where it was slightly bulging out. that meant the garage door couldn't be closed completely without first trimming the foam. i waited almost 2 hours for it to cure, but it was still soft on the inside. with a serrated steak knife, i managed to trim off enough semi-dried foam to allow the garage door to close.
my father and i reassembled the t-fal deep fryer with the replacement switch. however we didn't test the fryer to see if it was working because it was getting late. instead we'll test it tomorrow, maybe fry up a batch of french fries.
there was a celtics-bucks game in the afternoon. bucks are the former champions and any meeting with them should be a marquee game except the bucks haven't been doing very well this season with a 2-7 record. jaylen brown came back from his injury to play in this game. milwaukee came out aggressive though, built up a 17 point lead, dominated the first half. that their lead quickly dwindled in the second half, as the celtics chipped away to tie, and to take a small lead. other than giannis who scored a game high 43, none of the other bucks were very productive. lillard only made 4-15, and was a liability on defense as boston made it a point to hunt him. milwaukee needs to figure it out soon otherwise it's going to be a long season for them. naturally boston won, 113-107.
for dinner my mother cooked up a plate of shredded potatoes. she also made a chicken curry but with cauliflower as well.
i went home soon after dinner, as rainstorms were approaching boston. nothing torrential, but even some light rain would be a temporary relief from the drought. it's supposed to shower throughout the night. that's why we fertilized the lawn today, so the rain could wash the nutrients into the soil. i was within a few blocks of home before fat rain droplets started falling. i managed to find parking right in front of the house, and quickly put the cover on my motorcycle.
at 8pm my heat kicked in. about 15 minutes in i noticed i wasn't feeling warmer, and there seemed to be a cool breeze throughout the house. standing on one of the heating vents, i could feel the forced air pushing up the wind, but it was cool air, not warm air. trying to figure out what was going on, i put on my shoes and went out to the basement. i didn't even have to get there before i saw the problem: my upstairs neighbors raked the backyard today and stacked all the bags of leaves in front of my heating vents. when the vents are blocked, the furnace doesn't kick in. once i cleared the obstruction, the furnace was working again. i thought about warning my upstairs neighbors about my vents, but decided not to waste my breath.